- Your View |
- Message Boards |
- Polls |
- Sky Cast
State of the Game debate
Our State of the Game series is investigating women's football and we want to hear YOUR views.
Back to story
Our State of the Game series is investigating women's football and we want to hear YOUR views.
Back to story
Are you tough enough to win an amazing trip to Oman with Leo Houlding? Enter now!
Sign up to our FREE Friday email. Each issue is stuffed with exclusive sporting news, soccerettes and competitions.
Play our free Soccer Saturday Super 6 competition and you could win £100,000.
Comments
Emma Mc (Ipswich Town fan) says...
I coach football at youth level and I'm the only female coach at present at the club. In the area where I live I would love to see more girls play, but I think there has been such an issue that men dominate the sport that girls cant be bothered to get involved. Girls play a very different form of football to boys and I would like to see more of an issue made of girls football in the future. I had to leave my old club due to the lack of girls turning up and I think in the end they ended up with a 5 a side team from a squad which was originally 15! It was hard for me as a coach to leave because of the lack of players and the team shutting down altogether.
Posted 12:03 12th May 2008
Paul Cummins says...
My son was released by a Premiership team before the start of the season from there accademy set up. He was by far one of the most technically gifted boys in his group but was not as physically developed as some of the other boys and that seemed to work against him. He is nine years old now and luckily kept his enthusiasm for the sport, progressing well this season in his youth team. It does seem that football clubs are still blinkered into selecting the more physically devolped boys over the technically gifted. Only the top clubs seem to have a policy of encouraging there boys to take more touches and minimise the physical side of the game, with the core element being skills. The step up in youth football at under 11 level highlights our games troubles, big goals, big pitch, less skill, less touches, whoever hoofs the ball harder and higher wins.
Posted 11:21 12th May 2008
Erica Smith (Bolton Wanderers fan) says...
Having watched the England womens team in the WWC i was impressed and have tremendous respect for Hope Powell and I hope they build from there. Women do have excellent skill you only need to look at Rachel Yankey ,Kelly Smith,Marta from Brazil Michelle Akers from the U.S.A and all over the world there are wonderful creative female players who make their mark inspite of the B.S. they face. What the UK needs to do is for the women who are involved with the game at all levels get more wome involved coaching and for the men who beleive in it to take the game from grassroots to National level own it invest in it promote it find a female British version of Anson Dorrance and to hell with ignorant attitudes that have been displayed here (the UK is not alone when it comes to obstacles) the mens team isnt exactly setting the world on fire is it now they lag behind their European counterparts in tactically and technique wise.
Posted 04:57 8th May 2008
Pete Osborne (Liverpool fan) says...
There is a reason that there is only one professional women's football team in this country...money. Their male counterparts may get paid tens of thousands of pounds each month, but that is because hundreds of thousands of fans are willing to pay to go and watch them, or subscribe to the TV channels that show the games. How many of you would pay a subscription for the privilege of watching the women's game? How many people would pay to watch women's football period? Not me. And probably not you either. Women's football is just not good to watch. And the goalkeepers are shocking. That's not sexist or chauvenistic, it's a truth. How are clubs going to be able to pay professional female players with gates of a couple hundred each week? It's just not going to happen. And before you start whinging that the FA need to invest in the sport like the Americans, Germans etc etc, their football is rubbish too. Manchester United have got it right by not wasting their resources on a sport that few people want to watch.
Posted 21:55 7th May 2008
Anthony Ellery (Millwall fan) says...
I feel I need to add my opinion to this debate. I cannot believe there is so many people writing into this debate with strong beliefs that women should be able to compete and get involved in the game of football with men. There are so many areas they would be lacking in, there is the obvious ones that seem apparent to most such as speed and strength. However people tend to neglect things such as agility, having had to endure about 10 games (to many) of women's football in my life I can say that a goalkeeper for example has great difficulty diving full stretch to shots in bottom corners let along a rocket into the top corner of the onion bag. I often sit there and watch a top level defender such as John Terry at Chelsea crunch into tackles that make big men like Wayne Rooney suffer so can you imagine the outcome on someone like Kelly Smith. I am a follower of Millwall FC and there was a period when we had a very successful ladies football team, even then no one wanted to show any attention to them so now they are less successful the situation is worse. You get teams in English football at all levels able to compete and cause shock results. You don't even get a even balance of results outside the women's top 4 sides. Women get paid for what they offer to football and that in my opinion is NOT MUCH at all.
Posted 15:54 7th May 2008
Harriette Relwal says...
The Centres of Excellence are a pathway for those players that have the potential to play at the highest standard to develop. Those players that have the ability and drive to potentially play for England know that the centres of excellence will provide them with the chance to play and train with and against the most talented females across the region. If the selection for the programmes is able to access the best players from nominations then there is no need for a girl to play mixed football as she will be playing with players as good or better than her on a fulltime programme.
