In Conversation with Shireen Ahmed
For over a month, we’ve watched beautiful men kick balls, flail on the ground, and maneuver through the complex geopolitics littering the green fields of the 2026 Men’s World Cup. I don’t watch a lot of football, having been raised on an idiosyncratic combination of men’s basketball and European cycling (ask me about the most heroic mid-1990s Tour de France domestiques).
So I called Shireen Ahmed, brilliant sports journalist and co-host of the feminist sports podcast Burn It All Down, to which I’ve been aurally glued for World Cup interpretation. When I called her, Shireen was sitting in front of a wall of football scarves and sporting a Zinedine Zidane jersey — not, she stresses, for love of France, but for “one of the most formidable and legendary footballers,” a Berber Algerian man, born and raised in France, whose son now plays for Algeria.
We spoke about geopolitics on the field, why everyone hates Argentina, the rise and exploitation of women’s football, FIFA corruption and misogyny, and how to prepare for the utopian feminist experience that will be the 2027 Women’s World Cup (recommended for fans of the WNBA). For more, hit up Shireen’s podcast. —Sarah Leonard
Sarah Leonard Okay, to get this out of the way, Argentina is playing in the final on Sunday. You’re no Argentina fan. Why not, and why does everyone hate them so much?
Shireen Ahmed Argentina has zero Black players, and to me, you actually have to work hard to make that happen. My friend Dr. Brenda Elsey has written about the context and history of why that is.
Argentina has a series of unlikeable characters. Alexis Mac Allister, one of their players, has been accused of racism in his commentary. Argentina has also been proven to be receiving favoritism. In an early match in the group stages between Argentina and Algeria, Lionel Messi had a foul on an Algerian player with his studs up, a more egregious offense. He should have been red carded and he wasn’t. Why was the decision made not to penalize him? Because everybody understands that he is the World Cup baby, he has a swan song, his last World Cup. He’s also a cash cow for [FIFA president] Gianni Infantino. It’s almost like FIFA is a Ponzi scheme at this point, and Messi is a player within that mafia, so I think the people were not having it.
Instead, we are seeing the emergence of heroes like Vozinha, the Cabo Verde goalkeeper who’s 40 years old, whose mom couldn’t afford to apply for a visa. We’re on board with that guy. We’re on board with Lawrence, Kansas where they’ve wrapped their arms around the Algerian team.
SL It’s easy to think about World Cup teams in terms of colonizer and colonized nations — Senegal vs France, for example — but it’s much more complicated because teams are made up of people from diasporic heritages. So the French team, for example, is obviously not white French people. How do these complexities affect fandoms and the politics of the World Cup?
SA One of the greatest strengths of this game is to have people interested in these conversations, to talk about immigrant culture, about xenophobia and anti-Blackness and racism and misogyny and transphobia in these sports spaces. Antoine Semenyo, who plays for Ghana, was born and raised in England — he’s literally an ambassador for Ahmad Tea, a very British thing. So his choice to play for Ghana is rooted in his own definition of identity. Bono, who is Morocco’s goalkeeper, was born in Montreal. He has the right to play for Canada — didn’t do it. He chose Morocco. And then the ex-Spanish prime minister is talking smack about the French team saying they’re not really French. What does that mean? Is it because they’re Black? Bro, nobody asked you to colonize Northwest Africa.
SL This World Cup we’ve seen crazy ticket prices, Infantino sucking up to Trump, commercializing the sport to within an inch of its life. Meanwhile in New York the socialist mayor has organized free outdoor showings, opened the public soccer fields 24/7, had a lottery for cheaper tickets — trying to decommodify the sport a little. How can we as lefties enjoy the sport without feeling like we’re part of the repulsive FIFA machine?
SA When you look at Mamdani vs Infantino, let’s not make a mistake about Mamdani — he’s in a position of power. But he’s choosing to apply it in a different way. One of the things I love is that he goes back to the grassroots. He goes back to the pickup league. He goes back to playing late at night under the lights where there’s the smell of skunk and weed wafting through the summer air.
The ticket lottery matters. It’s a thousand people in the seats having access the way it was meant to be and it sets a precedent. I take those wins seriously.
And there’s a sense that despite FIFA, there’s this welcome place for people in New York City. As somebody who lives in Canada, who identifies visibly as a Muslim woman, going to the U.S. is absolutely not something I’m trying to do. But I will consider New York City.
SL You’ve been very vocal about the World Cup that we’re not talking about. The Women’s World Cup is in 2027. And gender has been far removed from most World Cup commentary.
