When Ana Maria Oliviera Malta told her parents she wanted to play football, they were initially hesitant because they thought it was a ‘boys’ sport’. Today, she’s one of the goalkeepers for the island team – and they couldn’t be prouder.
Growing up in a household where traditional gender roles still held sway, Ana faced challenges from the start.
“You shouldn’t do football,” her parents told her when she was in primary school. “It’s not a girls’ sport.”
Pictured: Ana Maria Oliviera Malta studied IBDP at Hautlieu before starting her degree at University College Jersey.
These words could have ended Ana’s sporting journey before it began.
Instead, they marked its beginning.
Once her parents saw how much she enjoyed the sport and her dedication to it, they acknowledged that it was unfair of them to discourage Ana from participating.
Now, as she researches gender identity in football for her university dissertation at University College Jersey, the 21-year-old is part of a new generation of female players challenging long-held assumptions about who belongs on Jersey’s football pitches.
And she’s not alone in facing barriers to participation in sport.
Why are we looking into this?
Recent data shows 69% of Jersey girls want to be more active in sport. Yet only 5% of Year 12 girls meet recommended daily exercise guidelines.
The question is, what’s stopping them?
This was an issue that Express is seeking to explore through a weeks-long ‘Women in Sport’ series by speaking to female players, coaches and PTs across the island.
So far, we have looked at rugby, surfing, and the gym as case studies to explore what’s holding girls back.
More is to come on cricket, gymnastics, and archery, while this feature explores the challenges and changing landscape of women’s football on the island.
“Football is often seen as a male-dominated sport”
At age six, Sofia Rodrigues was the only girl on her football team.
But today, as a Jersey Senior Women’s player at the age of 19, she’s also part of the growing change that’s challenging the male dominance of one of the island’s most popular sports.
Pictured: Sofia Rodrigues represents the Jersey Senior Women’s team and Jersey Wanderers Senior Women (Rob Currie)
For Sofia, the barriers are clear. “Football is often seen as a male-dominated sport,” she explained.
“Girls who try out mixed football tend to experience exclusion – not being passed the ball, being believed to not be as good, facing roughness, or finding it too competitive to enjoy.
“There are still some stereotypes associated with women’s football for example it being considered as unfeminine, though less prominent now they still remain,” she added.
“These stereotypes impact participation rates and can discourage females from getting involved due to the fear of judgement.”
Ana has also experienced stereotypical assumptions beyond the pitch about her sexuality and femininity.
“People assume that because you’re a girl who likes football, you must be a lesbian,” Ana reflected.
She added that physical changes during puberty create another challenge for young women, and went on to describe the self-consciousness many young women feel during physical education lessons at school.
“Facilities are not fit for purpose”
Libby Barnett, an influential figure in Jersey’s sporting community, has both personal and professional insight into the barriers facing female participation in sports.
The Island Games gold medallist and former captain of the Jersey’s FA Women’s team, who is currently programme manager for Jersey Sport, spoke about how limited opportunities shaped her early experience of football.
She said: “In my background, it was very normal to be the only girl, or perhaps only one of a handful of girls, playing football in school playgrounds on the estates, and we didn’t have local girls’ leagues.”
For many, the only option was joining a mixed team or waiting until age 16 to play in the senior league.
Pictured: Libby Barnett recently stepped away from the Jersey FA Women’s team, after a storied career captaining the side.
While Libby is “incredibly proud” of the “great strides” made for female players in recent years, she stressed that significant challenges remain.
One such issue is the outdated state of many sports facilities on the island.
“We’re blessed in Jersey to have traditional and well-established sports organisations, but a lot of their clubhouses are just as old,” she explained.
Updating these facilities to meet the needs of women, girls, and participants with disabilities or additional needs is, she said, prohibitively expensive for many organisations.
Using her own club, Jersey Wanderers – the oldest football club in the Channel Islands – as an example, Libby said that there is only one female toilet available for over 100 players, coaches, and parents.
“We just don’t have the financial means to do anything about it,” she said.
Beyond facilities, Libby said that confidence is often a barrier for women and girls in male-dominated environments.
