Cast your mind back to the Germany-hosted World Cup of 2006 — infamous, for style observers anyway. Back then, football’s fashion moment belonged to the Victoria Beckham-led posse of Wives and Girlfriends (WAGs): the shortest of shorts, the bounciest of blow-dries, and the biggest Birkin known to Hermès. Fast forward 20 years and Cristiano Ronaldo is still going strong — but the WAGs have been benched (the Al-Nassr captain’s other half, Georgina Rodríguez, excepted). Because in 2026, the biggest style statement is the jersey itself.
For two decades, the Venn diagram of fashion and sport has been quietly overlapping; this summer, the circles merge entirely. My dream World Cup look? France’s peppermint-and-gold away shirt by Nike, with a pair of Chanel jeans. At north of Dh10,000 for the latter, it’ll stay a dream — much like England’s chance of glory in the States. Still, with replica shirts from Dh579 at Nike, I could splash out on my second favourite: South Korea’s lilac-floral away shirt (also Nike) — were it not sold out everywhere.
Fortunately, a striking lilac shirt is closer to home — the one my 13-year-old daughter wears with teen-approved jorts. Dubai-based women’s football club Banaat FC, founded by Emirati entrepreneur Budreya Faisal three years ago, captured the national imagination with an eye-catching lilac strip and a game-changing mission: to redefine Arab women’s football. And the kit is no accident.
“When I started this club, one of the objectives was to help change the perception of women’s football in the UAE and the region, which is usually quite masculine,” says Faisal. “I wanted to pick a colour that steered away from those dominating the football world, which are usually red, blues, yellows. I wanted something feminine, but that wasn’t stereotypical.”
Taking a cue from the candyfloss hue of David Beckham’s Inter Miami, Faisal settled on lilac: girlish, but not saccharine. “Some would associate lilac with cuteness instead of aggressive performance; we needed to prove that we could be both feminine and very strong, aesthetically and on the pitch.”
It’s a stretch to picture the brutish football managers of yore giving a fig about aesthetics. “Of course aesthetics matter,” Faisal asserts. “Football is not just performance, it’s also a very visual sport, and storytelling is a big part of that.”
And what storytelling. Banaat FC’s results read straight out of a Hollywood playbook: winners of the UAE Women’s League by their third season, Super Cup champions, and the first Dubai club to qualify for the Asian Women’s Champions League — winning over fans of both genders along with the silverware. “We have shared with supporters a new way to look at women’s football, and to see a slightly softer, more feminine, and culturally appropriate side,” Faisal says.
Under her vision, a sport often framed as culturally defiant reclaims cultural compliance. “We are a modest club. Girls wear tights under their shorts. They don’t reveal their shoulders or their stomachs. We try and make this as close to Emirati homes and values as possible, so it’s more appealing to Emirati girls to join our club and start their own football journey, with their families feeling complete trust in the environment that they are entering.”
That doesn’t mean shunning the spotlight — just entering it on their own terms. “Having female role models in this region is incredibly important. When we started, one of the requirements was that all our players would have public social media accounts. Girls here like to live privately, in this football world specifically, because families were against them being public with their story and their journey and their photos in football. But how can you look up to girls that you don’t see? How can you dream of being a footballer if you haven’t seen a single footballer tell her story or show you that dreams become reality?”
Now, Banaat’s junior academy players know their first-team idols by name — role models they aspire to train like, perform like, and dress like. In lilac, obviously.
Adapting football style off the pitch for modest dress codes is also the focus of Saudi designer Nora Al Shaikh, an Al-Nassr supporter and the creator of a fanwear tribute dress in the club’s navy and yellow (pictured left). Brought to life with Adidas, the concept piece melds a traditional football jacket with the streamlined simplicity of a long-sleeved maxi dress, designed to reclaim Saudi female supporters’ place in the fandom, and in the stands.
On the pitch, meanwhile, beauty giant Sephora Middle East last September announced its sponsorship of Al-Nassr’s sister club, Al-Nassr Women — reinforcing the message that female athletes are the icons of the moment.
Two decades on from the WAGs, the players and supporters have taken ownership of the beautiful game themselves. The Birkin has left the building; the jersey is the new It-bag.
Source: Khaleej Times