field guide #2: booked and busy, but always there

I met Julia for the first time when she came to my first and only Field Test panel event. Julia is one half of BIA, a women-first collective for celebration of football, born out of frustration with often being the only women in the pub during the games. Like every Amsterdam friendship, we tried to navigate our busy lives, but I would soon come to realise that trying to pin Julia down was very own sport. Marseille for a BIA event. Egypt for a wedding. London, Paris, back again. I once had to go to London just to catch her at a BIA event (joking!! am i??). But every time I was planning a Field Test event, she was the first to say yes. Every single time. What struck me, through all of it though, was how much she actually cares. About the game, about the people in the room, about everything she puts her name to.

music videos I love love loooove music videos with a plot line, even better if the plot is spread between multiple songs and corresponding videos. Zayn attempted something like this at the beginning of his solo career, it had so much potential. I’m obsessed with Quevedo’s “Columbia”, a great example of recent music video with a plot. Come to think about it, maybe I just love music videos, period! Tyla’s “Breathe me”, Bakar’s “Lonyo” and Mura Masa’s “JUMP” are so much fun to watch.

community centers One of the dreams at the back of my heart is to either start a community centre or curate programming for one. I’d love to make classes about filing taxes, understanding contracts, and making investing more accessible. To cultivate skills and hobbies like ceramics, creative writing, playing an instrument. And not only for young people, I’d love for it to be a space where people of different ages can teach one another different things.

when Arsenal lose I’m so annoyed. I usually need to talk out how shit (can I swear on this substack?) we were playing, make a comment about sacking the manager, shake my head in disbelief a couple of times. I do get over it in between 30 minutes to an hour after the game but Arsenal has been playing so often recently that the cloud over my head has been getting bigger and bigger.

being on time For concerts, I’m always at least 40 minutes before the start. For job interviews, always at least 10 minutes early. For work and meetings, always on time (or 5 minutes late). For seeing friends, either perfectly on time (or running 15 minutes behind the schedule).

“ca va” In a semi-pretentious way, I’ve adopted saying “ca va” when things are simply not that deep. Like ca va.

married at first sight (UK), Started watching it recently after a big night out with a couple of my girlfriends and now series 10 has me in a chokehold.

the housing market My friend texted us this photo in a groupchat, and captioned it ‘I’m feeling really good about my apartment hunt’

what do people get wrong about BIA?

Because we are a women-led collective, people automatically assume we only watch women’s football. We actually grew up watching men’s football and a lot of our screenings are for men’s games, which I feel like you don’t see very often. We also invite both men and women to our screenings, while prioritizing women feeling good in our spaces.

what do women say after their first BIA event that they couldn’t have said before it?

One of my favorite comments someone said after their first BIA event was “If watching football was like this every time, I’d actually be so into it”. This was at our very first screening in London we put together last minute in collaboration with Friends Are Always Welcome for the EUROs final. During the game people were explaining rules to each other, asking about offside and deflections. It was definitely a special one.

what’s the hardest part of BIA that nobody sees?

Managing time for it, while working a full-time job, hanging out with friends, meeting new people, going to the gym, traveling, having enough solo time, processing your feelings, reading, going to the cinema, and being outside. This sounds a bit insane as I listed it. At the end of the day I find so much joy in doing all things BIA, it’s all worth it. It’s a creative outlet for me, it’s a way to meet others and share the love for the game with them, at this point it’s a part of me I can’t imagine giving up.

What’s also difficult is making sure that Sara and I have dedicated time for our friendship ❤️ It’s easy to get caught up in scheduling calls to organize and strategize, especially since our friendship is long distance. That’s why we always make sure to call each other for life updates or send 12 minute voice notes describing our days and when reunited, to spend quality time without speaking about BIA at all.

what’s been your favorite event to date, and why?

I have a soft spot for our first solo screening in London for the Inter vs. Arsenal game. It was a perfect fixture given that Sara’s a massive Inter fan and I support Arsenal. The event was a big community effort - our friends at Brixton’s Baddest Skateshop offered to host us, the team from Lemonaid and Charitea ensured we had enough non-alcoholic drinks and benches, and Harry and Arslaan from Mirchi brought us a few bottles of their incredible rum which Sara’s brother made drinks with. On top of that, our friend Haytham from Sicander cheffed it up for real - everyone could make themselves a plate, it felt like a family cook out. I am fully name dropping and shouting out these people because they believed in BIA before we even realized what it could become. The funny thing is, Arsenal lost that night but my heart was so incredibly full and the atmosphere was so brilliant, it felt like a win.

have you ever shown up to an event and thought "absolutely not, why did I do this", and then it turned out completely fine?

The closest I came to that feeling was probably our Champions League final screening at murmur in Amsterdam. Prior to the event, we didn’t really have an overview of ticket sales. Our point of contact didn’t communicate how many tickets were sold in the lead up to the event except for maybe one time when he said it was about 20 tickets. And it’s quite a big venue!

When we got to murmur to set up the space, the manager told us we sold 150 tickets and he’s thinking about putting up 20 more. He had to pick up mine and Sara’s jaws from the floor. There was a literal line outside of the venue at one point. The terrace was buzzing with people and the atmosphere was electric.

who’s the athlete (any sport, any era) you’d drop everything to have dinner with?

No one. I don’t do well with famous people. But I’d drop everything to have dinner with the women I went to Switzerland with for the Women’s Euros last year. We all had a link to football, whether through making art about the game, hosting podcasts and watch parties, or starting a magazine about it.

are you someone who knows how to say no?

I unfortunately haven’t learnt to say no to anything. No, deadass. I’m always down. It’s always a yes from me. Let’s go. Where are we going?

I do say no sometimes, I promise! But it’s based on how I feel - I make sure I have enough time alone and if I really don’t feel like going or have a solo plan, that’s when I’ll say no.

what are you like when nobody is watching?

I can be a bit of a yapper so this might come as no surprise but I talk to myself even if there’s not a living soul around me. Every year around my birthday I go for a solo trip, hike or a walk in nature. This year I was recapping my highlights and lowlights of last year, my wishes and goals for the next one and instead of journaling like a normal person, I would analyze my behavior out loud, only keeping it quiet while passing by other people. Really making sure God hears me this year!

If you want to find out more about BIA, and work with Julia and Sara, reach out here: biafootballclub@gmail.com or follow them on @bia.football.club ⚽️