“The FIFA Women’s World Cup is currently taking centre-stage and domestically, the FA Women’s Super League continues to grow. The profile and professionalism of the women’s game has never been greater…The FA is doing its part to ensure the game is an attractive mass participation sport for girls and women, but we should ask why does society allow antiquated attitudes to persist?”
Girl Power! England’s Lionesses Can Transform Attitudes To Women’s Football
Kelly Simmons, The FA’s Director of the National Game and Women’s Football
As Steph Houghton and the England team kick off their Canada World Cup 2015 campaign tonight live on the BBC at 6pm, however, it’s not just their French opponents they are playing against; the world is still so prejudiced against the idea of females playing football that women playing men even on the console game FIFA is deemed “unrealistic” and not an option in the 21st century.
Yet the idea of women not just playing, but excelling at football is a natural one to this writer as, growing up, the best player on our estate in Newcastle was Roisin Turnbull – a female captain of the school football team in my brother’s year including lads who would later have trials for The Magpies and Nottingham Forest.
Turnbull went on to star for Whitley Bay and had trials with England, yet when she was running rings around us lads, she certainly exploded the incredible myth that women are not meant to play football.
While the mens’ game is currently mired in the corruption shame of FIFA’s outgoing President Sepp Blatter and his cronies being brought to public task by the FBI, the women’s game by contrast is a breath of fresh air.
The seventh Women’s World Cup kicked off in Canada with an expected global TV audience of a billion people for the newly-expanded 24-team tournament. This could be the competition which puts the sport on the global map.
Canada 2015 will certainly be the most accessible women’s football tournament to date and promises to be the most fiercely competitive with no clear favourite among a clutch of nations. From Germany to USA, Nigeria to Japan and England, so many nations are staking a claim for the trophy and early indications show the highest level of football being played yet.
The women’s game is growing worldwide, both as a participatory sport and a spectator sport. However, there is still a long way to go before it is anything like the phenomenon that is men’s football.
This is true especially in England, who are benefiting from a far-sighted Football Association who are doing everything they can to promote the sport both at grass-roots and at newly professional levels.
Football, the sport England invented, is the national game yet statistics indicate that it is one played overwhelmingly by boys:
– 95% of boys aged ten play football compared to only 41% of girls – Only 3% of mini soccer teams are girls only
The FA today launched a ‘We Can Play’ initiative designed to balance these statistics and get more girls into football. The campaign is aiming to galvanise the support of 100,000 girls and their parents in the scheme to balance the inequality of participation.
Judging by the attendance of a recent England ladies game, they will succeed as a female international match in November at Wembley between England and Germany attracted a crowd of 45,000 people. This was 5,000 more than the 40,000 who attended Roy Hodgson’s England friendly against Norway in September, following their disappointing World Cup exit in Brazil.
The Irish Stephanie Roche’s fantastic David Ginola-esque volley was awarded the runner-up prize in the 2014 FIFA Puskas World Goal of the Year. Interestingly still, this was just pipped by James Rodriguez’s wonder strike for Colombia against Uruguay, was also a great strike for soccer equality.
Another milestone moment in the sport was the inaugural Women’s Footballer of the Year accolade awarded by the BBC to Nigerian international, Asisat Oshoala, following an outstanding seven-goal Player of the Tournament performance at the Female U20 World Cup last year.
That she was soon snapped up by Liverpool – Ladies – suggests that some things never change in the beautiful game, nor does the sight of Chelsea and Arsenal fighting it out for supremacy at the top of the newly-formed Football Association’s Women Super League.
The FAWSL was formed in 2011/12 to replace The Women’s Premier League, which was established in 1992/93, and is thriving on a semi-professional basis with four players from each club allowed to earn over £20,000. The FAWSL is going from strength to strength with satellite TV coverage and plans for expansion.
On August 1st, Chelsea and Notts County compete for the first ever Women’s FA Cup Final to be staged at Wembley and will be the curtain-raiser for the 2015/16 season at the most famous stadium in world football.
A strong World Cup performance by England coach Mark Sampson’s Lionesses could be the catalyst for change in attitudes towards the women’s game in Britain. It may go as far as to show young girls keen on sport that they can be footballers as well as athletics stars, tennis players and the myriad of other sports in which women already excel on the global stage.
The women’s game is playing catch-up by some 100 years in many respects, certainly in professional terms, yet there are areas it could steal a march on its male counterpart. For instance, by the early adoption and pioneering use of modern technology in the game and show the men how a truly fair and transparent sport could and should be played.
Let’s hope the sporting fair play and equality lexicon that is currently focussing on C for Corruption and has long fought a battle against R for Racism wins its match versus S for Sexism.
I’ve backed England to go all the way at 22/1 and expect an 80,000 sell-out at Wembley when they return with the trophy, although, a more enlightened 21st century attitude to the game will be the real victory.
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