AFC continue #ItsMyGame campaign following 2019 Asian Cup

After a successful campaigning stint during the 2019 Asian Cup earlier this year, the AFC is pushing on with the goal of raising awareness for women who both work and play in the soccer industry.


With the Women’s World Cup only just finishing up, now is an ideal time for the AFC to reach out to as many people as possible.

It’s also notable that this media release has come during a time when USNWT captain Megan Rapinoe has been in the news promoting the women’s game. Many people have been lauding her and her opinions, but there is still a large contingent who don’t appear to be moving with the times.

Rapinoe has been making serious headlines and with this in mind, the AFC clearly want to generate more positive news when so many people still feel the need to negatively influence the women’s game.

The AFC’s media release from Monday night can be found in full below:

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) continues the “It’s My Game” campaign which celebrates the role of women working in football. In the latest segment, the AFC focuses on Svetlana Kashuba of Kyrgyz Republic and how she plans to shape women’s football.

Kashuba enjoyed a notable playing career for Kyrgyz Republic and after hanging up her boots, she is now striving to make a difference in the sport as the women’s football manager in her country.

Respected by her peers and looked up to by young female footballers, Kashuba rose through the ranks by representing her national team in the U-16 and U-19 women’s competitions before playing at the club level in Kyrgyz Republic.

She looks back fondly at how she started playing football and the memories serve as a reminder of how important her current position is.

“I walked with a friend from school and she told me that neighboring stadiums had football trainings only for girls. I was very interested because I could express myself by playing with other girls.

“Before that, I only played with boys. I was always the only girl among them, so I wanted to go and see women’s football. When I saw only girls playing, it motivated me even more.

“I joined the training and with the very first kick I hit the crossbar! The coach told me, ‘You will play and train with us.’ That inspired me because it was my dream to find a place where I could show my potential,” Kashuba recalled.

She is delighted to see how women’s football has developed over the years and hopes the momentum will continue.

“Looking at the girls now, I can see that they play football with more enthusiasm and the number of girls playing the sport is steadily growing. More and more girls are playing football in schools and we have more women’s teams. We are very happy to see so many women’s teams taking part in competitions at a very young age.”

Kashuba believes that women have a huge role to play in football and hopes more will join her and make a career in the sport as a result of the “It’s My Game” campaign – which has reached more than 800,000 fans so far and have received more than 300,000 views on the AFC’s digital platforms.

“Football is not just a game, it is our life and we must prove to ourselves and those around us that we can be successful. I hope that we will see more participation of women not only on the field but also in senior positions in the future,” she said.

To watch the full video, please click here.

AFC #ItsMyGame statistics so far:

Facebook: 351,949 impressions, 251,153 Reach, 51,732 video views
Twitter: 193,176 impressions, 24,663 video views
LinkedIn: 25,032 impressions, 3,732 video views
Instagram: 500,362 reach, 236,922 video views

*ENDS*

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Football NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

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Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football NSW has used the platform of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to deliver a targeted professional development workshop for female coaches, bringing together scholarship recipients for an evening of structured learning and direct engagement with elite women’s football.

Held at ACPE last month, the session was open to female coaches who received C or B Diploma scholarships through Football NSW in 2025. Coaching accreditation carries a financial cost that disproportionately affects women, who are less likely to have their development subsidised by clubs or associations operating in underfunded community football environments. Scholarship access changes that equation at the point where many women exit the pathway.

Facilitated by Football NSW Coach Development Coordinator Bronwyn Kiceec, the workshop focused on goal scoring trends from the tournament’s group stage, with coaches analysing attacking patterns and exploring how those insights could translate into their own environments. The group then attended the quarter-final between South Korea and Uzbekistan at Stadium Australia.

The structure of the evening mattered as much as its content. Female coaches in community football rarely have access to elite competition environments as a professional resource. The gap between the level at which most women coach and the level at which the game is analysed and discussed tends to reinforce itself. Placing scholarship recipients inside a major tournament, as participants rather than spectators, closes that gap in a way that a classroom session cannot.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented across all levels of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that depends not only on accreditation access but on the professional networks, peer relationships and exposure to elite environments that male coaches have historically taken for granted.

The workshop forms part of Football NSW’s ongoing commitment to developing female coaches through scholarships and structured learning opportunities.

Marie-Louise Eta makes history as new Union Berlin head coach

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Image credit: FC Union Berlin

In an historic appointment, Eta will take over as head coach of Union Berlin until the end of the season.

History in the making

Previously the first female assistant coach in Bundesliga history with Union Berlin, Eta will now take the reigns of the men’s first team on an interim basis.

Currently, the club sit in 11th place in the Bundesliga table, but with only two wins so far in 2026, relegation appears an all-too-real prospect, and one which the club is desperate to avoid.

“Given the points gap in the lower half of the table, our place in the Bundesliga is not yet secure,” said Eta via official media release.

‘I am delighted that the club has entrusted me with this challenging task. One of Union’s strengths has always been, and remains, the ability to pull together in such situations.”

Eta will begin as Union’s new head coach with immediate effect, and will be in the dugout for the club’s matchup against Wolfsburg this weekend.

 

A step into an equal future

Eta’s appointment signals a major step towards a more level playing field in the football landscape.

Furthermore, Eta joins other coaches including Sabrinna Wittmann, Hannah Dingley and Corinne Diacre who, in recent years, have blazed a trail for female coaches to step into the men’s game.

Wittmann currently manages FC Ingolstadt in Germany’s third division, and was the first female head coach in Germany’s top three divisions.

In 2023, Dingley became caretaker manager of Forest Green Rovers, and thus the first woman to lead a men’s professional team in England.

Diacre, now head coach of France’s women’s national team, managed Ligue 2’s Clerment Foot between 2014 and 2017.

 

Final thoughts

The impact therefore, is that Eta’s appointment will show future generations of aspiring female coaches that men’s football is an equally viable and possible pathway as the women’s game.

The time is now to level the playing field.

And while it may be a short-term role, its effect on attitudes towards equality and fair opportunities in the game will hopefully resonate long after the season ends.

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