Liverpool forward Aurélie Csillag backs Beyond the Goalposts initiative to boost access for black and marginalised girls
Liverpool forward Aurélie Csillag explained on 22 September 2026 why she has joined the club’s Beyond the Goalposts initiative, which is launching community sessions in Liverpool on 1 October. The 23-year-old Switzerland international said she wanted to support the programme because of its focus on creating routes into football for black and marginalised girls and women.
Beyond the Goalposts is being delivered by the Liverpool Foundation and aims to provide pathways and opportunities in football both on and off the pitch. The scheme will offer on-pitch sessions alongside educational and mentoring support, with experts and players assisting participants, and will include activities at Anfield on match days and a football festival. The club said the project is “the start that is needed in women’s sport, and the legacy of the project will extend beyond the delivery of sessions, creating sustainable change for participants, the foundation, the club, and the wider community. Through leadership development, peer support and meaningful engagement with the LFC Foundation, participants will build the confidence, skills and networks needed to influence positive change.” Premier League funding is contributing to the programme and people can register their interest at any time.
Csillag described how she first became involved: “I heard about the programme and I reached out to the foundation,” she said. “I wanted to support it because it is an important topic for me in football.” The forward said she was pleased a large club was addressing the issue: “I was really surprised, I was so happy that such a big club thinks about things like this. We can improve women’s football for black people. I was very excited Liverpool were doing this and I was proud I am a part of a club that is aware of this issue.”
Organisers have designed sessions around leadership, mentoring, health and wellbeing, community engagement and advocacy, and they will include a focus on how careers can progress in the sport off the pitch. The club has said the programme will create a safe, inclusive and empowering environment for participants and that it aims to deliver sustainable change through leadership development and peer support.
Liverpool’s research cited by the foundation underpins the need the initiative is intended to address: it found girls as young as five feel they do not belong in sport and that only 30% of parents believe playing sport is important. The research also reported that despite 60% of black girls wanting to be an elite athlete, black girls are the least active group in England, and that one in two black girls feel they need to play down their cultural identity.
When asked why black and marginalised girls and women might be deterred from playing football, Csillag pointed to a shortage of role models and barriers to access. “The most important part is a lack of role models. Maybe also not being able to access it. “They [also might be] struggling with their confidence. For example, I was so different when I started to play football and my body was so different. I played in a team where the whole team were white girls and our body structure was so different and I lost some confidence. “I said: ‘Why am I so tall? Why are my thighs so big? Why is this different?’ I just started to compare myself with them and maybe a lot of other girls may have lost their confidence. They may not keep going because of a lack of support or awareness.”
Csillag added that greater representation at senior levels matters for visibility: “The most important thing is that you have black people in the staff, higher up, because I barely see this. “Every time I see it I think: ‘Woah, I could one day maybe reach what she is reaching.’ “When you have never seen it, how can a little girl think she can do it? It will go automatically that young girls will follow that dream or path. Visibility starts at the top.” She also noted national-team representation has increased, saying: “If I had one [other black person on the team] they would know what I was talking about. That is why I am so happy that in the national team we have four black girls and five years ago it was only one or two. It is so nice to see that we are competing on such a high level to show girls and women it is possible and they have role models and people like this exist in this sport.”
For now the club has restricted the programme to people in Liverpool but said it would like to expand and is encouraging other sports organisations to adopt similar schemes. Sessions begin on 1 October and those interested can register their interest at any time; questions about the Moving the Goalposts newsletter can be sent to moving.goalposts@theguardian.com.