“Confidence can quite often be a barrier, particularly in spaces where they don’t feel comfortable,” she said.
Growing up, she lacked female role models in sports, saying that coverage was largely focused on male athletes.
This absence, she suggested, can make entering the sporting world more intimidating for women and girls.
What is being done to promote female participation?
But change is coming. The Jersey Football Association has said that increasing participation amongst girls and women is one of its top strategic priorities.
Tim Pryor, the association’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We’re aiming to ensure 75% of all local clubs have a women’s or girls’ team by 2028, as part of our drive to make sure football is accessible and inclusive.
“A year ago, we appointed our first Women’s and Girls Football Development Officer, working full-time in this area.”
Pictured: Tim Pryor, Chief Executive Officer at The Jersey Football Association.
The Association is also running targeted programmes such as girls-only Wildcat sessions in schools and holiday courses.
The JFA has also partnered with the Jersey Bulls Academy “to ensure the top players have regular coaching and have the potential to become our island players of the future”.
These efforts are already proving successful, with Tim highlighting that over 500 women and girls are now playing football in Jersey.
Pictured: Jersey Football Association has launched a drive to get 75% of local clubs running women’s teams by 2028.
Clubs like Jersey Wanderers, St Lawrence, and Rozel Rovers have increased the number of girls’ teams and added pathways that “take the players from their first kick of a football potentially through the women’s side and then who knows on to represent the island.”
Girls-only spaces
Libby from Jersey Sport praised local sports organisations for introducing female-only spaces and ensuring mixed environments are inclusive.
“There are lots of football clubs in the island that offer mixed football, but there are five that offer girls-only football as well,” Libby said.
She explained that these female-only environments, often led by female coaches, are particularly beneficial for girls who are nervous or new to the sport.
Pictured: “What lots of local sports organisations are doing is creating female-only environments.”
“Having female role models in these settings is really important,” she explained.
“It’s really important to have a female there who can empathise with the needs or challenges women and girls might face.”
Importantly, Libby believes that opportunities for mixed football pathways should remain open, but that female-only environments offer a crucial entry point for those who prefer it.
“I think it’s really important that we don’t completely segregate females forever,” she said. “It’s great that there are so many sports organisations providing both pathways.”
Reflecting on her sporting journey overall, including as a leader on and off the pitch, Libby said she would like Jersey to develop more females in sports leadership who can use their “first-hand insight” to positively impact the sporting landscape for women in Jersey.
“I would really love us to develop more females involved in leadership positions and decision-making roles within sport.”
Pictured: “It’s really important to have a female there to be able to empathise with some of the needs or challenges that women and girls may feel.”
Predominantly, we see lots of committees made up of traditional structures where they have a chairperson, president or chief executive position held by males.
Though this is “changing slowly”, Libby added, Jersey does have some “fantastic examples” of women in successful sports leadership positions such as Jersey Cricket’s first female chief executive, Sarah Gomersall, and Juanita Adlington, who is the joint-president of Jersey Golf, alongside Steven Bowen.
“There are some really fantastic examples but I would love to see more females in these leadership positions, where their power and influence can really positively impact local sport and give that first-hand insight into what it is like being a female in Jersey trying to participate in sport. That is so important.”
“A balance between competition and enjoyment”
Sofia, who now helps coach younger players, also spoke about the importance of creating a welcoming environment to encourage female participation.
“We try to find a balance between competition and enjoyment to ensure the girls have positive experiences and build a good relationship with the sport,” she said.
“We always encourage the girls to bring along their friends to introduce new girls to the teams, welcoming all abilities.”
Yet for Ana, meaningful change needs to start earlier – in schools.
“At Hautlieu, there was never girls’ football,” she recalled. “It was only more traditional female sports like netball and hockey.
“We need to offer more variety, and introduce all these sports to girls early on.”
For those still hesitating to step onto the pitch, Sofia’s message is clear: “Go for it! We’ve got such a close community where you can make plenty of new friends, and as a whole, it is a really fun environment to be part of.
“We are always open to having new players joining our teams.”