Background

Among her production credits, Janine worked as a Producer on All Roads Lead Down Under, a six-part FIFA+ Original documentary series released ahead of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand. Produced by Whisper, the series followed the qualifying journeys of national women's football teams from more than 170 countries on the road to the tournament, including teams who came through the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), hosted in Morocco, the same tournament for which Janine had separately created CAF and FIFA's first all-female commentary team.

Challenge

A qualification build-up documentary only works if it turns a bracket of results into stories that reach people who don't already follow the sport. The brief for the series was to go beyond match highlights and look at the on- and off-field realities behind each team's route to the World Cup, race, sexuality, social inequality, adversity and triumph, across a roster of nations with very different profiles, resources and public followings.

Approach

• Produced within Whisper's editorial framework for the series, helping shape individual national teams' stories within the wider six-part structure.
• Drew on standing relationships across African football, built through her prior work creating CAF and FIFA's first all-female commentary team for the 2022 WAFCON in Morocco, to inform the series' handling of African teams' qualifying journeys.
• Balanced access to marquee players against the smaller-federation stories that make up the bulk of a 170-plus-team qualifying field.

Result

All Roads Lead Down Under launched on FIFA+ ahead of the 2023 Women's World Cup as one of the platform's Original documentary series, pairing marquee player access with the wider story of women's football's global growth. It sits alongside Janine's WAFCON commentary work as part of a body of sports media production and storytelling credits that now shapes how Arena & Atelier Co. advises clients on sports media production.