The captain of the Macedonian national football team, Goran Pandev, during today’s panel discussion “How to achieve gender equality in football” said that women football in North Macedonia deserves and should be raised to a higher level, for which the necessary infrastructure ought to be built, but also that financial aid from FIFA and attracting sponsors are a must.
Despite the problem with the insufficient infrastructure for the development of women’s football in North Macedonia, the main reason for the situation is the mentality.
“Girls are being taught that it’s shameful to play football. I watch women’s football with the same attention as men footbal. It is equally interesting to me,” said Pandev.
He says that in Italy, where he has been living for a long period, the women football in the last couple of years saw a significant rise, there is a women footbal league with its TV rights and referees.
“A lot of attention is devoted to women football, and in my managing agency, there are female football players. UEFA invests a lot of attention lately, and the same has to be done by the Macedonian Football Association for the development of women football,” said Pandev who also said that he wishes that one day the women’s national team to be able to qualify to a European championship and to be promoted on a dignified level.
According to Angela Rajcheska, a female football referee, we have to win over the stereotypes, men and women football, and we should be working on improving the treatment of women football.
“Both for the men and women in football, the regulations are equal and therefore the conditions should be equal,” said Rajcheska.
She stressed that in Macedonia, the women’s football league is degraded, and the fields where it is played are inappropriate, the hygiene conditions in the dressing rooms are substandard and the financial payments for female referees aren’t equal to the referee wages in the men’s league.
Rajchevska gave an example that PCR tests weren’t provided for the women’s league which has led to its canceling and on the other hand, there were PCR tests for the men football game.
“In the media, there is not even 20% of coverage of women sports in general with an explanation on their part that these are unattractive,” said Rajchevska.
