“I’m not going to the f****** White House!”
Looking back, what stands out is the sheer incredulity of the statement. When Megan Rapinoe was asked if she’d take part in a Presidential visit if the United States won the 2019 Women’s World Cup (which they did), it was as if someone asked her whether she thought being gay was a choice. The snort before the response. The entire you-are-joking-right tone. It should have been axiomatic before the question was even asked that Rapinoe had zero intention of visiting a White House that had Donald Trump in it.
So what happens if the U.S. Women’s National Team win the next World Cup in 2027?
It’s hardly high on the list of concerns of the 45th President of the United States now becoming the 47th, but the American women’s football bubble is one of myriad things susceptible to profound disruption under a new Trump administration.
Women’s athletes, in numerous countries, generally have to be their own advocates to even have a fighting chance of displaying their talent, let alone thriving in their careers. TV presenter, and former footballer, Alex Scott has said, “Players are often told to stick to football. But in the women’s game, we’ve never had that luxury.”
It would be reductive to think that every women’s player has fully formed political ideals (very few athletes do). But the sexism women’s football has faced just to exist is a huge factor in the game operating in a space of social and political progressivism, so one would think it’s ideally placed to combat those with malign intent.
And much to come from The White House will be full of malign intent.
It’s hardly a hypothetical where Trump and women’s football is concerned. He eagerly attacked Rapinoe once her aforementioned comments became public, with him and his fans going in two-footed and studs up. The residual effect of which was gleeful epicaricacy when the U.S. were eliminated from the 2023 World Cup by Sweden—underscored by Rapinoe missing her penalty in the decisive shoot-out.
Despite representing America, it was clear to some that they didn’t represent the country the (pun not intended) right way. A team that stood in support of people of colour, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ people became one the American right wants (or needs?) to lose. This is underlined by soccer in America being derisively perceived as a girls sport. Think how this functions in a government dripping in hypermasculine rhetoric that appears to be no friend to any woman concerned with personal autonomy.
Along with the USWNT, we mustn’t forget the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). As well as one of the leading leagues in the world, it’s a space that has an increasing number of players from abroad. Racial diversity and out queer players are fairly common, with stadiums even hosting Pride Nights. You can sometimes also see flags advocating for transgender rights in the stands.
Consider what this all addresses: women of colour, migration, unapologetic queerness, standing against transphobia. This league is as good as a trigger warning for MAGA America. And as such, all involved with women’s football in the U.S. may wind up in the crosshairs of the incoming administration…and their media outriders.
Look at the newly crowned NWSL champions, the Orlando Pride. Their captain and totem, Marta is probably the most respected woman in football (partly as she’s the best to ever play it), and has used her voice to lobby for the sport to be used for social good.
Then there’s the Pride’s star player, Barbra Banda. When talking about the Zambian, the only thing we should focus on is how she’s established herself as one of the world’s premier players. Yet her career has been blighted by attacks on her personhood. Specifically, whether she is even a she. But the only science that ostensibly verifies this claim appears to rank somewhere between specious and pseudo.
This puts Banda in danger of being dragged into a wider culture war where she becomes a talking point, and not for her football. If her profile grows, she will simultaneously become more vulnerable to attacks, and thus in greater need of protection. So it doesn’t augur well that, as reported by Meg Linehan, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman spoke in milquetoast terms defending Banda—better examples were set by the Orlando Pride and NWSL Players Association director Meghann Burke.
Another person of interest is the current USWNT manager Emma Hayes. During her gilded spell managing Chelsea in the WSL, she wasn’t just the league’s defining manager, but something of a talismanic figure. However, she recently confessed (for various reasons) to being worn down, and part of the attraction of the U.S. job was to work a less demanding schedule than in the club game.
Hayes was arguably the most trusted voice in women’s football during her time in England—and has spoken in defence of Banda—but one can understand if, after a draining time in the WSL, she feels that social advocacy is the type of gruelling work she came to the United States to escape from. Her management of Korbin Albert may end up a key case study in years to come.
Women’s football, much like geopolitics, is in a state of flux. A golden generation of U.S. players have departed (or are close to retirement): Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Becky Sauerbrunn, Julie Ertz, Crystal Dunn, Alyssa Naeher. Not only are we talking about great players, but about players who were leaders in bettering their sport. We’re used to the women’s game taking the lead from America—and they have a new core of possible world beaters, but can they also be a new generation of leaders?
Because if the USWNT can’t, it’s an open question if anyone else can.
Have players considered their positions in the expected event of a World Cup hosted by Saudi Arabia? A time when the sport needs a determined and organised movement may be when one is especially lacking.
It’s something to bear in mind as the leadership (or lack of it) shown by Berman feels of a worrying piece with captains of industry throughout America. As in many countries, the U.S. appears somewhere between exhausted and apathetic, in turn exposing its most vulnerable people. Map this dynamic onto the world of sport, and those in power could put the progress made in women’s football under severe threat.
Have players in the NWSL considered, as the league expands, how wise it is to play for clubs located in states that inhibit access to reproductive rights? Will some look to relocate to other leagues? Does the global rightward shift make it all much of a muchness? Could the NWSL and USWNT largely escape MAGA scrutiny, with their sporting pinata instead being the WNBA?
One of the most taxing aspects of the first Trump administration was that he suffused every area of life. This is partly by dint of being the American President, but even the most trivial, joyful things couldn’t evade his shadow. If women’s football can be weaponised by the new administration, there will be no hesitation in them doing so.
The NWSL is a league that’s in a state of burgeoning growth. The national team is ranked World No 1, and is the current Olympic champions. For this direction of traffic to remain, every stakeholder in American women’s football will have to prepare themselves for their toughest opponent: the guy in the f****** White House.
