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Description
Women football has become the arena of emancipation processes - many recognized female footballers have come out, becoming the icons of equality campaigns. However, there is still a lack of research on the situation of non-heteronormative female soccer players and existing research have been conducted in Western countries (Scobie 2020). The aim of this paper is to fill this gap as it is dedicated to an analysis of non-heteronormative female soccer players from one of Central Eastern European countries.
The presentation draws data from an empirical project on female football players in Poland. It uses a variety of data collected through an online survey, an analysis of sports magazines and in-depth interviews conducted with both female football players and coaches and other stakeholders.
This paper proves that for many non-heteronormative female players their football team is a shelter where they feel safe with their sexual orientation. The respondents mention that this is due to the openness of other women, a sense of unity, and the fact that female football players spend a lot of time in their own company what facilities companionship. Simultaneously, our data show that respondents concern their team as a shelter as the external environment is still hostile and unfriendly to non-heteronormative orientations. Not all respondents gain acceptance of their sexual orientation in their relatives and the football environment. In its conclusions, the paper put some questions on the situation of non-heteronormative Polish football soccer players in the nearest future.
