Raising Our Game: A Player's Perspective

Accommodation

Ashleigh Shim: “Ahead of a game for Jamaica against Colombia in Barranquilla in 2018, we arrived at our hotel for a training camp at 3 a.m.: it was a compound circled by fences topped with barbed wire. The metal doors on the rooms made it feel like we were staying in a jail, and we were told that six people had to fit in a room suited for two.”

Raising Our Game: Specific accommodation conducive to a high-performance environment for teams is important to ensure that they are well-rested during competition. This has implications for the number of players per room, the distance between the hotels and the training grounds, and various other elements of these arrangements.

Match Schedule

Ashleigh Shim: “Some teams might play too much, we played too little. After we were knocked out of qualifying for the 2016 Olympics, our national team players was effectively disbanded for almost three years.”

Raising Our Game: Competitive tournaments and major competitions must have a suitable number of games with appropriate spacing between matches… National federations must be mandated to use the International Match Calendar windows allocated to them and participate in competition.

Player Payments

Ashleigh Shim: “We got our contracts from the Jamaican football federation before the World Cup – it was the first time Jamaican women footballers received contracts. We were due to be paid monthly from January 2019. However, some payments were late, after the tournament had ended and their contracts had expired.”

Raising Our Game: Every player has the right to share fairly in the economic activity and wealth of their sport and receive fair and just pay and remuneration, including prize money. For some female players competing for their country, the overlap between club and national team can add a layer of stability and job security.

Team Staff

Ashleigh Shim: “The team staff worked hard to keep everyone healthy and ready to play - the coaches even spent their own money to pay for things the federation should have paid for. The conditions were difficult but they helped bond us. I called it positive suffering.”

Raising Our Game: It is crucial to the team’s performance that it has an experienced and capable staff. The national team delegation should include at a minimum a head coach, assistant coach, team coordinator, press officer and an equipment manager, as well as medical staff. At least 30% of any one gender must be represented in the staff.