Posted 14:26 7th May 2008
Rob Williams (Manchester United fan) says...
The world is getting faster by the day and finding the time to take part in sports is getting more and more difficult. With other things more important like keeping a roof over your head and putting food on the table plus rising domestic cost. In order to improve womens football the FA need to make it professional in order to improve the standards of play and produce more roll models for others. I enjoy watching womens football but I know the standards could be far better if they could devote more time to the sport.
Posted 12:00 7th May 2008
Mark Coverdale (Hull City fan) says...
I am a children¿s soccer coach in LA and the gap between England and the USA in terms of gender inequality is nothing short of disgraceful. In the U.S. girls play the game on an equal playing field to the boys all the way through local park football and right through to colleague level. You can throw as much money into facilities and marketing female football in England but the real challenge is changing the way in which British society views the female game. As long as woman¿s football is looked at in a derogative fashion the game simply cannot grow! Female football needs to be show regularly on TV with male & female hosts, and they should be more positive female figures in the men¿s game too¿it¿s time to make a mammoth and resilient change in the way we portray female football. However, on a positive note, watching the standard of play in the Woman¿s FA cup final was a delight to see and the attendance sparked reason for how things could be with a more liberal focus on this matter.
Posted 22:26 6th May 2008
Neil Disson cardiff fan) says...
Absolutely nothing wrong with women's football - in fact I have just watched a considerable part of the women's F A Cup Final in Nottingham and was MORE than pleased with the skill level. The only problem in the game is the fact that men are the controlling body so it's about time more women were invited onto the Committee to run the sport. This will improve its appeal to a wider audience for sure. More money into the game would help too. Thanks to Sky for publicising the games live.
Posted 21:01 6th May 2008
Matt Naylor says...
I watched the Women's FA Cup Final and thought it was entertaining. I wouldn't say that it was technically as good as the mens game but enjoyable to watch all the same. As far as women being able to compete with men physically goes I don't think it's feasible, male players for all their bad points are generally faster, stronger and technically better players. I'd find men putting in some of the rash challenges that are seen weekly in mens football on women quite difficult to watch, and lets face it there are some sadistic players out there who wouldn't think twice about it.
Posted 20:37 6th May 2008
Elliot Clarke says...
Following on from another West Ham fans comments on the FA deciding that girls who play for centres of excellance cannot play for Sunday teams. I agree 100%, my 10 year old daughter recieved a letter last week with the news and she is really upset. I think any positives in reducing these girls playing times are far outweighed by the loss to already small girls Essex Sunday leagues of the best players and in some cases whole teams, how can this help the game in general develop. Over the last two seasons my daughters Sunday girls team have developed so much while playing in a boys league, and we had prepared to enter a year older girls league next season but now we have no idea what will happen. My daughter is now torn between her centre of excellance team and her Sunday team who her friends all play for, how can this be right for a ten year old girl. PS i've also got 2 boys under 14 who play football and without a doubt the girls are taught and play the best quality of football (passing and movement).
Posted 20:29 6th May 2008
Stu Woolmer says...
First of all I am not at all opposed to the growth of womens football in this country, and I think the game as a whole will only benefit from more participants and hopefully higher standards from football of both genders in the future. However to say that women play for the love of the game, and men just play for money is completely ridiculous. As a 17 year old youth player, I have to pay to sign on at the start of the year and my parents have done the same from under 10s upwards. Premiership footballers do get paid a lot, which you could easily justify consiering the money the bring a club and the entertainment they are providing, with movie stars providing the same entertainment for 50 million contracts. However look from the championship downwards and there are very few players on the superstar wages, so I find it hard to believe that even 5% of the players in league 1, 2 and the conference who play proffesionally are doing it all for the money. Especially as a PROFESSIONAL in the conference recieves much less than the average job. Also if you look at the levels of participation amongst men at both youth and sunday league adult football, there is not a chance that these men are in it for the money. They love the game EQEUALLY as much as women do.
Posted 18:20 6th May 2008
Titch . says...
I think it is totally shocking that some men in this day and age can sit and critiicise womens football. Most of the women that play football pay to play for the love of the game and not to sit and demand big wages. i think if some of the current england men players got back the love of the game and not for the cars and the houses them we might be able to watch a team that could be succesful. it was great to watch the game yday were the players didnt fall down at the slightest touch and spend twenty minutes complaing with the ref for a desision that they didnt agree with. the FA want football teams to show the refs respect and i think if the men took a leaf out of the womens game then they might be a little more respect around. I think that womens football is going to be big within the next 10 years with the backing of the FA and the englands women team ill put the mens to shame when they actually win some silverware!!!
Posted 17:10 6th May 2008
Helen H says...
