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project, and is also a graphic artist. Erin loved Common Goal so much that she suggested it to some of her Canada teammates, who had just negotiated the best collective bargaining deal in the team’s history. Shortly afterwards Common Goal celebrated the first national team XI in the movement’s brief history. In fact, 14 players and one of the coaching staff of the team which was ranked 5 th in the world at the time committed to Common Goal.    While Erin, who is 36, missed the World Cup due to injury, she selflessly inspired an entire national team of players to join Common Goal. The players who joined ranged from the most legendary Canadian player of all time, Christine Sinclair, OC, who played her fifth World Cup this summer, to the youngest player ever to have joined Common Goal, Jordyn Huitema, who turned 18 in May. Christine was already playing for the Canadian National Team before Jordyn was even born. After making her World Cup debut, Jordyn joined PSG on a three-year deal, becoming the first Canadian to sign a professional contract directly from high school. Inspiring younger generations is part of the incredible legacy created by Common Goal pioneers such as Erin.     Common Goal is populated by many strong female leaders like Erin and Megan, and women will be a major force in driving the growth of the movement. At the same time on a wider level it has become clear during the development of the movement that women will play a leading role in the modernisation and reform of the global game. Many areas of the sport would benefit from fresh leadership that is fearless to drive change. Moya Dodd, the former Australia international, is the Chair of Common Goal’s Board Committee. A lawyer and MBA, she has also occupied many roles in international football administration, including becoming one of the first women to join FIFA’s Executive Committee (2013 – 2016) while chair- ing FIFA’s Women’s Football Task Force. As an international footballer in the 80s and 90s, Moya played in an era where the support structures were limited. “We just had to be resourceful,” she said in The Players’ Tribune. “If there was a problem, we pitched in to solve it. We had a ‘do it yourself’ mentality.” Moya brings that same mentality and approach to Common Goal, and the wider challenges she is tackling from within the football industry. “Change begins with imagination. First, we must imagine that better world, then take concrete steps to make it hap- pen. Common Goal is just that – people sharing a vision of how to be better, then finding innovative ways to bring about change,” said Moya during the World Cup in France. “Football needs people to give a voice to that vision and drive that change towards transparency, equality and diversity. It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest to see that women are in the thick of this – to be in football at all, we’ve had to chal- lenge the system and defy conventions. It’s energising to see so many women engaged, alongside men, in boldly calling out a progressive agenda, and implementing changes that are best for the sport and the world we live in.”    Combined with the fact that football is such a powerful platform for cultivating and accelerating women’s em- powerment, it seems that women will not only be lead- ing figures of Common Goal, but also at the heart of the football industry over the coming years. As Megan said in her recent interview by Suzy Wrack of the Guardian: “Our game is changing so much, but it also has so much room to grow and we want to be part of that and we really feel a responsibility to ensure that we leave the game in a better place than where we found it. It’s like men have run the world for all these years, maybe they should just take a few hundred years off - we women can just take over for a few hundred years and we’ll see where we are.” BEN MILLER is an expert on the global sports indus- try having worked in over 50 countries for a number of sports marketing agencies, brands and federations. He currently heads Common Goal’s partnerships and media relations. “CHANGE BEGINSWITH IMAGINATION. FIRST, WE MUST IMAGINE THAT BETTER WORLD, THEN TAKE CONCRETE STEPS TOMAKE IT HAPPEN.” Moya Dodd, Chair of Common Goal’s Board Committee. This moment in time represents a dual opportunity. On the one hand, this positive momentum can be harnessed to in- crease funding in youth participation among girls globally, while also intensifying investment across women’s leagues. In doing so, interest and engagement will continue to grow between major tournaments, a healthy flow of football fans and future talent will be created, while at the same time concrete progress will be made towards equality in working conditions for female professionals. Beyond increased sala- ries, this also means that clubs, associations and player un- ions need to make sure that female players have adequate protection and support in terms of medical insurance, professional contracts and safe playing conditions. On the other hand, this is a golden chance for female foot- ball to protect and cultivate the value system which sets it apart from the professional male sport. We all want to see more money in the women’s game, but it’s imperative that as investment increases, female football does not just become a less-funded copy of the male sport, with all of its flaws. This summer FIFA, with $2.7 billion in cash reserves, doubled the prize money from the last Women’s World Cup in 2015 to $30 million. This represents 7.5% of the prize money paid out to the men in the 2018 World Cup. There was also the baffling decision taken to schedule the final of the Copa America on the same day as the Women’s World Cup Final. This was reminiscent of the Premier League’s decision in May to schedule an uninspiring West Ham v Southampton fixture on the same day, almost at the same time, and on the other side of London, as West HamWomen took on Manchester City in the Women’s FA Cup Final. So there is a way to go, but there are many positive signs that will push the more conservative institutions in football into taking action. Fox, the English language broadcaster of the Women’s World Cup in the US, almost sold out its advertising inventory, charging $140,000 per 30-second spot. That was a 250% price increase from the previous Women’s World Cup. The Washington Post reported a source at Twitter who said that during the USA v England semi-final, every single one of the top-ten trending topics on the platform in the US were about the game. In England the match was watched by 11.7 million viewers, the most watched TV broadcast of the year. When cash starts flowing, particularly with a mid-to long- term outlook, you know that the investors will be there to protect their outlay, and the industry will pay attention. In 2016 Iberdrola sponsored the women’s First Division in Spain as part of a wider commitment to funding female sport. On the 15 th of July this year the energy company invested a further $4.5 million. In England, Barclays has in- vested $13M in a three-year title sponsorship deal with the Women’s Super League, a record amount for female sport in the UK. While Visa signed a 7-year deal with the Women’s Champions League. On 14 th July Proctor & Gamble, a major sponsor of US Soccer that is being sued by 28 of its World Champion women players for gender discrimination, took a full page advert in the New York Times urging the federa- tion “to be on the right side of history”. Proctor & Gamble also made a $500,000 donation to the Players Association of the US Women’s National Team. “Well-behaved women seldom make history,” said the Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Megan Rapinoe, who along with Alex Morgan became the first woman to join Common Goal in 2017, springs to mind. Even before she won the World Cup best player, top scorer and winner’s trophy, who on earth wasn’t celebrating this woman, as much for what she rep- resents off the field as for her enduring talent on it? From taking a knee in solidarity with the former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, to being a fearless and open advocate for gay rights, to becoming the first ambassador of the award-winning NGO streetfootballworld, to being one of the leaders in taking the US Soccer Federation to court, to provoking a Twitter flurry from the thin-skinned President of her country…Rapinoe has an active mind, is connected to what is happening in the world, and is unafraid to say what she thinks. There are many reasons why so many women have com- mitted to Common Goal. Primarily when compared to elite male players, female professionals in general are more accessible, have increased awareness of the world around them, thus more empathy, and are more capable of making their own decisions. These qualities are accompanied by an intuitive understanding of the power of the collective, as all women working in football are involved in an ongoing fight for equality. When Common Goal first spoke to the Canadian goalkeep- er Erin McLeod in April 2019, she took the decision there and then to commit 1% of her salary to the movement. “No need to talk to my agent, this is the right thing to do,” she said. Erin is an Olympic medallist who has played over 100 times for her country. She is a professional for the Swedish club Växjö, has a degree in advertising, has studied psy- chology, is currently creating and directing a mindfulness 14 15 FOOTBALL FORGOODMAGAZINE | AUGUST 2019 FEMALE LEADERSHIP IN FOOTBALL