Mountains to Climb

Equal Playing Field is a group of footballers that sets out to break records and inspire others to break barriers. Ben Jacobs talks to some of the women involved and tells the story of this young organisation’s five official world records.

November 2020

Equal Playing Field do things a little differently. This sports NGO break world records to help promote gender equality in sport. Founded in 2017, they have already entered Guinness World Records an impressive five times, and it would be no surprise if that number doubles before the next decade is out. “It all started with a crazy idea on my couch,” says British-born co-founder Laura Youngson, who also founded IDA Sports – a women’s football boot company. “I was just sitting at home, in Australia at the time, moaning about how there are more stories on the back pages about horses than women. So I decided to take action! Women face so many metaphorical or invisible mountains in sport. Too often they are underpaid, undervalued, and lack opportunities and respect. So to try and convey this message, I thought why not climb an actual mountain and stage the world’s highest-altitude football match?”

Kilimanjaro

Youngson, along with co-founder Erin Blankenship, found thirty female athletes from five different continents and headed to Tanzania in July 2017 to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. “We didn’t just want to set any old record,” explains former West Ham United defender Blankenship. “We wanted one no one could dispute – a real challenge. So we chose a flat volcanic crater at almost 6,000 metres, just below the summit. It meant a nine-day climb to get there followed by a full ninety-minute match. “It wasn’t hard to recruit players. As soon as they heard the idea, they jumped at the chance to make some history and kick-start the debate about gender equality in sport.”

Former US Women’s National Team (USWNT) midfielder Lori Lindsey, recently retired France forward Sandrine Dusang, and ex-England defender Rachel Unitt were among the star names involved. The thirty players, aged between 15 and 55, were also joined by licensed FIFA officials and around fifty porters. The record would not stand unless the pitch, kit, and officiating all met strict FIFA requirements. That meant lugging up proper goalposts rather than just laying down some rocks to mark out the pitch, although flour was used to paint the white lines. “It was all pretty insane,” laughs Lindsey, who won 31 caps for the USWNT and now works as an NWSL pundit for CBS Sports. “After eight days of climbing, camping, cooking, dancing and debating how we can level the playing field, we actually got up at 2am, in the freezing cold, hiked nine hours in the dark to Uhuru Peak – just below the summit – and then built a football field.”

“This was right up there with my greatest career achievement,” added Unitt, who won 102 caps for England and the 2002-03 Women’s Premier League with Fulham. “The altitude sickness really kicks in when playing football that high. Thankfully we had some doctors on hand and emergency oxygen tanks, but I think the adrenaline took most of us through and after some emotional scenes at full-time we even summited.” The match itself was highly competitive and finished goalless despite plenty of chances. And arguably a draw was the most fitting result allowing both teams to celebrate. “It’s a shame we couldn’t get a goal,” says coach Dawn Scott, who was a key part of the USWNT 2019 World Cup–winning squad and is now senior women’s physical performance manager at the English FA. “But it was a still a quality spectacle on a tricky surface. It was a bit like playing on quicksand.”

“I was just sitting there in awe watching this pitch get built out of nowhere and these amazing women showcase their skills and I thought, ‘Wow’”, says Youngson. “The game itself drew a lot of media attention, but what I loved is how we came together as a group. There was no phone reception, so real conversations took place in these tiny tents and whilst we walked. We all just bonded and came away with not only a world record but a mountain family.” The record was officially set at 5,714 metres and still stands. A men’s group, led by former Premier League referee Mark Halsey, did try to beat it less than six months later, but failed to complete their attempt. Yet Equal Playing Field were not satisfied with just one world record…

Jordan

“Kilimanjaro was a tremendous personal challenge, but we were also isolated on the mountain and very focused on the climb,” says Blankenship. “As a result, it was a bit harder to leave a long-term impact. So we decided our next record would leave more of a permanent footprint.” The following April, Equal Playing Field literally went to the opposite extreme and staged the lowest-altitude football match at the Dead Sea in Jordan, 326 metres below sea level. Two of the Kilimanjaro players were Jordan youth internationals: Yasmeen Shabsough and Haneen Khatib. And the pair took it upon themselves, with the help of Jordan’s former FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali bin Hussein, to organise the event. “The second world record had more of a Middle East focus and twice the number of players,” says Shabsough. “We actually built a pitch in Ghor Al Safi, right by the Dead Sea, and it’s now used every single day to coach both girls and boys. It’s even called the Equal Playing Field Pitch and is the lowest-altitude field on earth!”

