Ice City Rose: A grassroots women s football team s dream pursuit

Written丨Wang Qian

In Harbin in the evening, in the twilight court, a group of young girls were running on the green field, and the football drew a dream trajectory under their feet. "Power Station Women's Football Club", a team of 49 female football enthusiasts, is chasing their dreams with pure love.

founder Lulu (pseudonym), is a 21-year-old girl. In the summer of 2024, this girl who had been obsessed with football since childhood returned from studying in Tianjin and founded the "Power Station" Women's Football Club. "From a high school student preparing for the college entrance examination to a working mother in her 50s, as long as she really likes football, there will be your place here," said Lulu.

However, it is not easy for this Ice City grassroots women's football team to maintain this love.

In the summer of 2024, Lulu, who returned from studying in Tianjin, found that there were many girls in her hometown who liked to play football like her, but she could not find a fixed organization, and she often didn't have fun playing herself. She has experienced the mature amateur women's football atmosphere in Tianjin and Beijing and started to create a "Power Station Women's Football Club". Lulu’s original intention is very simple, allowing Harbin women’s football enthusiasts to find their belongings.

Recruitment through social media, the club has gathered 49 members in just one year. Among them are students, newcomers in the workplace, and even a fan mother who loves playing football since childhood and is nearly fifty years old. The members are generally cheerful in character and love cycling, running and other sports in addition to football. Their common hobbies allow them to quickly get together. The core of maintaining this big family is "tacity and happiness". "Here, we are not only teammates, but also friends," Lulu said. This team atmosphere based on friendship has become the club's most precious asset.

The road to chasing dreams is full of thorns, and the shortage of funds is the first to be affected. The members are mainly student parties, and each time they play football, they need to share the venue fee in the AA system, which is a great burden for them. Lulu tries to attract sponsorship but repeatedly hits walls, which makes her frustrated. Compared with the barbecue restaurants and sports brands she learned from other places that she actively sponsors amateur events, Harbin’s cold reception made her particularly troubled. “Local companies lack interest in amateur women’s football, which is related to Harbin’s football results and everyone’s concept of women’s football.”

A rare sponsorship opportunity brought "sweet troubles". A startup jersey brand once sponsored more than a dozen sets of team uniforms. The limited distribution of team uniforms became a problem. In the end, it could only be determined based on attendance rate and contribution, which inevitably made some members lose. In order to maintain operations, Lulu holds several jobs, doing live broadcasts, promotions, and helping sports brands sell goods... She uses this income to subsidize team operations and even subsidize team members to participate in the competition. "It's all worth seeing their smiles on the field," Lulu said.

The deeper dilemma for this team lies in the lack of the event platform. There are almost no formal women's amateur football matches in Harbin, which makes the team lack the motivation to grow and it is difficult to prove its own value. Lulu tried to organize the competition, but struggled due to lack of support. Lulu believes that the overall poor performance of local football and the conservative organizers' concepts have led to the difficulty of amateur football, especially women's football, to gain attention and resources.

The story of this grassroots women's football team is a microcosm of the development of amateur sports. They use their love to fight environmental dilemma, and use their persistence to maintain this green space belonging to them, and bloom with brilliant vitality on their own arena. They use the football under their feet to open the door to realizing their dreams, where there are more tolerance, more support, and more possibilities.