“A few years ago, my daughter decided to take up football and wanted to join the school football team, but to my surprise, her teacher would not allow her to, because she is a girl,” says Nika Jgharkava, Vice-President of the Georgian Football Federation (GFF).
“It was then that I realized how miserable the situation with regard to women's sports in general in the country was, and this is how I became involved with women's football,” he adds.
Nika Jgharkava, Vice-President of the Georgian Football Federation (GFF), Photo: Dina Oganova / UNFPA
In order to deal with existing social norms and stereotypes, and to strengthen the role of women in the world of sporthe United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Georgia Country Office and the Georgian Football Federation (GFF) have been implementing joint initiatives since 2018.
Within the framework of the cooperation, one of the main priorities is to increase the involvement of adolescent girls in football and, in doing so, to support gender equality in Georgia.
“Cooperation with the Georgian Football Federation (GFF) is extremely important for the UNFPA. It's the partnership that allows us to reach out more teenagers, parents, and families with important messages about genuine gender equality and the importance of empowering girls. We are glad that year by year our cooperation is expanding and becoming even more result-oriented,” says Lela Bakradze, Head of the UNFPA Georgia Country Office.
Part of the cooperation between the UNFPA and the GFF is a series of trainings on gender equality and reproductive health issues for football clubs participating in women's football leagues, coaches and medical and administrative staff members of women's national teams, female referees of football championships in Georgia and coaches involved in the GFF’s project "WePlayStrong Georgia".
Since 2015, Keti Kipiani has been the manager of the Women's Football Department at the Georgian Football Federation (GFF). According to her, the development of women's football is one of the main priorities for the GFF, although the Federation had to overcome a number of obstacles along the way:
In my opinion, football is a social event and reflects the state of society. In Georgia, the society is more masculine and football itself is considered a masculine sport, therefore ensuring female participation in football has been a challenging task for years."
Keti Kipiani, Manager of the Women's Football Department at the Georgian Football Federation (GFF), Photo: Dina Oganova / UNFPA
She believes that “in addition to the basic knowledge that is essential for all women's team coaches, the trainings will also reap long-term benefits through significantly contributing to raising awareness of and forming attitudes towards women's football."
Against the background of deep-rooted patriarchal norms, football in Georgia is still perceived by the general public as a masculine sport, due to which women and girls have limited opportunities to fully participate in sports activities, to realize their potential in this field and to make it a desirable profession.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Georgian Football Federation (GFF) aspire to make football go beyond the limits of being appealing to only boys and provide an arena for girls as well. That is why the series of trainings led by experts from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and trainers from the medical-psychological centre "Tanadgoma" covers all issues related to adolescence and the changes related to it, including the specifics of working with adolescent girls and boys, reproductive health and rights, gender equality etc.
Tsotne Mikava, a volunteer doctor working for the Women Football Club “Kvartal”, is one of the first participants of the training jointly organized by the UNFPA and the GFF this year.
"I learned a lot of interesting things about how to communicate with teenagers, from a more psychological point of view. I learned what methods and approaches I can use when I have to work with girls, which will definitely make my daily tasks easier,” he says
Tsotne Mikava, a volunteer doctor working for the Women Football Club “Kvartal”, Photo: Dina Oganova / UNFPA.
Nia Tsivtsivadze, who works with women's national age-group teams, is also a participant of the training:
"In Georgia, when you are a woman and you are involved in the field of football, it is already a challenge. Although I am not a football player, when I used to express my opinions about football, I would often hear comments such as: “she is a woman and she can’t understand it”, “you must be reading a pre-prepared text” (for example, when visiting a studio) and so on.
Nia Tsivtsivadze, women's national age-group teams' employer. Photo: Dina Oganova / UNFPA.
The main challenge for her is the stereotypical attitude that society still has towards women's football as well as towards women involved in sports in general.
Richard Olumoyva Okeovo Oyebade, the coach of the Gori Municipality women's football team (composed of 30 adults and more than 120 teenage girls from different villages of Gori Municipality) believes that
„if you just call boys passing by in the street to play football, you might be able to gather a whole team, however, this is not the case with girls."
Richard Olumoyva Okeovo Oyebade, the coach of the Gori Municipality women's football team. Photo: Dina Oganova / UNFPA.
"Girls have to overcome obstacles that come from their families, friends, relatives and society in general because they are less expected to be interested in football," he says.
Within the framework of the Memorandum of Cooperation signed in 2018, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Georgian Football Federation (GFF) continue their close partnership in order to gradually destroy myths and stereotypes related to the involvement of girls in football, so that more girls move from the spectators' seats to the football pitch and contribute to the development of football.
The training series is organized by the initiative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in cooperation with the Georgian Football Federation (GFF), within the framework of the United Nations Joint Programme for Gender Equality, which is funded by the Government of Sweden.