“We also came up with a tailored coaching programme, geared towards introducing young Muslim girls to football, and hiked throughout Jordan to meet lots of different communities and over 500 girls,” adds Khateeb. “We went to Petra and Wadi Rum and a lot of the residents around these touristy areas are actually quite conservative. “Parents are sometimes against their daughters playing football, so we had to not only coach the girls, but educate and reassure their extended families. It really helped to have coaches and role models from Jordan along with our known international names. It’s so important for young girls to see pathways and that’s sometimes easier when the role model looks and sound like you.”

As part of the trip Equal Playing Field also bagged an unofficial world record, playing a football match in the oldest ever stadium – an amphitheatre in the Roman ruins of Jerash, built between AD 81-96, making it around 700-years older than the stadium at Olympia in Greece. But the main focus was on the end of the trip – an exhibition game to officially open the new Equal Playing Field Pitch with almost two thousand dignitaries and fans in attendance. “We held a soft launch the day before the match, coaching some young girls from Ghor Al Safi. And to be honest it was a pretty difficult day,” admits Youngson. “Quite a few people from the local community, wondering what was going on, turned up and started shouting at us for showing our legs. We even had some stones thrown on to the pitch. But once we explained who we were and why we were there – and crucially that we had the support of Prince Ali – we soon got an apology and a very warm welcome.”

The match itself finished 4-2 as the Black Irises beat the White Tigers. Thailand international Ashley Hall was amongst the scorers for the victors and was also named Woman of the Match. “Unlike Kilimanjaro, there were plenty of goals and you could tell both sides really wanted to win,” says Hall, who currently plays as a forward for White Star Woluwe in Belgium. “There was a big, loud crowd and lots of television cameras. Our captain, Jasmine Henderson, even went off just before half-time to do a live interview with ESPN!”

“I was delighted to support Equal Playing Field,” adds Prince Ali, who also funded a grass pitch at the Zaatari Refugee Camp near the border with Syria. “Gender equality should (and hopefully will one day) be something that happens automatically, but it isn’t always guaranteed in either sport or life. Of course, in Jordan there are some extra cultural hurdles for us to overcome. But our women’s national team actually performs better than the men, and in 2016 we hosted the Under-17 Women’s World Cup. So a lot of young girls who are now excelling at football were inspired by that. Giving female football high visibility is certainly one effective way to promote gender equality.”

Festival of Football

Having broken the records for the highest- and lowest-altitude football matches, Equal Playing Field next decided to go even bigger. In the summer of 2019, they headed to France during the FIFA Women’s World Cup to stage a so-called Festival of Football. This included a conference to discuss pressing issues in women’s football, food, music, film screenings, and not one, but two world records. The main record was for the largest ever five-a-side football match, which ran continuously over three days with rolling substitutes. 822 players from both sexes and all age groups participated for 69-straight hours with Team Red securing a narrow 400-371 win over Team Blue. The game ran through the night hours, but it was the daytime that actually proved hardest due to an unprecedented heatwave in Lyon.

“We nearly had to call the match off because temperatures consistently hit forty degrees,” says Equal Playing Field organiser Maggie Murphy, who is currently general manager of Lewes FC Women. “We weren’t expecting it to be so hot. But we simply reverted to walking football at times, and there were also medics on hand and buckets of ice water ready to throw over players. I was actually one of the last players to come on, so I was on the pitch at full-time, and I got a human tunnel from all my friends to enter the field. It was really emotional but also draining! This was the biggest venture for Equal Playing Field and we were fortunate enough to have support from Adidas, who sent us hundreds of volunteers on site, and FIFA. To stage something so ambitious in the middle of the Women’s World Cup made a real statement. And when it was all over we even got to see the World Cup semi-final between the United States and England!”