Some good points Alex, it probably won't be as big - a symptom of the pretend equal opportunities society we live in as with many areas of sport, work, leisure - such is our lot (didn't they say that about tennis?) but I would agree to differ on whether it will be as good. Seems to me there isn't much good to say about the state of the men's game at the moment - where is all that going to end? It used to be that men played for the love of the game but not now, maybe people would love to see it played for the original reasons it was invented for - skilled competition, pride in your club and love of the game - look no further than the women's and girls game..... Regardless of whether it will be as big, is that sufficient reason for it to be discriminated against in so many areas to the point that even if it wanted to be, couldn't?
Posted 16:41 6th May 2008
Alex Wilding says...
I've been to a few womens matches and I'm all for it but the fact is, it will never be as big or as good as the mens game, I think too much womens football coverage is just negative for womens sport in general, because people will always compare! Why don't we throw money at a sport women excel at; I feel sorry for the England womens Hockey players who see all this attention towards womens football, just because it is "football". A womens professional league would be great but would the money not be better spent elsewhere in womens sport? Also, in my personal opinion, it's still going to need a few years before womens football can be considered professional, the goalkeepers definately need improving, though it's not far off.
Posted 14:24 6th May 2008
Helen H says...
With over one hundred years of investment and support behind mens football, I think we can assume it should have developed to the professional level it has. It seems, however, that some people expect the womens game to be at the same competitive level after just 30 years and mimimal investment. The problems go much deeper than throwing money at the sport (as we all know it can damage the sport and still not provide a consistently competitive national side!). And speaking of skill levels, my thoughts exactly watching the England mens team over the last few years! And given the mens professional league is dominated by four teams every year, how can anyone argue that they have the formula right for excitement? Sport in general in this country is in a dire state, the problems being more prominent in football becaue it is the biggest sport. Other countries don't have a problem with girls or anyone else playing any sport and if this country had the same mentality, we might get further, faster. Recognise the physical differences, adjust the equipment, provide the same investment and increase publicity and links to professional clubs. Bear in mind also, the men and boys never had any resistence to them playing at any age and still don't, how many of your mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmas and girlfriends support you, even just to watch, never mind play! Is it really too much to ask the same of you? Try taking your boys every week to listen to mockery and derogatory comments ranging from body shape to questioning of his sexuality. Don't underestimate the guts of girls in this game, once we get the 'leg up' the boys have had, we can more than 'stand on our own merits' and raise the skill level of the game throughout - which in the men's game seems to be limited to the top two or three teams 'golden boys' anyway!
Posted 14:02 6th May 2008
Blain Calderwood says...
I love womens football, it really is superb to watch. I just wish there was more of it, Men do it for the Money, women do it for the love of the game.
Posted 13:36 6th May 2008
James Smith says...
No one is forcing anyone to watch womens football i watched the game yesterday and enjoyed it, The fans were all mixed up and there was a big crowd there, There was no diving when the slightest touch from another player was made which in mens football really bugs me. People saying it is boring and slow It will only get quicker and more exciting with funding,look at wat the men get 120,000 quid plus a week im sure the women would be happy with that for a years wages i think anyone would. Bring on the womens professional premier league and why not in time a womens champions league.
Posted 13:20 6th May 2008
Jenny Holt says...
I agree with the comment made regarding men being physically stronger than women (in most instances - not all). However, is football not a game of skill rather than brute strength? There are many people that prefer Rugby as opposed to football, and almost as many that play it. So why is it that mens football is so big in the UK? One simple answer - media coverage. If an alternative sport was given the press and TV coverage (along with all the hype) that football is given, and football was slowly phased out to a lesser degree you would see a swing in peoples attitudes. The trouble with football now is that there is way too much money in it which for some has made it a glamour sport. It has also become a win at any cost sport which encourages cheating. What's that I hear you say? "Get up Drogba!"
Posted 13:07 6th May 2008
Steve Davies says...
There are many reasons why women's sport will never compete with their male equivalents. Firstly, in this country in particular, there are very few female sports spectators. British sport is predominantly male dominated, both through participants and even more emphatically through spectators. Therefore for mainstream coverage of women's football for example, there will be far less viewers, because notoriously each gender will more likely follow their own due to familiarities they may see in themselves and the performer. With this in mind, you then look to the standard achieved by both men and women in their sports, and there is not one sport in the world where a female is superior. You can put much of this down to physical characteristics but even in more skill based and indeed closed skill sports such as darts and snooker, women are still far from competing with the top men. Agreeably much of this can be put down to the lack of female participants creating a lack of competition but without this, women¿s sports will never compete with men. Whether you like it or not, the major women¿s sports which are viewed by men such as tennis, are sexualised in order to gain viewers, where in the majority of cases, the male audience wishes the more attractive woman to win... Stick women footballers in skin tight t-shirts, hot pants and a pair of stockings, and you might see viewing figures boom... Until then women¿s sport will have to settle for mediocrity!
Posted 12:43 6th May 2008
Add Comment*
All fields are required