New Zealand Football and OFC’s Women in Leadership programme recently concluded in Auckland.

With participants ranging from Football Ferns to coaches, referees and administrators from across the game, the programme was designed for women in football throughout Aotearoa New Zealand who want to both increase their personal and organisational impact, says New Zealand Football Women’s Development Manager Ashleigh Cox.

“It's about empowering and enabling the women that we've got within our community already. How can we really develop the group of women that we've got in the game to then go on to be part of the Women's World Cup in 2023 and beyond?”

The programme was funded by OFC as part of OFC’s Women’s Football Capacity Building Programme and delivered by the Capability Group, which has previously delivered the Sport NZ Women in Leadership Programme. Developing women in leadership is a key legacy item of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023, to be co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia.

The programme was structured around NZ Football’s key strategies of enriching more lives through football and strengthening capability and leadership across women’s football. It particularly looked at how to close the ‘confidence gap’ and challenge the biases that might be holding participants back from pursuing their careers further.

The two two-day workshops covered topics such as vulnerability, communication styles, values and political styles. Speakers included NZ Football president Johanna Wood, NZ Football CEO Andrew Pragnell, football general manager Daniel Farrow, and FIFA’s chief women’s football officer Sarai Bareman (via a pre-recorded presentation).

Johanna Wood spoke about her own leadership journey, and reflected on what she saw in the programme.

“It's been a real privilege to be with them because I'm hearing from the others that were here before that there's been real growth between the first hui and the hui this week, meaning there's been a safe environment for them to open up and share.”

The first two-day workshop of the programme took place in October. A networking group is now established and a check-in lined up before Christmas.

The programme is also intended to have a ripple effect in Aotearoa’s football communities by giving the participants the skills and tools to deliver leadership workshops within their community or region, says Ashleigh.

“We want there to be a ‘train the trainer’ element as well in 2021, whereby we’re giving these women the tools to be able to then go and deliver in their community and at the local level,” she says.

One participant was Hayley Stirling, head coach of 2020 Men’s Futsal SuperLeague semi finalists Northern Comets.

Hayley began her coaching journey at Hibiscus Coast AFC, before her potential was spotted by then NZ Football women’s development manager Bev Priestman (now head coach of the Canada Women’s National Team), who invited her to national training centre camps and set her on her advanced coaching pathway.

Stirling (left), who coaches women and men, and across football and futsal, has since gone on to coach at national league level and was a member of the FIFA technical group for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2016 in Jordan.

“Obviously these kinds of opportunities, you just jump at because it's an opportunity for yourself, but also to network and start expanding your knowledge base with other people around.

“This has been a really great programme. It's come at the right time – there's a lot of fresh faces now in the game from a woman's perspective, so it’s been great and refreshing to see those new girls come in and get involved.

“There's still a battle to get involved or to be more made more aware of opportunity, but credit to the game for offering those opportunities for those people. There's still work to do, and there's still some barriers that need to be jumped or broken down, but it is encouraging to know that there has been progress over the last decade at the very least.

“We've got some really good people in the game who can help progress the game forward.”

Article added: Monday 30 November 2020