Alongside the five-a-side game, Equal Playing Field realised they also had enough players present to stage an eleven-a-side match and break the world record for the most nationalities in an exhibition football game. 114 participants, representing 53 nationalities, played for almost three hours to set another impromptu world record. “This was a decision we just took on site at the last minute,” says Blankenship. “That’s the kind of spontaneous people we are! Why break one record when you can have two? But more importantly than that, so many of our players, who thought they were alone with certain struggles, got to meet likeminded people with similar stories at the festival and gain help and advice. For example, we had a group of young girls from the Yuwa (‘Youth’) academy in India. They have been beaten for playing football after dark and, when playing for India’s youth team, were once told to clean floors at the customs office before being provided with the correct paperwork to travel. Naturally, for girls who have suffered this type of trauma, they were quite shy to begin with, but now they are vocal, empowered women who are changing lives and fighting for equality back home. It’s amazing to see.”

Penalty marathon

With four world records in the bag, Equal Playing Field marked the 2020 Guinness World Record Day on 19 November by making it five. This one was more of a solo effort, but streamed online so the whole Equal Playing Field family could enjoy it. Bahrain international Deena Rahman decided to attempt to break the world record for the most penalties taken in twenty-four hours. Rahman is based in Manama, where she runs her own football academy, and aimed to beat the 2,075 penalties taken by Rhyl’s Stephen Ford at Llandudno FC’s Maesdu Park stadium in September this year. “Guinness approached us and asked if we could help them break a world record to mark Guinness World Record day,” says Rahman, who won 15 caps for England Under-18s before switching international allegiance. “I am known for my penalty-taking skills, and a little bit crazy, so I thought let’s do it! It wasn’t about how many penalties I scored, just how many I could take, but of course I kept a tally of the latter. Like our other world-record attempts, everything had to be done according to FIFA protocol, and with an invigilator, so I couldn’t line up a ton of balls inside the box, but they were in large buckets just outside. Each penalty needed a referee’s whistle first, too, and I knew I would break the record if I took 87 penalties an hour. I also wanted to involve the kids at my Tekkers Academy, so I had them go in goal and all fetch balls. It was lot of fun and I even really enjoyed taking penalties through the night.”

Rahman took 7,876 penalties, smashing the existing total by 5,801 to claim not only Equal Playing Field’s fifth record, but her own, too, having been with the movement since Kilimanjaro. The organisation certainly won’t be stopping at five, though. Plans are already in place for their next intrepid challenge for a worthy cause. “In theory, we’ll stop when the playing field is well and truly equal,” says Youngson, who had her first child in 2019 and now lives in Amsterdam. “But to achieve that, there is a constant need to educate, promote and celebrate women’s football. Closing the equality gap is one thing, and there has been a noticeable improvement since 2017 when we founded, but sustaining it is also necessary. “Plus we all just really enjoy meeting up so we won’t be going anywhere just yet. We hope to do something ahead of the FIFA Women’s Euros in England in 2022. And there are all kinds of other ideas flying about. Some of the group want to play a game in Ecuador across the north and south of the equator at the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (‘Middle of the World’) in Quito. Others want to stage the coldest or warmest match, and there is even talk about us doing an underwater game with penguins!”

“We are open to any ideas, but we can’t be led by gimmicks. The point of Equal Playing Field is not only to show off our skills and bring amazing women together, but also to make sure every world record leads to tangible and powerful change. That means we have to teach, inspire and ultimately leave a mark wherever we go.”

Words: Ben Jacobs | Imagery: Dana Rosiger, Kevin Blankenship, Equal Playing Field