[The Pitch]
Bankrutt is the only word I
recognize as I scan Aftonbladet, a larger Swedish daily newspaper, reporting
headline news. My club team Tyresö declared bankruptcy and was folding only two
days before our Champions League Quarterfinal. We step off the field after our
best training session of the season when the Twitter notifications begin to
buzz on our phones. I look frantically around the locker room trying to
understand, but the Swedish mixed with panic confuses me. I knew the club was
meeting with the Swedish federal government that day, but I thought it was at
15:00. I check the clock: 11:30. The only thing clear is that the energy that
sprung from a post-practice high has quickly depleted. Everyone is as
confused and scared as I am.
Then, we receive an email from the club
promising that the information reported by all of the major Swedish
publications about our demise was, in fact, wrong. Well, it wasn’t the only
time these publications had reported false information (I thought you
could go to jail for that in Sweden. Darn that Girl With the Dragon Tattoo!).
The decision about whether our team would continue via a government bailout—which
in Sweden they call rekonstruktion—or if we fold would, indeed, be
made in court, at 15:00. When the manager comes into the locker room a few
minutes later, all he can muster is to say, to a team based in one of the least religious countries in the
world, “Just go home and pray to God.”
This wasn’t the first message I had
received from the club about a “financial crisis.” The first came late last
summer. There had been some unexplained mix up, and they had asked all of the
players who had a "free car" stipulated in their contract to please
pay the car taxes. Taxes, to the tune of a few hundred thousand dollars, which
they had unknowingly owed for the last three years. We did not pay. Another message came
during the end-of-the-year meetings, when many players were asked to accept pay
cuts or to agree to play for less than they had already signed for the
following year. On payday in February of this year, we were informed that our
salaries would be a few days late…and, “Thank you for your patience.” A few
days turned into a few weeks and a few more empty promises... Finally, we
understood that the club was in debt totaling $1.5 million and filing for rekonstruktion.
Early Afternoon, 19March 2014
We must wait three hours before the court
settles and seals our fate. I observe how each of us handles stress so
differently. Some sit silently, some move and chatter non-stop to distract
themselves. Some yell, while others make jokes. I, personally, have been
through each of these reactions, but recognizing and accepting the complete
loss of control over the situation acts to calm me…
On the drive home from practice, I
thought about some of the moments that had passed since joining this club. I
remembered the stress I felt before playing the Champions League match against
PSG, knowing that if we lost, my time in Sweden would be over. I thought about
the fight to continue to play in Sweden in 2014 amid the success of NWSL at
home in the USA. I thought about the friends I had made on this team and the
ones I had lost as the team continued to shuffle players. I thought about the
rumors that circulated the week before that we would not be able to play our
Cup match, as the club did not have the money to pay for our one-hour bus ride.
And I even had to smile thinking about the fast food from McDonalds we ate
after that game to celebrate our 2-0 victory over Eskistuna. Thank you dollar menu! All of us had
reached our personal “limit,” yet we were still all here. Up until that
moment, all of the drama seemed to play out in the background, with barely any
information or communication coming directly from the club to the players. We
acted blissfully unaware, but were consumed with the worry of our suspicions.
With what little we did know, we managed to stick together as underfunded
players and staff, united in our frustration against a club that was lying to
us.
Under the rekonstruktion assessment process, however, the media had gained access to a lot of the club’s
information, including salaries. There
were only a few minutes separating the apology email we, received from the club
and the tweets with links to articles headlining things such as: Tax
Money Goes to Foreign Football Stars. The media attacked from every angle, and
our inboxes were inundated with incendiary questions like, "Do you really
think you are worth 10x the value of your teammate?” or, “Is your small salary
a correct depiction of how much you contribute to the club?” All the while, the
publications had released incorrect information that further sensationalized
the situation. They published what players were owed in February as if it were
their monthly salary, not noting that some players were owed bonuses and
reimbursements (spanning back to 2013) and others were owed less because they
had reported into camp later, thus working fewer days. That was just another
blow, but one that began to break through the thinning flesh of our team.
