Equal Play Effect Brazil Launches Ahead of FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027™

The initiative contributes to the wider social legacy ambitions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, contributing to advance gender equity across the country.

Common Goal and FIFA Women’s Football have teamed up to bring the global Equal Play Effect initiative to Brazil, with an aim of accelerating gender equity from the ground up in the lead up to and beyond the FIFA Women's World Cup 2027 in Brazil.

Collaboration and contextualisation have always been at the heart of the Equal Play Effect approach. This new chapter brings together 15 football for good organisations working across Brazil to expand opportunities for girls and women through football, strengthen connectivity across local and national systems, and ensure safe and inclusive environments on and off the pitch.

The Equal Play Effect Brazil collective reaches both urban and rural areas, including all 8 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 host cities, every Brazilian state and the federal district, as well as underserved such as Amazonian communities, riverside regions, informal urban settlements, peripheral neighbourhoods, and historically excluded rural areas.

In Brazil, women’s football has historically been sustained not only by formal systems, but by informal community football (várzea), grassroots collectives, and football-for-good organisations embedded within local communities. These actors often operate where institutions do not consistently reach, using football to address broader social challenges including gender-based violence, youth development, education, and belonging. In this context, women’s football and football for good are deeply interconnected.

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This FIFA Women’s World Cup will be the first-ever to be hosted in South America. While the Brazilian women’s national team has had impressive runs in prior editions, finishing as the runner up in 2007 and third place in 1999, women’s football in Brazil has faced tremendous barriers to acceptance. Between 1941 and 1979, women were banned from football outright, declaring it "incompatible with the conditions of their nature”.

“The Women’s World Cup in Brazil will be a major milestone, not only because it’ll be a successful tournament, but also because, thanks to programmes like this one, we can inspire an entire country to support future generations of women,” said Aline Pellegrino, former Brazil international and Director of Legacy and Stakeholder Affairs of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2027.

"As part of the FIFA Women's World Cup legacy plans, we are focusing on three pillars, as leveraging women’s football in Brazil and improving the infrastructure. However, social impact is also a key component. Our aim is to focus particularly on fighting gender inequality and improving the condition of women in football and society. Having Common Goal by our side will raise the profile and the reach of this cause", she added.  

While women’s football today has grown, women in Brazil continue to face tremendous challenges, with the highest rates of femicide in Latin America and 37.5% of women over 16 having experienced some form of violence. Against this backdrop, the Equal Play Effect is using football as a platform to advance gender equity at every level, starting with local communities.

In partnership with three leading organizations in Brazil - Instituto Esporte Mais, Empodera, and Instituto Futebol de Rua – and Fundación Catalizar, the leaders behind SOMOS Equidad, the Latin America chapter of Equal Play Effect, all Equal Play Effect tools and methodologies have been adapted for the national context. Together, they are coordinating a national network of 12 impact organisations - Formação, O Pequeno Nazareno, love.fútbol, Fazer Acontecer, Fundação Gol de Letra, Instituto Brasileiro de Futebol Feminino (IBFF), EPROCAD, Meninas em Campo, Pazear, Plan International Brasil, Gol Girls, and Fundação Angélica Goulart - each bringing their own tools, perspectives, and learnings to strengthen their individual and collective impact.

The three coordinating organisations — Instituto Esporte Mais, Empodera and Instituto Futebol de Rua — issued a collective statement: “Equal Play Effect Brasil is not only born from the strength of the collective, but powered by it. It brings together organisations from diverse territories around one shared commitment: transforming football into a space of equity, care and opportunity for girls and women in all their diversity.”

Over the last 6 months, participating community organisations have been engaged in a collaborative learning and implementation journey focused on identifying strengths and opportunities in their own organisations and local context.

As part of the process, each organisation has developed a tailored Gender Action Plan following a structured organisational reflection and self-assessment journey. These plans identify key priorities and concrete actions to strengthen gender equity across leadership, programming, safeguarding, and community engagement.

At the same time, coaches from each organisation have developed practical community-based projects designed to apply Equal Play Effect learning directly within their football programmes. These projects focus on creating safer, more inclusive, and equitable environments for girls and young women both on and off the pitch.

Together, these efforts are helping translate collective learning into long-term organisational and community transformation across Brazil.

“Growing up in Brazil, I dreamed that one day the FIFA Women’s World Cup would be played here. We now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ensure the tournament is not only a celebration of elite football, but the true legacy will depend on what happens beyond the stadiums. Across Brazil, grassroots organisations have been creating opportunities for girls through football long before the spotlight arrived. Equal Play Effect is about strengthening those communities and ensuring football becomes a lasting platform for gender equity and social change,” said Julia Pimenta, Common Goal’s senior lead for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027'.

Launched in 2020 by Common Goal, Soccer Without Borders and Women Win, Equal Play Effect is a global collective initiative to accelerate gender equity across football for good communities worldwide. Since its launch, 101 organisations across 57 countries have been part of the initiative, collectively reaching more than 250,000 boys, girls, and non-binary young people around the world.

At its core, Equal Play Effect is a celebration of solidarity over status and collective action over competition. Its diversity and community-driven, bottom-up approach are what make the initiative truly unique — bringing together organisations, leaders, coaches, and young people to collectively reimagine how football can power a more equitable future for all.