Leszek (Shek) Borkowski

Do you know and do you care about what social causes Kaka, Messi and Ronaldo are active in? Or what color shoe laces they wear? Neither do I.
It is a truism that sponsors line up to have their products endorsed by successful players because of their talent, ability and superb, consistent performances. I am not aware of any social activists who are paid to endorse Nike or Adidas, but I could be mistaken.
It is also a truism that football fans idolize, admire and pay good money to see top international players because of their on field ability; ability refined during thousands of hours of training.
Somehow, the fact that attendances and sponsorships in the men’s game come from star power and team success appears to be lost on some people involved in women’s football.
There seems to be a growing trend in women’s football for players to promote themselves not by what they do for 90 minutes against 11 opponents but by their social activism. Somewhere along the line some players and management in women’s football became convinced that the way to increase ticket and sponsorship sales is to be “involved” or to be “relevant” in local communities and causes.
Somehow the obvious fact that relevance in the sports market and in communities comes from being par excellence on the field was lost.
I suspect that in some cases the players’ and teams’ social activism is used to shield them from scrutiny by the media, owners and fans when performance is poor. Its the idea that, “yes we are playing boring football and losing matches but look how socially relevant we are.” Fantastic.
You may be a great community organizer and volunteer but you are a lousy player and nothing will change the fact that people will not pay money to watch you or your team play football unless you improve individually and collectively.
I don’t discourage community involvement and social activism but its star power on the field that translates into power to support important individual causes, not the other way around.
As a women’s football coach I don’t care one bit about my players race, nationality, political views, social views, sexual preference, or religion, as long as they can score, tackle, pass and save. Nothing more, nothing less. The fans are the same.
I, perhaps foolishly, assume that all involved in women’s football are interested in growing the game in numbers and in quality, and to sell it locally and worldwide. The ONLY way to achieve this and to increase your club’s chances of success is to provide an exciting and quality product on field of play. There is no other way!
Ask Barcelona.
People don’t spend millions to watch Xavi, Iniesta, Ibrahimovic, Messi, Henry and others because of their “involvement”.  If that was the case then a typical Elk’s Lodge meeting would be broadcasted live to millions and thousands of spectators would be packing Elk’s Lodges in every community.
My admittedly unsolicited advice to women footballers is simple: spend more time improving your technical ability and tactical savvy. That will be your and your club’s biggest aid to success.