A Jewish women's football team is paving the way for more women to get into the beautiful game. The University of Birmingham is home to Maccabi Selly Oak Women's football team, the brain-child of students tired of hearing 'football is for boys, netball is for girls'
Student Sam Ucko, 21, set up the team, claiming not enough was done in the Jewish community to get women into football. Frustrated with gender stereotypes and the 'Jewish authorities' he formed a football team that is now the first and biggest Jewish women's football team in the UK.
Spreading like a Mexican wave, Sam's passion drove uptake in the game in Leeds and Nottingham where universities were inspired to start their own women's football teams. Co-captain Tamzin Lester meanwhile, still can't believe they started with barely enough players for five-a-side match. Now, just a year later, the team is oversubscribed.
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"I believe that women's football has been neglected in the Jewish community," founder and manager Sam said, "ultimately, there are many capable female footballers who have not been given the opportunity to display how good they are due to stereotypes.
"Such as 'women play netball while men play football'. It is stigmatised because of this and all women need is confidence and a space to grow and improve.
"With our team we plan on displaying that this needs to change, and this will hopefully persuade the authorities within the community to invest more money and respect women's football more, all the way down to grassroots level."
The team can accommodate their faith such as not playing on Shabbat (Jewish Day of Rest) or not having to worry about wearing modest clothing. They are still open to all faiths with Christians and atheist players also included on the team.
Second year student Lester praises the casual atmosphere of the team where, regardless of faith, students can make friends and just enjoy the game. The team also scored a partnership with Her Game Too, a campaign tackling sexism in sport and are currently chasing more partnerships.
The university already has an established men's Jewish football team who fully support them. Co-captain Lester, 19, said: "We talked about setting up a team but not that many people were interested. Our first session was just eight players on the pitch having a power session, now we have grown so much we have to cap how many people can play.
"In general we have the idea that women only play netball not football, don't get me wrong I love netball but we were never encouraged to play football. There is so much in media now of women's football that it is encouraging.
"I have made so many friends and we have drinks, dinners and even an award ceremony for our one year anniversary. I didn't think we would ever reach that.
"When we won against Leeds they had only been playing for a week, we congratulated them saying 'we set up a year ago, imagine how amazing you will be in a year'. It was an uplifting moment. We want people no matter what their faith, just come and give it a go."
Sam hopes to leave a legacy behind once they all graduate, with ambitions to expand into a London team in future.
Follow the team on Instagram at maccabisellyoak_women
Read more about the University of Birmingham here
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