A player-led initiative has been launched to tackle the increasing mental health crisis within sport and society.
With mental health issues becoming more prominent within society and football, a collective of key individuals and organisations have launched Create the Space.
Create the Space is the largest player-led mental health movement in football aiming to equip football at all levels with knowledge and resources to deal with mental health issues.
Mental health challenges currently affect one in four people in the UK. Tottenham captain Molly Bartrip, Chelsea and England star Ben Chilwell, Arsenal’s Beth Mead and Viv Miedema, and former Watford and Bolton forward Marvin Sordell have called on athletes, clubs and stakeholders to join the initiative.
Through Create the Space, Common Goal will develop an integrated approach involving all levels of the football system. This we range from club executives, managers and elite players to fan groups and academies.
Common Goal believes that the world’s most popular sport is one of few cultural forces strong enough to help shift society. Mental health activist and former Premier League football Sordell describes Create the Space as “action based” and “applicable to the entire football ecosystem.”
Miedema discusses how “growing up in Holland, talking wasn’t done” before mentioning how following her move to Germany she struggled and was “told to train harder.”
The Dutch forward also stated “the proudest moment of my career was to take care of myself and look after my mental health. Moving from something that needs to be done to we are doing something.”
Common Goal will team up with Football Beyond Borders in the UK, to pilot a programme to ensure individuals within football are equipped to be supportive on and off the pitch.
They are also working with other leading community organisations such as Street League, Girls United and Bloomsbury Football, who work with people at high risk of exclusion.
Mead described football as her “happy place” where she’s “able to escape.” Having lost her mum in January in the midst of suffering a serious knee injury, the England forward believes that we must “create an environment where it’s totally normal to talk.”
In the US, Create the Space is led by USWNT defender Naomi Girma along with many of her teammates:
“Create the Space will help people be the best versions of themselves and may even save lives. Everyone struggles in their own way, even when it doesn’t seem they are.”
Tottenham star Bartrip also spoke about her struggles with mental health in the past:
“Some years ago I was in a position where I wanted to commit suicide.”
The importance of seeking help was crucial to Bartrip who is now “considering her vulnerability as a strength”.
In North America, Common Goal is working with partner E-Motion to launch a pilot in 2024, with the focus involving youth coaches working in at-risk communities across the USA.
Common Goal is engaging professional athletes to create mental health conversations within professional teams. Chelsea left-back Chilwell said that he felt “unsure about where to turn for support” and believes that “It’s down to our generation to change this and ensure that we have each other’s backs and we’re equipped with the tools to help ourselves and others.”
Their initiatives are supported internationally by the Right to Dream community. The community has academies in Ghana, Egypt and Denmark, with another opening soon in San Diego. Right to Dream believes that offering multiple pathways to academy players, in football and education, will reduce pressure surrounding professional football.