AS Sport is a reflection of where we are as a society. I have heard so little about the Women’s World Cup, which is in less than a year in Brazil. And more importantly, the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations is going to start on July 25. Some of the most exciting football you’ll ever see is in WAFCON and these women do so much with so little, compared to what we’ve seen [provided to the Men’s World Cup].
The billions of dollars that go into the Men’s World Cup, the tacky ass halftime shows, the hydration breaks that are literally moneymakers. How much of this money will be poured into the women’s game? Women are used as props [in men’s tournaments] — these little scenes of Moroccan players hugging their moms for instance. They’re trying to say: There’s no toxic masculinity, look they’re hugging their moms. But what about the women that want to play, that want access? It’s frustrating as someone who covers the women’s game to watch how women are just simply used.
SL And there’s been no conversation about the sexual assault allegations against World Cup players.
SA Seven World Cup players that we know of have been entangled with allegations. Achraf Hakimi, captain of the Moroccan men’s team, will go back to France and face trial. There’s been very little conversation about Ryan Mendes of Cabo Verde, and much as we may love the team, that story is horrific.
People may say I’m a killjoy which is absolutely fine — who doesn’t love Dr. Sara Ahmed? – but the reality is that as James Baldwin famously said, “I criticize America because I love her.” I criticize football because I love it. I want this to be a space where women feel safe. Why would they be encouraged to report [an assault] given the way that this has been handled? People in the comments accuse me all the time of being a bad Muslim because I’m talking about Achraf Hakimi. Just because we have the same faith doesn’t mean that I’m not going to condemn you for doing what I think is abhorrent. Sexualized violence against women is a global issue, not something over there, and it needs to be spoken about. I don’t think the media has the courage to do that; journalists are worried about having their credentials stripped. I was never so abused online as when I wrote about Cristiano Ronaldo for Time magazine. This topic emits a type of bat signal to horrible people to abuse the person reporting.
One benefit of covering the women’s game is I just have to deal with less rape. At the end of the day, for me, that was taking a lot out of me and out of something I love.
SL We’ve seen huge, growing support for women’s sports lately. The WNBA has exploded, everyone I know in Brooklyn is at Liberty games, having the best time. I’m sitting here in my Knicks (in five) t-shirt, but the scene at a Liberty game at the Barclay Center is totally different from the Knicks base in the Garden — we have tons of families, it’s very queer, it reflects Brooklyn.
SA The women’s side [of football] is by no means perfect, but the Northern Super League in Canada is a model of how you can build something with the players in mind, with their safety in mind, with the community in mind. So it’s a model for something different and it’s giving me hope. That’s what the women’s game affords me is the room for growth.
We’ve seen attendance records broken in Europe. We’ve seen huge scenes of fans, season ticket holders skyrocket, National Women’s Soccer League offering opportunities, highlighting players in the college system, talking about pay-to-play and how it’s not great for girls. There’s more research in terms of periods and how they’re connected to ACL injuries and knee injuries and ligament tears. There’s an increase in attention, which means there’ll be more research and data, and we need that to create policies.
My concern is that with this growth it will become more commodified. There’s a purity to having a grassroots community attend these games. But then you see the emergence of Caitlin Clark bringing a particular fan base that’s more of a traditional NBA or NFL crowd. On the other hand I love me some Paige Bueckers who has different politics and presents herself in a very different way.
The women’s game in football doesn’t get the attention, but has the potential for spenders, for committed fans, and these are things that FIFA and USSF are paying attention to. They know the potential growth. They would not give a shit about women’s soccer if it wasn’t profitable and they know it is. There are elements of this that make me deeply uncomfortable. Do we have the correct safeguards? There are places working on this like the Sport and Rights Alliance and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport where I was part of a training.
My closest friends are women and men I met through soccer. Sport and taking in sport is one of the greatest communal experiences of humankind. Before the Toronto Tempo came to Toronto I was a Liberty fan, 100%. My son has Sabrinas. Those are his shoes. He’s 6’6”, plays volleyball, and he got his wife’s name embroidered on them, and they’re bright pink. I love the culture of choice that women’s sports brings — I hope it’s here to stay.
SL And finally, if we’re not already big football fans, how should we start warming up for the 2027 Women’s World Cup?
