Entrepreneur Kanessa Muluneh is founder of the QFL and has a mission to encourage and enable women to play American Football in every major Dutch city. In the past five years, she has built an organisation with six Dutch American Football teams and more than 150 members.
From amateur to professional player
Starting this month, the Dutch QFL is joining forces with the American WFA to give female athletes more opportunities in the sport. Over the past decades, the WFA has grown into a platform where women can realise their dreams of playing professional American football. With the WFA as a partner, players from the Dutch QFL can play in America and possibly start a professional career there, as is already possible for sports like football and tennis.
In addition, the cooperation with the WFA opens many international doors and the members of the QFL can participate in matches in the US, but also in countries like Mexico and Costa Rica where American Football is very popular.
Working together to give women opportunities
Kanessa Muluneh wants this collaboration to remove barriers for girls and women to join the QFL. “That will ensure that they can play anywhere in the world,” she said. As well as being the manager of the QFL, Muluneh is also the person who ensures that players in the sport can find appropriate sportswear in every size. It inspired her earlier this year to roll out a body positivity campaign starring some of the American Football players, to show that plus-sized women like to play sports too.
About the QFL
Queens Football League (QFL) is the Dutch women’s football league and is the first European league that is working together with the American organisation Women’s Football Alliance (WFA) in order to give players in the Netherlands the opportunity to play internationally.
