Hayat Elseed

Joined: Sep 11, 2026

Hayat is a contributor at Pain in the Arsenal and has previously written for VERSUS, where she covered AFCON and examined how meme culture shapes the future of African football. She also runs a personal Substack with more than 260 subscribers across 43 countries, writing on the intersections of culture, sport, identity, politics, and law. She holds an LLM in Human Rights Law from Cardiff University, graduating with Distinction at the top of her cohort. Her dissertation on FIFA and UEFA’s political neutrality regulations won the LLM Dissertation Prize. Her widely read piece, "The Problem When AFCON Becomes a Meme," went viral and reached 272,000 views on X. Her work on women’s football has been featured for discussion on Darren Lewis’ New Media Show podcast. She is part of the Merky FC 2026 cohort. A lifelong Arsenal supporter, she plays amateur football weekly and plays for a five‑a‑side team every Tuesday.