Nigeria defender Ashleigh Plumptre joined Saudi Arabia Women’s Premier League side Al-Ittihad in the summer following the expiry of her contract at Leicester City in the Women’s Super League. The 25 year-old defender is a former England youth international who switched allegiance to Nigeria in early 2022. Following an outstanding showing at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the promising talent was on the radar of various top European clubs. However, she has chosen the Tigers in the port of Jeddah.
Is this of concern? Is this a good sign of things? Why the negative discourse? What could have forced Ashleigh Plumptre over to the Middle East and out of Europe? Most importantly, what is the state of women’s football in Saudi Arabia? This is just a handful of questions that might not have an answer today, but were proposed in the following hours after Al-Ittihad’s announcement of Plumptre.
Professional women’s football in the KSA is still breaking news
In just under four years, women’s football in Saudi Arabia has undergone a transformation that, in the words of the national team’s first coach, Monika Staab of Germany, would take other nations decades. In early 2018, the government announced that female fans were allowed to attend football matches as part of Saudi Arabia’s social reform planned that year, granting women greater rights. Did the lifting of this ban come a few decades too late compared to the rest of the world? Yes, and no one denies that. But Saudi Arabia is a different nation to the rest of the globe in various aspects, and playing a game of compare and contrast is not very fitting here. At this same time, countries like Iran currently don’t allow women into stadiums, forcing various conflicts at the doors of huge international games where women were denied entry, and others dressed as men in order to enter. In some ways, there must be space for both celebrating the ban lift in Saudi Arabia, and being critical of its timing.
This was huge however. The first game with tickets available to female fans was massive. The photo crowds entering the stadium were historic. “Things shifted dramatically” said Vice president Lamia Bahian “This was a breaking point and a very very important point when it comes to football in Saudi” Bahian elaborated. This was the result of many years of advocating, hundreds of campaigns as well as various grassroots movements. This was did not happen overnight, it was fought for. Women all across the nation were celebrating, and continue to celebrate the games they attend to this day. “We threw a small celebratory party” “I could not even believe it” expressed some of the current international players.
Good news started to roll onwards. In December 2019, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) organized the first unofficial women’s competition in the Jeddah area. Two months later, the amateur Saudi Women’s Football League (SWFL) containing 24 teams, was launched and concentrated in three big cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. October of 2021 hosted try outs for the newly founded international side, where over 700 girls registered. The final 30 were chosen, and the nation played their first ever official international game in a 2-0 victory over the Maldives in February of 2022. Fast forward to September, SAFF launched the first edition of the Saudi Women’s Premier League (SWPL), a professional revamp of the SWFL with the participation of 8 teams. Al Nasser became the reigning champions of the 2022/23 inaugural season of the league.
What does it look like today
The 2023/24 season is set to kick off October 15th, and for the first time ever the league will be broadcasted. “The SAFF decision to provide television broadcasts of the league will contribute to attracting more sponsors and helping clubs diversify sources of income” told me Saudi journalist Riyan Al Jidani. “Further, the federation implemented a new programme which helps women’s clubs in Saudi Arabia implement governance and sustainability, boosting clubs ability to provide jobs for women and men in the technical and administrative staff” expanded Al Jidani. SWPL clubs will be obligated to sign professional contracts with players for the season in preparation.
In 51 months (Dec 2019 – Sept 2023), Saudi Arabia set up a senior and an Under-17 international side, launched a nation wide league, pushed a revamp to professionalize league and signed broadcasting deals. Let’s be clear, no other country has executed an impressive list of achievements in women’s football in this amount of time. No country. Let’s be even clearer, KSA has money and are rich. Current international side head coach Staab, has been openly complimentary of the funds she has been given to work with. “The overwhelming amount of support has made us ready to succeed and to overcome all the challenges” she tells FIFA. “We have unlimited support and we are getting all the empowerment needed to develop women’s football” added Lamia Bahian.
Sources close to Al-Ittihad who wish to stay anonymous, have confirmed that Ashleigh Plumptre has become one of the highest paid in the league following her arrival. The average Women’s Super League (WSL) salary is around £47,000, a figure reported by the BBC in 2022 based on available published results from seven of the 12 WSL teams. Based on released statistics and sources information, the Nigerian defender is making way above the average WSL salary, and certainly much more than her wages during the Leicester City spell. 2019/20 WSL winner’s Chelsea received £100,000 in prize money for winning the league, which is also the same amount of money they were awarded with for securing the 2022/23 FA Cup. The SWPL prize money for the upcoming season is confirmed at SR2million (£427,457), more than 4x higher the prize money seen in England. It is important to note that footballers in Saudi Arabia do not pay tax.
Since we just broke down some figures, here is a question that was speculated in recent weeks: Does this mean Ashleigh Plumptre was blinded by the money offered to her? Maybe… possibly…not necessarily. But no one can answer that question other than Plumptre herself. After-all, a footballer’s career in comparison to other jobs is relitvely short, athletes deserve to be paid and they have agency of their career. Those decisions are expected to be met by either negative backlash, or positive comments. This should open the conversation about pay issues globally. Logically, a league that was launched 3 years ago, should not be paying more than the league’s that have been ongoing for over a decade. Is it simply a case of one country being richer than country the other, or does it issue run deeper than that? What are the roadblocks preventing prize money from being where it should be? It is a known fact that players in women’s football do not get paid enough. There is a significant amount of players that have to balance out second job outside of football, which simply cannot be tolerated. Which leaves the biggest question asked following Plumptre’s announcement, is this an attempt of sport washing, or simply money that players have so long deserved?
