Impromptu celebration earns India FIFPRO Fair Play award nod
|Image: Angelica Ibarra Rodriguez
The Indian women’s team was awarded the FIFPRO Fair Play Award for Day 4 courtesy of some spirited support of opponents Sweden.
The impromptu moment occurred late in the match. India was well ahead when the Swedish team were awarded a penalty. Sweden subsequently scored off a solidly hit shot, and the entire Indian team—both the women on the pitch and those supporting on the sidelines—erupted in celebration.
Those who witnessed it described it as a truly authentic, fair play spirit moment.
|Image: Angelica Ibarra Rodriguez
Fittingly, tournament ambassador and former Palestinian professional women’s footballer Honey Thaljieh was on hand to present the team with their medals and t-shirts. She commended the team on their efforts and imparted some lived-experience wisdom. In addition to congratulating them on their fair play, she told them that she too had played football on the streets in the Palestinian equivalent of the Indian slums from which they had come.
Thaljieh urged the players to imagine bigger and to seize opportunities such as this to find a way out of their home circumstances. ‘I was just like you,’ she told them, and could scarcely imagine a world beyond her homeland. Now, Thaljieh lives in Switzerland and works for FIFA, and through such roles as her Homeless World Cup ambassadorship, travels the world for her work.
Words: Fiona Crawford
Images: Angelica Ibarra Rodriguez