Women’s Sport Leadership Academy praised as ‘life changing’ by participants and past graduates

The co-founder of the Afghanistan Women’s Football Team and a leading advocate for women’s rights, Khalida Popal, was the special guest speaker at the Women’s Sport Leadership Academy (WSLA) in Chichester on Thursday (September 12).

The WSLA is a pioneering programme at the University of Chichester, which aims to tackle gender inequality in sports leadership by providing unique development opportunities for women leaders from around the world to step up, take the lead and make an impact.

Khalida’s efforts in 2021 to evacuate members of the Afghan National Women’s football team from Taliban rule drew global attention. Having been previously forced into exile due to threats to her safety, Khalida continued her advocacy for women’s and girls’ rights by founding Girl Power, which promotes women’s empowerment through sport and education, particularly for refugee and migrant girls.

Khalida, a 2019 graduate of the WSLA programme, said: “It’s amazing to be back. The programme had a great impact on me as a leader. There was a community of amazing sports leaders and their journeys inspired me. They are changing the world of sport. I took that to my own organisation, Girl Power, and we reached so many young people in our community to create positive change.”

The ninth WSLA residential week took place from 8-13 September and brought together 35 women based in 19 countries as diverse as Chile, Equatorial Guinea and South Korea, and from organisations such The Football Association, SportScotland, the International Paralympic Committee, and several National Olympic Committees.

WSLA is strategically led by the University of Chichester and designed and delivered by Leading Edge Performance. Support from Insight Technology has benefitted the programme for the past two years. Since 2014, over 400 women based in over 70 countries have become graduates of the Academy.

Taking part this year, Peal Dlamini, Chair of the Gender Equity Committee for the Eswatini Olympic & Commonwealth Games Association, said: “There’s so much I have to apply back home. I’ve been inspired. My life will never be the same again.”

Jacqueline Kamwamu, Executive Assistant at the Tanzania Football Federation, added: “I better understand the importance of belonging, rather than just fitting in, and how impactful that is to my leadership skills and team.”

Former participants return as facilitators each year. Louise Upton from Sport England was part of the 2023 cohort, and said: “We have all got something in common. We have still got a WhatsApp group going, and if someone gets a new job it is shared. The power of having other people around you saying ‘you can do it’; five people have gone on to get new jobs in much higher positions.”

Pooja Chaurushi, an elite coach and former triathlete representing India, was the first from her country to win an international triathlon event. She completed WSLA in 2019 and said: “I had lost my confidence and was almost about to get out of it  – I got the chance to understand myself. It really changed my life, in that week I became a different person.”

Luz Amuchastegui, former field hockey star and sports director for El Desafío in Argentina, returned after completing the first programme in 2014, and said: “There was a lot of introspection during that first programme, being equipped with tools to further explore who I was as a leader going back home.”

On returning as a facilitator 10 years later, she said: “It is that sense of community no matter where your path takes you, and how to make it bigger and bring more women on board.”

The Women’s Sport Leadership Academy is organised by Dr Jordan Matthews, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management at the University of Chichester.

He said: “Progress toward gender equality has become more visible ‘on the field’, as seen with the recent Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, and successes of women’s sport in the UK generally. However there is still much to do ‘off the field’ to ensure the leadership and governance of sport reflects its diverse base. In this respect, WSLA is vital.

“There is an exciting future for WSLA given it is being monitored and evaluated by a great team of researchers, meaning we will be able to demonstrate its impact better than ever before.”

WSLA is actively looking for sponsorship and would welcome enquiries from interested parties.

To find out more about the WSLA, visit: www.wsla.co.uk