Campaign challenges businesses and society to come up with one actionable improvement to better women’s engagement in football
Synergy and Women in Football launched the new #WhatIf campaign, created to change the landscape for women working in the football industry.
Sponsored by Betfair, #WhatIf is a social media campaign that challenges businesses, celebrities and members of the public to identify one way that they could take action to contribute to an improvement for women and girls within the football industry, however large or small.
A number of high profile businesses made game-changing commitments to launch the campaign, and now we are challenging everyone to make a practical pledge of support that will help change the landscape forever.
Anna Kessel, co-founder and Chair of Women in Football, said: “On the anniversary of Women in Football’s tenth season I am extremely proud to see us launch the #WhatIf campaign, standing alongside industry leaders, corporations and individuals, working together to create real and meaningful change.
“Ten years ago gender equality was barely even a conversation in football. Now it is firmly on the agenda. Bring on the next 10 years, and an exciting new era for women in our sector.”
Jacqui Oatley MBE, Women in Football Ambassador, said: ’I’m absolutely delighted to be involved with the launch of the #WhatIf campaign. Over the past decade, we’ve had so many people in the game supporting WiF and wishing us well, and this is an opportunity to turn those good wishes into actions.
Carsten Thode, Synergy CSO, said: “We are totally blown away by the response to the #WhatIf campaign, so a huge thank you to everyone who has already made their brilliant #WhatIf pledges.
The key insight for the campaign is that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem so everyone has a personal responsibility to do whatever they can to make things better. It is not enough to just allow or enable women’s football to exist, you have to actively promote to make lasting change.
Last year, Synergy made its own pledge to create 3 pro bono campaigns for brands or rightsholders to promote women’s sport and we’ll be doing the same this year. Now we issue the challenge to others in our space and beyond, what’s your #WhatIf?”
–ENDS–
Synergy’s pledge
Synergy have pledged to create 1 pro-bono campaign per year for the next 3 years to promote women’s football.
If you’d like to know more please contact charlotte.piggott@synergy.global
This was part of Synergy’s 1+51 initiative, their on-going wider commitment to Women’s Sport.
List of other pledges
Betfair – #WhatIf Betfair ring-fenced 50 per cent of their Cash4Clubs grassroots grants for women’s teams to help support their growth and sustainability
Sky Sports – #WhatIf Sky Sports committed to including female talent as studio pundits on Gillette Soccer Specials from the 2018/19 season onwards
Twitter – #WhatIf Women in Football had its own emojil on Twitter to raise the visibility of women working in the industry, and celebrate their achievements
Forza Football – #WhatIf Forza Football made live score updates and results for women’s football games easily accessible across the world]
Football Manager – #WhatIF there were more female staff members in Football Manager 2019?
The Football Business Academy – #WhatIF The FBA offered 50% scholarships to help build the future female leaders of the industry?
Spencer Stuart – #WhatIF Spencer Stuart ensure that 30% of candidates on all searches undertaken in football were women?
Barclays – #WhatIF Barclays conducted a full scale research project to understand the position of women in the football industry?