Liverpool forward Aurélie Csillag has spoken about her involvement in Beyond the Goalposts, an initiative the club is launching in October to give black and marginalised girls and women pathways and opportunities in football on and off the pitch. The 23-year-old Switzerland international said she reached out to the club’s foundation after hearing about the programme, rather than waiting to be asked.
“When I was young I never had a role model. I only watched men’s football, but when women’s football got bigger there were no really good black players. I also want to be a role model for the next generation,” Csillag said of her motivation. She added that she was surprised and happy that a club of Liverpool’s size would take on the subject, and proud to be part of a club aware of the issue.
The programme is being run by the LFC Foundation and aims to “create a safe, inclusive and empowering environment” through sessions in Liverpool’s community, including educational and mentoring help. Sessions begin on 1 October, though people can register their interest at any time. Experts as well as players will assist with on-pitch sessions and provide support to those who sign up.
The content of the sessions is concentrated on leadership, mentoring, health and wellbeing, community engagement and advocacy. There will be on-pitch work alongside a focus on how careers can progress in the sport away from the pitch, as well as activities at Anfield on match days and a football festival. Premier League funding is helping to run the programme.
Liverpool says the project is “the start that is needed in women’s sport”, and that its legacy will extend beyond the delivery of sessions by creating sustainable change for participants, the foundation, the club and the wider community. The club points to leadership development, peer support and engagement with the LFC Foundation as the means by which participants will build the confidence, skills and networks needed to influence positive change.
Asked why black and marginalised girls and women may be deterred from playing football, Csillag pointed first to a lack of role models, and also to problems of access and confidence. She described her own experience of playing in a team where all her teammates were white, and of comparing her body to theirs. “I said: ‘Why am I so tall? Why are my thighs so big? Why is this different?’ I just started to compare myself with them and maybe a lot of other girls may have lost their confidence,” she said. She added that having another black person on the team would have meant someone who understood what she was talking about.
She also noted the change in her national team environment, where there are now four black players compared with only one or two five years ago, and said it matters that they are competing at a high level so that girls and women can see what is possible. “Everyone should feel that football is a place for them,” she said, describing programmes such as Beyond the Goalposts as a way of creating opportunities, building confidence and showcasing the diversity that makes the game stronger.
Research provided by Liverpool found that girls as young as five feel they do not belong in sport, and that only 30% of parents believe playing sport is important. It also found that while 60% of black girls want to be an elite athlete, they are the least active group of girls in England, and that one in two black girls feel they need to play down their cultural identity.
For Csillag, addressing that starts with who is visible in positions of power. “The most important thing is that you have black people in the staff, higher up, because I barely see this,” she said. “When you have never seen it, how can a little girl think she can do it? It will go automatically that young girls will follow that dream or path. Visibility starts at the top.”
The club says that for now the programme is just for people in Liverpool, but that it is something they would like to expand, and that they are encouraging other sports organisations to adopt similar programmes.