Girls on Pitch: 3 Female Founders in Football

Written by Josie Wise

Tala Ammoun, Varsha Bailey-Gunputh, and Dani Gonçalves are three extraordinary founders in women’s football. As young girls, they were told they should never play football. They were deprived of a community to share their love of football with, and they were told to sit back and leave the sport to the boys. 

Naturally, they dedicated their lives to starting businesses to deliver sports to the next generation of girls and women. When asked why they chose this, they all said the same: passion. When they were told they couldn’t, it ignited a spark in them to prove they could. 

VARSHA BAILEY-GUNPUTH + GIRLKEEPERS

As a little girl, Varsha Bailey-Gunputh would watch football matches through a keyhole after being locked out because she wasn’t allowed to watch. When she moved from Italy to the UK solo at 18 years old, she said she was overcome with emotion when she saw the level at which girls were allowed to play football. About seven years ago, Bailey-Gunputh subbed in as a goalkeeper during a football match and never looked back. 

“I remember that was the best day of my life,” Bailey-Gunputh said. “I was like this is what I want to be. I want to be a goalkeeper.”

This March, Bailey-Gunputh launched GirlKeepers, a business created to assist football players of all ages around the UK. The goal of GirlKeepers is to focus on training girls and women in goalkeeping. Bailey-Gunputh wants to instill goalkeeper skills in her girls alongside knowledge of what it means to be a goalkeeper, the only person on the pitch in charge of protecting the net. 

Bailey-Gunputh travels to football clubs around the UK and coaches the girls and women herself. She said she saw a noticeable lack of teams who either didn’t coach goalkeepers at all or were utilizing coaches who didn’t have the correct certification or necessary knowledge to coach goalkeepers. 

No other businesses are offering these unique services to female players in the UK, making Bailey-Gunputh essential to the development of women’s goalkeepers. 

“There are a lot of coaches out there who are not qualified, but they still get to coach goalkeepers,” Bailey-Gunputh said. “Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it's very bad, because if you don’t know what you’re doing you end up injuring these players. My target will be that every single grassroots club will have a goalkeeper coach.”

There is also an important mental element to goalkeeping that isn’t properly addressed. The goalkeeper is the most important person on the pitch, because there’s only one of them, and that spot is tough to fight for, Bailey-Gunputh said. 

“People will always remember the mistake you made, but not the hundreds of saves you made during the game,” Bailey-Gunputh said. 

Above all else, Bailey-Gunputh said she is in this business to empower young girls to be the best versions of themselves. Goalkeeping is a highly personal activity for Bailey-Gunputh and she strives to instill the values it has taught her in her athletes. 

“I don’t care if you’re the best goalkeeper out there,” Bailey-Gunputh said. “If your behavior is awful I would choose someone else over you. Because you play as a team in football.”

TALA AMMOUN + WOMEN’S FOOTBALL GAMES

Years ago, a little girl in Lebanon was kicking a ball around with her sister without a care in the world. She didn’t realize that very soon, she would be told the activity was too boyish and dangerous. She wouldn’t be allowed to play football again for a long time. 

That little girl was Tala Ammoun, founder and CEO of Women’s Football Games. Ammoun said she’s always had a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirit, and when she started playing football again about a year ago, the idea for Women’s Football Games was the natural next step in her life. She plans to launch Women’s Football Games before the next Euros. 

Ammoun said the concept of Women’s Football Games is to introduce a subscription for women who want to play football. They can play as many games as they want anywhere in London for one monthly fee. 

Ammoun said it is much too difficult for women to find this information as it stands. They could research extensively and be unable to find somewhere nearby to play. There is not easy access to pick up games, and finding one that works for location, schedule, and budget often requires managing ten or more WhatsApp groups. 

Women’s Football Games is working to remedy this issue by compiling data and information for women so all they have to do is input their location to be fed the best options for them to participate in football. 

Ammoun said she conducted surveys that confirmed around 70% of women would pay for the services she plans to offer, which cemented her idea that this is something the football community needs. She said she’s faced backlash because her platform would exclude men. However, her model was developed to adapt to the growth of the women’s game and make it more accessible — an issue specific to the women’s game. 

When they were young, Ammoun had to watch her talented sister be forced away from the game, along with so many others. She said this was her motivation to found this platform because no one should have to give up football due to a lack of opportunity and support. 

“The whole purpose of the company is to give women the opportunity that me and my sister didn’t have growing up,” Ammoun said. “My dream is to play with my sister again someday. I want this membership to exist so that I can bring my sister over and we can just play all day, every day.” 

DANI GONÇALVES + FANTASY WSL

Growing up in South Africa, Dani Gonçalves said her family was the only people she knew interested in football. Other kids at her school had nothing to say when she brought it up, and she always felt extremely isolated. When she moved to England she was shocked by how many people were passionate fans just like her, and she reveled in the community she had always longed for. 

Gonçalves played men’s fantasy football for about a decade and said it was a vital and well-loved part of her fan engagement experience. When she started to get into the women’s side of football, she struggled to start from scratch as a fan not knowing anything about the league, the dynamics, or the rivalries. She said when she couldn’t find anything to help her out, she and her partner started building Fantasy WSL. 

She noticed many products were initially made for men and then eventually altered slightly and geared toward women as an afterthought. She said she wanted Fantasy WSL to be entirely bespoke to the women’s game. 

“The response has been so amazing,” Gonçalves said, “Thousands of other people have been waiting for this. They’ve been so underserved.”

A user once messaged Gonçalves to say she had not only learned about women’s football through Fantasy WSL but had also created an entire community of like-minded friends through a Taylor Swift-themed league. This eventually led to the whole community attending games together, Gonçalves said. It is rare to see a digital engagement tool driving a community to in-person experiences in this way. 

Getting fans involved in women’s sports is the main goal of Fantasy, but Gonçalves said hearing stories of communities and friendships being formed through her app is just as meaningful to her. She said it would have meant everything to her when she was in school and had no one to speak with about her passion for football. Even though the business can be tiring, this makes it all worth it, she said. 

The rise of women’s football results from all the hard work women have done in the decades since they hit the field running. It belongs equally to the historic and well-loved performance of the Lionesses alongside their powerhouse players. It belongs to girls who were brave enough to defy the odds and succeed in a space they were told they didn’t belong.

The game's future now depends on the many young female founders filling the gaps, fast-tracking progress, and ensuring the game flourishes. Without the behind-the-scenes work of these women, the new wave of female athletes would face the same failures in support and engagement they have been facing for centuries. 

Tala Ammoun, Varsha Bailey-Gunputh, and Dani Gonçalves are harnessing each of their unique experiences in football to form the game into something inventive, highly beneficial, and powerful.  

“No matter what cards you'll be dealt, you can make it work if you want to make it work,” Gonçalves said. This overarching sentiment has kept the women’s game alive through every setback and is what will propel it into the future.