The Match Before the Match

Every year, March 8 marks a crucial date: International Women's Rights Day. Yet behind the celebrations, a stark reality remains for millions of women and girls around the world—these rights are still fragile, challenged, or even nonexistent. Access to sport, education, and the freedom to choose one's path are fundamental rights that, in 2025, remain unevenly distributed privileges.
It is within this context that Orange, Official Partner of OL Lyonnes, is speaking out with strength and conviction through its new digital campaign: “The Match Before the Match.”
Women's Football : A Reflection of a Broader Struggle
While women's football is gaining visibility and recognition, for too many young girls playing the sport remains a real obstacle course: convincing their families, confronting stereotypes, and asserting themselves in spaces where the simple right to play is not yet guaranteed.
The figures speak for themselves. According to the WHO, young girls drop out of club sports at an average age of 14–15 precisely when mixed-gender participation ends and finding a nearby women's team becomes a structural challenge. In France, the French Football Federation (FFF) now counts more than 251,000 registered female players a historic record but aims to double that number by 2028. This ambition can only be achieved by tackling real barriers.
Among these barriers is geography. In rural areas, women's sections remain scarce: some players must travel more than 15 km round trip just to train, and opposing teams may be located on the other side of an entire region. Equal access to sport begins with equal access to the field.
“Sometimes we spend more time on the road than on the pitch,” shares a young player from an amateur club.
Orange chooses to highlight these invisible yet very real obstacles, not to dramatize them, but to authentically reveal the daily lives of these young players, their strength, their determination, and their refusal to give up. Because behind every talent that shines on the field, there is a battle fought long before kickoff.
Orange: A Commitment That Goes Beyond Sponsorship
With “The Match Before the Match,” Orange takes a clear stand: supporting women's football means supporting equal opportunity. It means recognizing that building tomorrow's talent requires removing, today, the barriers that hinder the ambitions of all those who dream of playing, improving, and making their mark.
For many years, Orange has been actively committed to gender equality within the company and in its societal engagements.
As a partner of OL Lyonnes and a brand committed to diversity and inclusion, Orange turns its convictions into action: programs supporting female talent, initiatives promoting gender diversity in sport and tech, and awareness campaigns aimed at younger generations.
On the ground, the numbers demonstrate this commitment: Orange supports more than 200 amateur clubs across France through equipment grants designed to ensure fair playing conditions. Among them, 100 are exclusively women's teams representing 50% of the program dedicated to women's football, even before official financial parity was established. In addition, since 2019, more than 500,000 children have been educated about responsible digital use as part of the FFF's Federal Educational Program, girls and boys alike.
On the evening of March 7, during the IF match on the eve of International Women's Rights Day, Orange took its commitment a step further by broadcasting a 1-minute 45-second film retracing more than 100 years of women's struggles in football. This manifesto film reminds viewers that women's place in this sport was never granted—it has always been earned.
This statement is part of a historic and unprecedented global decision: for the first time, a federal commercial partner has allocated its sponsorship with full financial equality, distributing it 50–50 between women's and men's football. A powerful gesture that goes far beyond symbolism. Orange, already established as a leading technological innovator, is thus becoming a social innovator, committed through 2030 to serving the world's most popular sport and all the women who play it.

“At Orange, we believe that talent should be able to flourish without barriers. With 'The Match Before the Match,' we are giving visibility to these extraordinary journeys and reaffirming our commitment alongside all the young girls who choose sport—and above all, who choose not to give up.” Quentin Delobelle, Commercial Communications Director, Orange France
Voices That Resonate: Interviews and Testimonials
Alongside the film, Orange unveils a series of exclusive interviews giving voice and visibility to these struggles. Three iconic OL Lyonnes players speak with rare candor: Wendie Renard, Selma Bacha, and Marie-Antoinette Katoto discuss not only their journeys as elite footballers, but also the obstacles they have had to overcome as women—the closed doors, and the battles fought beyond the pitch simply to earn the right to step onto it.
Alongside them, Pauline Le Mouëllic, founder of the association Graine de Footballeuses, supported by Orange, offers a grassroots perspective. Her organization supports young girls in their development through football, acting concretely where inequalities begin: in childhood. Her testimony, marked by sincerity and authenticity, powerfully reminds us of what too many young girls still experience today—not impossible ambitions, but dreams that society has not yet learned to embrace.
Together, these voices create a powerful and necessary narrative: that of a generation that plays, resists, and inspires.
Distribution and Rollout
The film “The Match Before the Match,” as well as the interview series, will be available starting March 8 on YouTube and Orange's social media platforms. The entire campaign will be amplified in partnership with OL Lyonnes, the players, the Graine de Footballeuses association, and communities committed to gender equality in sport.