SA Start with your domestic women’s league, with the National Women’s Soccer League, the Northern Super League. You can watch both. Pay attention to Canada, pay attention to Europe. You don’t only have to follow the big names. You can follow locally. Follow your youth development teams nationally. Canada’s under-20 youth team is wildly talented and they’re going to be a big problem on the international stage for everybody else. Because of social media, you can definitely pay attention to WAFCON, and the Women’s Champions League in Europe. Follow independent media because you’re not going to get Alexi Lalas to say anything intelligent about anything let alone women’s sports. But there are so many smart people talking about it — find them.
We spoke about geopolitics on the field, why everyone hates Argentina, the rise and exploitation of women’s football, FIFA corruption and misogyny, and how to prepare for the utopian feminist experience that will be the 2027 Women’s World Cup (recommended for fans of the WNBA). For more, hit up Shireen’s podcast. —Sarah Leonard
Sarah Leonard Okay, to get this out of the way, Argentina is playing in the final on Sunday. You’re no Argentina fan. Why not, and why does everyone hate them so much?
Shireen Ahmed Argentina has zero Black players, and to me, you actually have to work hard to make that happen. My friend Dr. Brenda Elsey has written about the context and history of why that is.
Argentina has a series of unlikeable characters. Alexis Mac Allister, one of their players, has been accused of racism in his commentary. Argentina has also been proven to be receiving favoritism. In an early match in the group stages between Argentina and Algeria, Lionel Messi had a foul on an Algerian player with his studs up, a more egregious offense. He should have been red-carded and he wasn’t. Why was the decision made not to penalize him? Because everybody understands that he is the World Cup baby, he has a swan song, his last World Cup. He’s also a cash cow for [FIFA president] Gianni Infantino. It’s almost like FIFA is a Ponzi scheme at this point, and Messi is a player within that mafia, so I think the people were not having it.
Instead, we are seeing the emergence of heroes like Vozinha, the Cabo Verde goalkeeper who’s 40 years old, whose mom couldn’t afford to apply for a visa. We’re on board with that guy. We’re on board with Lawrence, Kansas where they’ve wrapped their arms around the Algerian team.
SL It’s easy to think about World Cup teams in terms of colonizer and colonized nations — Senegal vs France, for example — but it’s much more complicated because teams are made up of people from diasporic heritages. So the French team, for example, is obviously not white French people. How do these complexities affect fandoms and the politics of the World Cup?
SA One of the greatest strengths of this game is to have people interested in these conversations, to talk about immigrant culture, about xenophobia and anti-Blackness and racism and misogyny and transphobia in these sports spaces. Antoine Semenyo, who plays for Ghana, was born and raised in England — he’s literally an ambassador for Ahmad Tea, a very British thing. So his choice to play for Ghana is rooted in his own definition of identity. Bono, who is Morocco’s goalkeeper, was born in Montreal. He has the right to play for Canada — didn’t do it. He chose Morocco. And then the ex-Spanish prime minister is talking smack about the French team saying they’re not really French. What does that mean? Is it because they’re Black? Bro, nobody asked you to colonize Northwest Africa.
SL This World Cup we’ve seen crazy ticket prices, Infantino sucking up to Trump, commercializing the sport to within an inch of its life. Meanwhile in New York the socialist mayor has organized free outdoor showings, opened the public soccer fields 24/7, had a lottery for cheaper tickets — trying to decommodify the sport a little. How can we as lefties enjoy the sport without feeling like we’re part of the repulsive FIFA machine?
SA When you look at Mamdani vs Infantino, let’s not make a mistake about Mamdani — he’s in a position of power. But he’s choosing to apply it in a different way. One of the things I love is that he goes back to the grassroots. He goes back to the pickup league. He goes back to playing late at night under the lights where there’s the smell of skunk and weed wafting through the summer air.
The ticket lottery matters. It’s a thousand people in the seats having access the way it was meant to be, and it sets a precedent. I take those wins seriously.
And there’s a sense that despite FIFA, there’s this welcome place for people in New York City. As somebody who lives in Canada, who identifies visibly as a Muslim woman, going to the U.S. is absolutely not something I’m trying to do. But I will consider New York City.
SL You’ve been very vocal about the World Cup that we’re not talking about. The Women’s World Cup is in 2027. And gender has been far removed from most World Cup commentary.
AS Sport is a reflection of where we are as a society. I have heard so little about the Women’s World Cup, which is in less than a year in Brazil. And more importantly, the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations is going to start on July 25. Some of the most exciting football you’ll ever see is in WAFCON and these women do so much with so little, compared to what we’ve seen [provided to the men’s World Cup].
