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After a long career in football, including captaining the New Zealand national team, Rebecca ‘Bex’ Smith is working to bring the women’s game to the world “THERE HAVE TO BE ROLE MODELS”
World Cup, and perhaps an Olympics. It felt really crazy not to try it. I played for FFC Frankfurt, which was the best team in Europe. I didn’t know that at the time, because there were no agents or anything like that for women players. I was Googling anything I could find, sending out emails and asking for a try-out. From there, I went to Sweden, then played in Newcastle and Australia, then went back to Germany. But I had to retire because my knee was really bad. I couldn't even run any more to be fair. So, when I was looking at what to do next, I got approached by Fifa to come and run women’s tournaments. XTREME: What was it like at Fifa? BEX SMITH: I was there for four and a half years, organising the women’s football – the under-17, under-20
and Women’s World Cup. In the last year, I did more strategic planning. What kind of competitions do we need? What does an international match calendar look like? How do we use the tools at Fifa to grow the women’s game globally? But I got tired of governance and politics and was looking to try something new. Fifa didn’t have the same values as me. I think it was a lot more to do with politics, power and money. With the resources and brand name – I mean, who is bigger than Fifa? – they could do so much more. By the end, I saw way too much politics and other things that I couldn’t put my name to. I’m just not a politician. Having said that, the Women’s World Cup in France in 2019 is still the biggest moment in our game – that summer was incredible. There
XTREME: How did you go from playing, to being part of bringing the game to the wider world? BEX SMITH: I was born in Los Angeles to Kiwi parents from Christchurch. We grew up in both countries, then I went to college on the East Coast at Duke. Playing soccer in college, I got picked up by the New Zealand national team for World Cup qualifiers in 2003. I had never really wanted to be a professional footballer, but enjoyed that opportunity. They made me captain of the team in my debut match, which was crazy. I was going to quit the sport, but Australia left the Oceania Football Confederation, which meant New Zealand had a direct qualification into the World Cup and Olympics. I thought, I’m technically captain of a national team that could make a
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