Late afternoon, 19March 2014
The phone beeps loudly and these words flash across my screen: "We are f'ing alive." I hold my breath as I read the news from our captain and just like that, we are back in the game!
Legally, when the federal government
accepted rekonstruktion it meant that they would provide the club
with money to stay afloat through June. The government will pay the players and
coaching staff’s salaries at a maximum of 170,000kronor per person (approximately
$30,000) over a four-month period. In June, the club will be required to have
the money to repay the government and take over all club costs going forward.
If the individual maximum salary is reached before June, then it is the club’s
responsibility to pay that player or coach. Before the first government payment
had reached our bank accounts for February's past due salaries, Tyresö would
need to have enough money to begin taking over the highest paid players'
salaries.
We all feel lucky to still have a team. Everyday
begins and ends with a question mark, and that makes us uncomfortable as well
as gives us perspective. Nothing in life is a given. Still, every time I
receive an email from the club, I cringe. Some days, I can see the energy
leaking from the team during our long and tedious meetings about finances and
logistics, but other days, we laugh together. When we have a great training it
feels twice as great because we know we are playing against the odds. As a
team, we are winning the biggest game we will ever play: staying united in the
face of adversity; staying honest in the midst of corruption; surviving
together without greed and without blame. I'm not surprised that our little
family is closer than ever.
When I step on the field, I don’t think
about the club that wronged and embarrassed us, I think about how proud I am to
stand alongside this group of players and staff. Our goals now include the resolve to show up to work each
day…mostly with a smile, even without a pay-check...for each other and for the love of the game.
[Stoppage Time] We had waited five months for the whistle
to blow to commence this quarterfinal match. Just two days before, we
thought that our Austrian opponent Neulengbach would have a free pass to the
semifinal. But there we were, 11
girls on the pitch, my parents in the stands, everyone grateful for the place
in which we stood. Maybe
all of the pent up anger and frustration served as fuel, as we shot out
like a rocket launched at Cape
Canaveral. And after just 35 seconds I found myself relishing the energized embraces of a
post goal celebration. It was the first of eight goals we would score that
Sunday to all but guarantee a
place in the semifinals. During the game we had some brilliant
moments, the collective work of a team that loves to play and plays together. But
despite the scoreboard and the highlight reel, I left the field knowing it was
not a championship winning performance. I
cannot suppress the urge to scrutinize and criticize in the exact moment when
everything seems great and easy. But as these thoughts transpired in my
head, I walked into the locker
room with a smile stretched
across my face. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t think about money or how on earth I would tell my parents
to cancel their travel plans. I
was thinking about football. Order was
restored and we'd won.
[Off the Post!] Our away leg
sent us to the classical music capitol of the world: Vienna. And as usual, The
Utfarts followed. Let me backtrack a bit. My parents renamed our family
The Utfarts on a previous trip to Sweden. We are quite the motley crew in the
US. Add jet lag, language barriers, and a stick shift and you have The Utfarts.
The tag name was born when my sisters, parents, and my grandmother got lost
inside a parking garage and everyone started to yell at my father: Just follow
the utfart! (Utfart means exit in Swedish.)
Now as I was
saying, Mama and Papa Utfart were excited for their trip and couldn't wait to
absorb the history left behind by Bethoven, Struass, Mozart, and the likes. Unfortunately,
it took them almost all day to just locate Bethoven’s Memorial on the map
written in German, so they were unable to snap a shot along side Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart. On the way back from sightseeing they came across Motzart souvenir
shop and it reminded them of one of their favorite stories. In the late 1980’s,
Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus was a number one hit in the US. My parents were
dancing to the song at a club in NYC when they heard their close friend singing
along. "Rock me hot potato!" And they fell out laughing. Now, 30
years later in the middle of their tour of Austria's capitol city, they
broke into dance and song on the street, "Rock me hot potato!" And we fell out laughing again.!
