Introduction to Women’s Football Movement
This is more than a tournament. It is a movement, and the reaction from all over Europe and beyond proves that the football of women doesn’t just stay here – it makes the new standard. Much of it seems undeniable: UEFA says that more tickets have been sold before the group phase even started than in the entire Euro 2022.
Participation and Interest
Although Poland bent its Euro this year, the movement has not fully reached the rest of the east and parts of southern Europe. Although Poland won her final group game against Denmark, she left the group phase, as did the only other teams that were ever qualified from Eastern Europe – Ukraine in 2009 and Russia between 1997 and its ban on international football in 2022. This is in strong contrast to men’s football, where 11 of the 24 teams came from the region in the last men’s tournament in Germany in 2024.
Challenges in Eastern Europe
Goran Ljubojevic, the former coach and now sporting director of the serial Croatian women’s master Znk Osijek, believes that the region is always chasing. The clubs started to add only women’s programs in the 90s, and this investment in the women’s game was amazing. But he also believes that social norms hold back the sport. The cultural problem in these countries is that people believe that girls shouldn’t play football, that they should usually stay at home and be housewives or something.
Social Norms and Gender Equality
The Index of the European Union’s Gender Equality index published in 2024 shows that Eastern countries are below the EU average. Ljubojevic doesn’t know if it will ever happen that there will be a shift in the male brain in Croatia and that this part of Europe will ever accept women’s football at this level, as they do in Western Europe and the USA. But he notes that the sold-out and widespread interest in tournaments such as the Euro have started to shift people’s perceptions.
Investment in Women’s Football
Although ZNK Osijek is the most successful team in the country, it only draws about 300 crowds for their home games. As Ljubojevic sees it, the talent is there, it only requires investments in coaching, infrastructure, and pays enough players so that they are full-time specialists. According to Professor Dariusz Wojtaszyn from the University of Wroclaw in Poland, UEFA has used new systems to the region in recent years, and the football budgets for women have increased considerably in all Central and Eastern European countries.
History and Politics
But Wojtaszyn believes that the politics of the region has held it back. Although the communist systems that ruled many of these countries were gender-specific until the nineties, they actually produced a paternalistic model of family and traditional social relationships that limited the opportunities for the emancipation of women. The collapse of the state-sponsoring system that had existed in the past decades caused considerable economic problems for football clubs.
Future Prospects
Although his players need other jobs to make rounds, Ljubojevic has great hope for the future, even if he believes that an essential investment and education are required. He believes that Croatia and maybe other countries in the region need something similar to start their women’s football scene. Poland expects an increase in participation after their Euro campaign, with a growth of 30,000 to 300,000 female players in the country after the tournament. Ljubojevic would like to see that Croatia is the first country in its region to organize a tournament. Yes, we can do it. But we have to take it seriously. The federation, the country, and everything – they have to invest money and time. Women’s football is the new wave, and we have to ride this new wave. But we don’t.
