Thanks to a special permit
19-year-old Dutch woman is allowed to play football in the men’s team
A woman kicks a soccer ball
© Norbert Schmidt/ / Picture Alliance
Ellen Fokkema is the first woman in the Netherlands to play in a first men’s team in Dutch amateur football – thanks to a special permit from the football association, which took three attempts.
19-year-old Ellen Fokkema is the first woman to play in a first men’s team in Dutch amateur football. In the new season, the Frisian will be used in the men’s team of VV Foarut in the fourth amateur class – with special permission from the national football association KNVB. According to the KNVB, the premiere on Tuesday is a test for possible mixed teams in the A category of amateur football.
So far, boys and girls are only allowed to play mixed football up to the age of 19. After that, the girls either have to switch to a women’s team or to the B category of amateurs.
Football association campaigns for diversity
The midfielder from the north of the country had asked the KNVB for a special permit three times – now it worked. And Ellen Fokkema is happy that she can stay with her previous team-mates. “I’ve been playing with these boys since I was five and would have found it a shame if I hadn’t been on a team with them from the next season on.” She expects it to be harder for her now. “Of course these are all first teams now,” she told the TV station NOS. “But if it doesn’t work, then it won’t work.”
Ellen Fokkema (19) gets dispensation to play in the first men’s team of vv Foarut: https://t.co/857YnUhFvn.
– KNVB (@KNVB) August 4, 2020
The KNVB wants to campaign for more diversity in football and sees the Ellen Fokkema case as a model experiment. “We think that everyone has to have a place in football in their own way,” said the director of football development at KNVB, Art Langeler. The association does not want to stand in the way of the young Frisian’s sporting challenge. “Experience will show whether and how this works.”
