I caught up with Vera Cohen, captain of the University of Sheffield English Women’s football team. She spoke about the joys of football, the hardships that come with playing as a woman, and what she hopes to see more of in the sport.

Can you tell us a little bit about your team?

My football team is a very casual team of women, technically representing the School of English at my university, but a lot of the girls don't actually study English. It's for anyone who wants to play a bit of football, maybe if they don't feel as confident, or they want to be in a less serious team. We also have a sponsor, which makes taking part affordable. We do one practice and play about one match a week, it's very casual and very fun.

Can you tell us a little bit about your team?

I was there in the first year that the team was made; I was one of the first people to join the team when the previous captain, Becca, and her vice, Ash, started it. I saw what went on and how much work went into it. I could tell that to push the team to the next level, they needed somebody who was organised and on it and had seen what they wanted to create from the very beginning. Also, a lot of the girls on the team when I started were graduating, so I knew that if I wanted this to carry on for other people, I had to take it into my own hands.

Do you think there’s still a gap in how women’s football is treated or represented? Have you experienced any of this in your team?

It's really difficult because there are a lot of things that are done to make sure that there aren't visible gaps, but regardless, girls are treated differently. They are assumed not to know as much by the staff members who run the courts, things like that. A big thing is that girls aren't encouraged to play football, so a lot of the time, when new girls join, they aren't very confident or sure. Whereas when you watch the men play, they seem way more confident and happy to be in these aggressive, competitive situations.

Things are a lot more uncertain on the girls' team because the girls are so scared to be wrong and mess up in front of other people. I think that this is a problem not just in football but in a lot of women's spaces in general. Women are scared to be confident and to take up space. Sometimes these spaces can eventually dissipate or fall into silence because nobody wants to be the guy in charge.

This point doesn't apply specifically to the women's league but to the mixed league, which I have played in a few times. The mixed league actually has a rule where every team requires a minimum of two women on the pitch at all times. Which in itself is a very strange rule because you should have teams that encourage an equal amount of men and women, so that there doesn't have to be a minimum allowance. I do kind of understand why the rule has to exist so that the men don't make an excuse of ‘oh no women would join so we're just gonna have a whole men’s team and dominate that space. It is difficult to feel good about it [the rule] when you know the reasons behind it are that women aren't really encouraged to play football or take up space in those male-dominated areas.

I know a lot of teams that stick to that minimum and only play two women at a time when they have loads on the bench. This just speaks to their confidence in their female players, which is really horrible to see.

Have you experienced any examples of ‘everyday sexism’ or microaggressions whilst playing for or captaining the team?

Often, it's difficult to put your finger on microaggressions when you experience them. But there have been times when we've had members of male teams watching us play matches, and there have been times when they've been quite unpleasant about it. As much as I try to ignore these things because I don't think it's productive to dwell on them. Obviously, there's never going to be a conversation between me and random men I don't know. There have been classic comments about it ‘not being proper football’ and us ‘not playing well’ and it being ‘funny to watch’ . I think it's disheartening because, as someone who does enjoy football, I would never want to discourage someone else from playing by being negative towards them.

Do you see yourself as a role model for other players? How does this make you feel?

I'm not really sure I see myself as a role model because all of the girls are very similar to my age and were all just there to have fun. The only way I would want to be a role model is just to be someone who outwardly enjoys football and outwardly enjoys taking up space in that kind of, for lack of a better word, male-dominated space. I hope that the girls on my team see that and want to emulate that. Football is so fun, they should never be disheartened because of their gender. They should just enjoy it and know that it's okay not to be the best football player. It's enough to just enjoy it - that's enough of a reason to play.

What would you like to see more of in the women’s game at your level or more broadly?

It's interesting to ask that because I would actually just like to see more women playing. As much as I could say, I'd like to see more funding and more resources, and encouragement, that kind of starts with more women and more girls wanting to play. Unfortunately, that's a difficult thing to get women involved in because of the amount of time that they've maybe spent not playing football. Unless they've spent a lot of their childhood around male friends or brothers, then it's kind of something that gets lost after primary school. I remember being in year six and being on the football team, and at one point in the middle of the year, a lot of other schools that we played against decided that the under- 13s or under- 12s teams needed to be single sex. This meant that the boys and the girls had to be separated. There were only about six girls. It meant that the girls’ team got cut because there weren't enough of us to play. I didn't really play football for about six years until I came to university. So really, what I'd like to see more of is girls playing football.

What message do you have for young girls who want to pursue football?

Just to play and to try and not let the aspect of spectatorship and the aspect of judgement, especially male judgement, get to you. There's nothing about boys that makes them better than you at playing football or anything else. The only thing is they don’t have the insecurities that you might have in the back of your head about playing. It's a really fun and exciting way of letting off steam, and it's a good team sport. You learn team building, I think it's so important that if you enjoy it to just continue playing. Whether you're good or not, it shouldn't matter because if it's something you enjoy, it’s important that you do it. And that people know you enjoy it, so that you can find communities of other girls that do, and you can make friends and play football together. Then you don't get to a position where you come to uni and you haven't played football for seven years and you're not confident enough to join a team. That's not how it should be, and you know that most of the men playing football never had that experience.

Another tiny piece of advice is to watch women's football. Always watch women's football. Find female role models in women's football. The games are so much more exciting in my opinion, and you know it's more continuous, there aren’t loads of fouls and penalties and free kicks. These girls are really amazing at what they do, and they should be appreciated for it.

Whilst listening to Vera’s responses, it was hard, though sadly unsurprising, to hear of some of the friction that the girls had experienced for simply wanting to play football. However, her love for the sport shone through. As for Vera not seeing herself as a role model, I think that anyone else reading, especially any young women, will be inspired by her words. This conversation was a true reminder of the importance of safe and fun spaces for girls and women.

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