The national coach doesn’t give a damn about prejudice against women Monica Staab. Instead, she gets women’s football rolling in as many countries as possible.
Barbara: Ms. Staab, in 1955 the German Football Association issued a ban on women’s teams on the grounds: “In the fight for the ball, feminine grace disappears, body and soul inevitably suffer damage, and showing off the body offends propriety and decency.” What do you think when you hear that today?
Monika Staab: I can only laugh about that. The justification shows how women were seen at that time: as delicate beings. Women were there to have children and should not do anything that might make them sterile. We women have proven over the last 50 years that we can play football and have children – if we want to.
The ban was lifted in 1970. Were you able to understand then what that meant?
Not so right. I was eleven years old and I was just happy to finally be able to play in a team. But I’ve already noticed the differences to the men’s teams.
Which were they?
For a long time we could only train once a week because there were simply no free places for us. To avoid additional costs, we were coached by relatives, because at that time no money was spent on women’s teams.
Were there any differences in the rules of the game?
In the beginning we played twice for 30 minutes, with a smaller ball. We weren’t allowed to wear cleated shoes either. We were also asked to wear chest protectors, but we refused because we wanted to choose what to wear. Today, of course, we also play 90 minutes and have the same rules as the men. This shows that it is worth staying persistent and demanding our rights again and again.
When did you start playing soccer?
When I was four years old, I played football with the boys from my neighborhood. My father had to take out additional insurance because I smashed some windows. I was born as the third daughter. My father had wanted a son who would later take over the family bakery. Maybe that’s exactly why I didn’t behave the way a girl was expected to be at the time.
In training to become a trainer in 1994 you were the only woman alongside 29 men. How did they react to you?
When I was doing the football coaching course back then, people looked at me funny. The men whispered to each other: What is she doing here? But they quickly realized that I wouldn’t put up with anything. The result: They first accepted me and then respected me. After 14 days I was even elected spokeswoman for the course.
During your career, have you often had to listen to inappropriate jokes?
Back then, unfortunately, we women on the square often heard phrases like: “Can I take a shower with you?” And the fact that 3,000 to 4,000 visitors came to the first games of our women’s team was mainly because the men were hoping to see a jersey swap.
A man once said to you: “A woman is like a crystal, when she plays soccer she breaks.”
And I told him I’m the best counterexample. I’ve been playing football for more than 50 years and I’m not broken either. But that’s just one of those prejudices that you hear almost everywhere in the world. Football is a good tool to break down these prejudices.
In what way?
Football strengthens women’s self-confidence. On the one hand, this includes the sporting successes, but also the training and the regular attention that they get as a result. This gives them the strength they need to fight for equality outside the square.
As a development worker, you have promoted women’s football in more than 85 countries. Which experiences impressed you the most?
In some refugee camps I could see how the women could forget for a short moment all the terrible things they had experienced while playing. But football also builds bridges: I saw in Palestine how Israelis and Palestinians ran after the ball together.
What is your advice to women?
Hope! I tell them that even women in Germany had to fight for years to be allowed to play football. We also managed to get the ban lifted. And now there is a great women’s Bundesliga and a successful women’s national team in Germany.
Does that alone motivate you?
I’ve been to North Korea twice. And of course I know that I cannot change politics there, but I can share my knowledge and my personal experiences with the women there. I give them the sparks, they have to light the fire themselves.
But not everywhere in the world do women have the opportunity to play football.
It’s correct. In Africa, for example, women are often no longer allowed to play after marriage because their husbands forbid them to do so. And with young girls, it’s often down to their parents’ attitudes. When I visited schools in The Gambia to bring the eight to twelve-year-old girls closer to sport, I noticed: I have to convince the parents, because they ultimately decide whether their daughter is allowed to play or not. But sometimes it also threatens to fail due to the lack of equipment.
But you should be able to find a ball almost anywhere.
Well, on the island of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, I couldn’t get a soccer ball from any store. However, there were enough balls available for the men there. But we women didn’t let that stop us: we made footballs out of clothes and plastic bags, which we could then train with.
You have been coaching Saudi Arabia’s first women’s national team since last year. How did that happen?
My phone rang, a foreign, unknown number on the display. It was the Saudi Arabian Football Association: I was supposed to conduct coaching courses there. Saudi Arabia was still a blind spot on my map, so I spontaneously accepted. Also because I wanted to get my own impression of what is currently happening in women’s football in the country.
And what’s going on there?
Women have been playing football in Saudi Arabia since 2006, but in 2019 the football association officially took up the cause and established its own women’s football department. The women there are very committed and passionate about what they do. That convinced me to take up the job of coaching the national team.
What are the reactions to a female national team in a country where women have only been allowed to drive since 2018?
It’s incredible how everyone supports the team. Women’s football is taken really seriously here and there is a long-term strategy to develop it further. Not only do I train the women’s national team, I also take care of the coaching courses and the establishment of local training centers for girls. What a lot of people don’t know is that in Saudi Arabia football is really lived, it’s a bit different in other Arab countries, they’re more reserved.
What defines the Saudi Arabian football culture?
If you go into a stadium here, there is an incredibly great atmosphere. The atmosphere reminds me of what goes on in big stadiums like in Dortmund or Munich. I’ve been able to watch several international matches of the men’s team, and one La Ola wave after the other went through the ranks. Let’s see how things develop with our women’s team.
Are there special rules or even bans for the women’s team?
Not from our side. Some wear hijab, i.e. their headgear, when playing football, some don’t. Some women wear short-sleeved leotards, while others prefer to cover their skin with long-sleeves and leggings. Each player is free to decide for themselves. This is allowed by Fifa.
What do you wish for the future of women’s football?
That every girl and every woman gets permission and the opportunity to play football if they want to. And indeed all over the world.
Monica Staab tells her story alongside other personalities in “Women’s World. Of words and deeds that are good for all of us”, Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag, 25 euros.