Plumptre expressed in various interviews excitement about the project Al-Ittihad is building with former USWNT player, head coach Kelly Lindsey. She will undoubtedly be getting an abundance of minutes in the league, play AFC Champions League, and participate in the King Cup. But, does that beat UWCL football chances she could’ve gotten with teams who were interested, that reportedly including PSG, Arsenal and Manchester United? Is abundance of minutes in Saudi Arabia worth it over WSL game time? These are key questions to ask as we study what this move means for the women’s game. The three Europeans clubs who showed interest have squads that foster a highly competitive environment with plenty of room for personal development. Playing alongside England Captain Leah Williamson at Arsenal or behind French veteran Grace Geyoro at PSG is a role filled with learnings, that one would assume are absent in the SWPL. So once again, why opt out for a project in it’s very early days against proven ones? PSG is one of the richest clubs in the world, were they not able to match the salary? Arsenal reported revenue of £2.2m in 2021/22, could they have put in a bigger offer? European clubs should take notice, and address salary offers.
The issue
Huge concern lies with Saudi Arabia’s laws that criminalize homosexuality, meaning that same-sex couples kissing or holding hands would be imprisoned, and out members from the LGBTQ+ community would not be permitted into stadiums. Reports surfaced during the 2022 Men’s World Cup in neighbouring Gulf country Qatar, that rainbow flags, T-shirts and other symbols representing the LGBTQ+ community were banned and confiscated. Queer athletes are not allowed to show affection to their partners if they are supporting them at the game, and homophobia would cause fear and discomfort across. The women’s game has a long history of acceptance and even prides itself on homing a safe environment to all. Top players like Sam Kerr, Beth Mead, Mapi Leon, Pernille Harder are openly gay, use their platform to advocate for the community and would not feel welcome in KSA. Such profiles would never take the risk to play in the SWPL, presenting recruitment restrictions.
A bigger problem lies with queer youth in the country that are shunned out, the gay players from nearby visiting nations who have to play an international tournament in Saudi. The LGBTQ+ community across the Middle East and South Asian countries should be at the forefront of the conversation as much as the worry for foreign recruitment. After-all, those are football dreamers who have never had the chance to play football, now finally get the opportunity to join academies, only to be filled with fear because of their sexuality, facing exclusion from the sport? Punishing sexuality and suppressing the rights of some of its people, is wrong and concerning to fans and players. If Saudi Arabia wants to be taken as a top league in the women’s game, this is issue number one to address. Plumptre joining a league that would make her out and gay former teammates feel unsafe in the stands if they visit her for a game. That is problematic. This does not allow reporters to ask Plumptre or any player in the SWPL how they feel about their gay teammates as it poses huge risk to the athletes. Such display was at the Women’s World Cup towards the Moroccan WNT.
Saudi Arabia is not the only country that criminalized homosexuality with a women’s league. Russia is one of many examples. Former professional player Alena Lazareva retired from football because she wanted to be open and comfortable about her wife, but fear pushed her out. Rights for the LGBTQ+ community continue to be of importance to advocated for. Saudi Arabia has many questions to answer and address in order for women’s football fans to feel remotely comfortable watching the game on TV, or in real life. If English club Newcastle United make it into the WSL in two years, how will players across the league react to that and the possible contract offers that will appear? How will Saudi Arabia address concerns around queer players with a track record like theirs about human rights?
The 2023 Women’s World Cup was titled “the gayest world cup ever” given the prominent numbers of queer figures and role model that took the trip down under. Sam Kerr is an openly gay person of colour who was the face of Australian football, icon and legend of the game Megan Rapinoe made her Final World Cup trip, Quinn of Canada became the first non-binary athlete at the world cup. It was full of good, queer joy on and off the pitch. Yet, before the tournament kicked off, FIFA decided to award Saudi Arabia’s state tourism authority to sponsorship the World Cup. Following outrage from fans, footballers and head coaches, FIFA reversed its sponsorship plans with Visit Saudi. This is statement from women’s football, homophobia is not tolerated at any measure.
Saudi Arabia’s international side and league were a result of women fighting for reforms, rights and opportunities. This development is an important step for women’s football in the MENA region who continue to be miles behind nations. The Saudi league has provided an opportunity for Hijabi girls to play, a statement France cannot say. Lina Boussaha, a PSG academy graduate and French international who represented the nation at every youth level was driven to Al-Nassr FC after she decided to put on the Hijab. The FFF disallows her fielding on the pitch.
Advocacy for the growth of women’s football should be global, and not centred towards a few places in the World. The growth seen in Morocco pushed them to a World Cup debut, KSA finally launching academies brewed an international side in the FIFA ranking system, Jordan’s investment plan was key to hosting the 2016 youth Women’s World Cup. Growth is happening in Europe, North America, South America, and all across Asia. It is global, and should stay as such.
Where is the game headed in Saudi Arabia? Is Ashleigh Plumptre’s move to Al-Ittihad concerning to European football? Should European clubs get a wake up call for their wages? Is this is all an attempt to sportswash?Does this dialogue push for LGBTQ+ reforms in KSA? Many questions have risen, with not answers yet. We wait and see how this plays out, as it is truly unfamiliar territory.
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