The first Jewish university women’s football team, Maccabi Selly Oak (MSO), was set up as “there was a real lack of opportunity for Jewish women’s teams to play football on campus”, according to the team’s manager, Sam Ucko.
As the team marks its first anniversary, Ucko, who previously oversaw the men’s Jewish team at Birmingham, has seen the women’s team grow exponentially, beginning with nine players at their first training session to now boasting a squad of over 40. “In the Jewish community, women’s football has been stigmatised for too long. [The MSO women’s team] shows an improvement within the community,” he said.
Ucko established the team around five core values - equality, acceptance, resilience, passion and enjoyment. Jess Kosky, the team’s social media manager, said that, above all, she appreciated the team’s emphasis on inclusivity, which “gets women into sport and gets that competitive side out”.
One of the greatest successes of the MSO women’s team has been the way in which it has inspired the creation of two further Jewish women’s teams at universities – at Leeds and Nottingham respectively. The three teams will meet for a combined training session in London this week.
When Maccabi Selly Oak women's football team was launched, they only had nine players
Recently, MSO women’s team played their first competitive inter-J-Soc match against Leeds’ Hapoel Hyde Park women’s team, comfortably winning 10-2. Having played four competitive matches, MSO remains unbeaten.
The team’s success has enabled it to secure sponsorship, including from the HerGameToo campaign, which tackles sexism in sport.
According to the organisation Women In Sport, after primary school, one million girls (43 per cent) disengage from sport, citing a fear of feeling judged, a lack of confidence, pressures of schoolwork and not feeling safe outside.
Ucko said that he aspired to roll out Jewish women’s football across UK universities, “generally shifting the attitude as a whole and sending out the message to women that they can play football on campus”.
Since October 7, as well as encouraging more women to participate in sport, the team has also been using football to fundraise. Kosky organised a charity 6-a-side tournament for Jewish students in Birmingham, which successfully raised money for families in southern Israel impacted by the war.
Asked whether antisemitism on campus had affected the team, Ucko said that while they hadn’t experienced anything directly, the area where they trained often had anti-Israel banners on display close by. “The fact we’ve been able to play through that shows the strength of the team,” he said.
When asked about their aspirations for next year, Kosky said that she hoped they would “continue the team spirit”, while remaining a springboard for female students to get into sport.
The club’s assistant manager, Eitan Brown, described the last year as “incredible…To see a large number of women consistently improving and wanting to show up week in week out is what I’m most proud of.”
