Berivan Çolak is an accomplished Event Director and football professional whose career bridges international sports management, event production, and the advancement of women’s football. With over a decade of experience managing large-scale projects across Europe and beyond, she has built a reputation as a dynamic leader dedicated to inclusivity, innovation, and growth in sport.
Currently, Çolak serves as Founder and President of Women Football Club Worldwide (since 2014), a global NGO established in five countries and ten cities. Through this initiative, she has spearheaded events, tournaments, partnerships, and grassroots development programs, all with the aim of creating opportunities for women and girls in football. She also founded Girl Up WFC Istanbul under the United Nations Foundation in 2024, furthering her commitment to gender equality and empowerment through sport.
Her experience in elite sporting events includes her role as Football Training Venues Senior Manager for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where she oversaw venue operations, team logistics, media services, and stakeholder coordination. From 2022 to 2023, she worked with UEFA on managing football training sites in Paris for the Olympics, ensuring operational excellence and international standards.
Alongside her event leadership, Çolak has hands-on experience in football coaching and administration. She has coached youth teams at PSG Academy and ES 16 Paris, and currently serves as Commissioner on both the Women’s Football Committee and the Football Feminization Committee of the Paris Football District. She also works with Futebol da Força as a consultant, coach, and ambassador, mentoring young female players.
Before transitioning fully into sports, Çolak held senior roles in international event management and media production. She served as Project Director at Elite Model Look in Istanbul and Barcelona, overseeing sponsorships, budgets, and global productions. At Acun Medya Global, she managed television formats and international productions in Latin America and Turkey. She also directed large-scale concert projects for Fever, handling venues, communications strategies, and event execution across multiple European cities.
A graduate of EDC Paris Business School in International Management and IAE Bordeaux in Management, Çolak also holds a Double Master in Marketing. Multilingual in French, Turkish, Spanish, and English, she operates comfortably in diverse international environments. Her certifications include a UEFA B License (2024) and a Football Coach Certificate from Força Foundation (2023).
At every stage of her career, Berivan Çolak has combined her expertise in event management with a deep passion for football and social impact. Whether leading global projects, coaching the next generation, or building platforms for women in sport, she continues to shape a more inclusive and forward-looking future for the game.
Our Exclusive Interview with Berivan Çolak
Women Football Club Worldwide has grown across several countries and cities. What motivated you to start this project, and what impact are you most proud of so far?
My own story is at the origin of the project actually. As a little girl, my mom didn’t let me play football, so I always had to find myself spaces to play, or create them where they didn’t exist. But the idea of the project was born in Barcelona, where I played in an amateur league and created a team with some girls I found on Facebook. I realized how the competition, the scores, were pressuring the women who only wanted to enjoy the sport and have a good time. This is how WFC was born in 2014 in Istanbul, when I realized such a platform was needed.
This went from 1 person’s dream, to a dream shared with more than 900 women Worldwide!
The impact I am very proud of is first of all to see how many women were in search of women empowerment and found it through the club. This went from 1 person’s dream, to a dream shared with more than 900 women Worldwide! The second is the impact we have in women’s lives, and how we became role models for kids with our stories.
You were part of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, managing football training venues at a global event. What lessons did you take from that experience that you now apply to your work in women’s football?
It was very interesting for me to see how each national team that I was receiving there has its own organization, way of work, training etc. I was able to see at a big scale how the budget invested on the team was changing everything: material, number of staff etc.. And how it had an impact on the players. This is why it’s very important that the football industry stop seeing women’s football as a social investment and really see its real worth and impact. The more investment will be made, the better the sport will become.
It’s very important that the football industry stop seeing women’s football as a social investment and really see its real worth and impact.
Also, as a woman in charge, being able and having the power to say no to very big names for some privilege they wanted to have, I realized how some countries were taking me seriously and everything was smooth, and how I had to fight with others. In comparison, I can say that when men are used to seeing more women in football management, they will normalize it. It’s not something we should wait for from them, we should go for it and take it ourselves!
You combine event management and coaching in your career. How does your experience on the pitch influence your work off the pitch, and vice versa?
Event management is a crazy job (and I love it). You cannot do it if you are not passionate about it, because your working hours don’t exist, you are constantly in a rush, and you can feel the pressure every single day. You have to love contact with people, be in constant negotiation, crisis management, and look for perfection for every single step of the project.
All this organization skills and the skills I developed about my approach toward people really helped me as a coach and as an NGO president. I am trying to run the NGO as a company and really construct something stable. And as a coach, I know how to balance being a coach and make my players respect me, but also make them see me as a reference, someone they can talk to, a role model.
As a commissioner in the Women’s Football and Football Feminization Committees in Paris, what changes do you believe are most urgent for the future of women’s football in Europe?
As I mentioned earlier, it’s important that women’s football is seen as a real sport, with its full potential, and given the same place and space as men’s football. For that, it needs to enter the same circle with men’s football: make it a popular sport, talk about it and give it importance in the media, push the companies/sponsors to invest in it, take care of the women’s leagues and make them grow asap, give space/fields to women teams just like it’s done for men’s teams.
Also, the federations should push each and every single club to have a women’s football team, this should be mandatory.
Women’s football is not a social project, it is a part of the sport, just like for any other sport.
Your career spans international projects in sport, media, and events. What challenges have you faced as a woman leader in these industries, and how have you overcome them?
I think I am lucky to have a strong character that I built with time and experience. I have the courage to go ahead and fight for my work.
Everybody would be expecting me to say that I had to face men in these industries but the most I had to face were and still are women, and this is sad to say.
But I have 15 years of experience and never speak about something I don’t know, so when we are talking about something related to my job, I never hesitate to speak out loud and defend my opinion. At the same time, I am open to listen to others and am the first one to accept if someone else’s vision is better than mine.
Looking ahead, what is your vision for Women Football Club Worldwide and for the broader development of women’s football globally?
As I always say, I will not stop until we give the opportunity to women in each and every single country to discover the beautiful game and play.
I also hope that we will be able to change the vision of the big structures like federations and make them understand our impact on the sports and benefits. And eventually get accepted and even have licences for our players.
We will keep going, keep touching lives!