The billions of dollars that go into the men’s World Cup, the tacky ass halftime shows, the hydration breaks that are literally moneymakers. How much of this money will be poured into the women’s game? Women are used as props [in men’s tournaments] — these little scenes of Moroccan players hugging their moms for instance. They’re trying to say: there’s no toxic masculinity, look they’re hugging their moms. But what about the women that want to play, that want access? It’s frustrating as someone who covers the women’s game to watch how women are just simply used.
SL And there’s been no conversation about the sexual assault allegations against World Cup players.
SA Seven World Cup players that we know of have been entangled with allegations. Achraf Hakimi, captain of the Moroccan men’s team, will go back to France and face trial. There’s been very little conversation about Ryan Mendes of Cabo Verde, and much as we may love the team, that story is horrific.
People may say I’m a killjoy which is absolutely fine — who doesn’t love Dr. Sara Ahmed? – but the reality is that as James Baldwin famously said, “I criticize America because I love her.” I criticize football because I love it. I want this to be a space where women feel safe. Why would they be encouraged to report [an assault] given the way that this has been handled? People in the comments accuse me all the time of being a bad Muslim because I’m talking about Achraf Hakimi. Just because we have the same faith doesn’t mean that I’m not going to condemn you for doing what I think is abhorrent. Sexualized violence against women is a global issue, not something over there, and it needs to be spoken about. I don’t think the media has the courage to do that; journalists are worried about having their credentials stripped. I was never so abused online as when I wrote about Cristiano Ronaldo for Time magazine. This topic emits a type of bat signal to horrible people to abuse the person reporting.
One benefit of covering the women’s game is I just have to deal with less rape. At the end of the day, for me, that was taking a lot out of me and out of something I love.
SL We’ve seen huge, growing support for women’s sports lately. The WNBA has exploded, everyone I know in Brooklyn is at Liberty games, having the best time. I’m sitting here in my Knicks (in five) t-shirt, but the scene at a Liberty game at the Barclay Center is totally different from the Knicks base in the Garden — we have tons of families, it’s very queer, it reflects Brooklyn.
SA The women’s side [of football] is by no means perfect, but the Northern Super League in Canada is a model of how you can build something with the players in mind, with their safety in mind, with the community in mind. So it’s a model for something different and it’s giving me hope. That’s what the women’s game affords me is the room for growth.
We’ve seen attendance records broken in Europe. We’ve seen huge scenes of fans, season ticket holders skyrocket, National Women’s Soccer League offering opportunities, highlighting players in the college system, talking about pay-to-play and how it’s not great for girls. There’s more research in terms of periods and how they’re connected to ACL injuries and knee injuries and ligament tears. There’s an increase in attention, which means there’ll be more research and data, and we need that to create policies.
My concern is that with this growth it will become more commodified. There’s a purity to having a grassroots community attend these games. But then you see the emergence of Caitlin Clark bringing a particular fan base that’s more of a traditional NBA or NFL crowd. On the other hand I love me some Paige Bueckers who has different politics and presents herself in a very different way.
The women’s game in football doesn’t get the attention, but has the potential for spenders, for committed fans, and these are things that FIFA and USSF are paying attention to. They know the potential growth. They would not give a shit about women’s soccer if it wasn’t profitable and they know it is. There are elements of this that make me deeply uncomfortable. Do we have the correct safeguards? There are places working on this like the Sport and Rights Alliance and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport where I was part of a training.
My closest friends are women and men I met through soccer. Sport and taking in sport is one of the greatest communal experiences of humankind. Before the Toronto Tempo came to Toronto I was a Liberty fan, 100%. My son has Sabrinas. Those are his shoes. He’s 6’6”, plays volleyball, and he got his wife’s name embroidered on them, and they’re bright pink. I love the culture of choice that women’s sports brings — I hope it’s here to stay.
SL And finally, if we’re not already big football fans, how should we start warming up for the 2027 Women’s World Cup?
SA Start with your domestic women’s league, with the National Women’s Soccer League, the Northern Super League. You can watch both. Pay attention to Canada, pay attention to Europe. You don’t only have to follow the big names. You can follow locally. Follow your youth development teams nationally. Canada’s under-20 youth team is wildly talented and they’re going to be a big problem on the international stage for everybody else. Because of social media, you can definitely pay attention to WAFCON, and the Women’s Champions League in Europe. Follow independent media because you’re not going to get Alexi Lalas to say anything intelligent about anything let alone women’s sports. But there are so many smart people talking about it — find them.