Special features
- Your View |
- Message Boards |
- Polls
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 storyLatest Poll
Todays Polls
Who will complete the line-up at the ATP World Tour Finals?
Who will be England's leading wicket taker in the one-day series against South Africa?
Will the New Orleans Saints remain unbeaten throughout the regular season?
Previous Poll Results
Around Sky Sports today
Free ticket giveaway
Win a pair of tickets to the
UEFA Champions League
with Ford - enter now
Play Super 6 & Win!
Super 6 is free to play and you could win £100,000
Make The Difference
Chelsea v Man Utd - have your say on the big match.
Comments (64)
Yvette R says...
i play for a girls under 16s team and the facilities are great but our problem is that we only have 5 players. on the rare occasion we play a match we have to use under 14s players. i think that the FA should create a fully professional female football league, then it mite give girls a bit more of an incentive to stay in the game.
Posted 19:57 5th May 2008
Nigel Hunn says...
As a coach of both under 17 & under 15 girls i find some comments about girls football very sexist. There are some very good players around but they are not getting the support they deserve. After 17 they go ladies but how do you get them onto the bigger picture i.e acadamies, proffesional clubs ect if nobody watches them. Here at our club Clenchwarton we have 4 age groups plus a ladies team with very good players, clubs need help to progress the good players onto the next level. Its about time the F.a put its money where its mouth is. Ladies/girls football needs more funding , more help.
Posted 19:54 5th May 2008
Jack Simpson says...
I believe that womens football would be better for the British game.It would give alot of the Women and Girls in Britian a chance to play the football people have,in this country,have loved and watched for years today.I watched the F.A cup final on the television today and was amazed how well they played and how exciting it was.People like Faye White and Kerry Smith are on the terms of Women as good as Terry and Owen.Also it would give stadiums like Preston North End and Burnley to host International matches,like the european championchips.
Posted 19:54 5th May 2008
Gaynor Bickley says...
Thanks Sky news for supporting girls football. I'm am heavily involved in grassrotts level girls football as well as having daughters aged 12 and 7 who both play football. FA really need to do more. There is money there. I was at the FA cup final today. Gate of 25K it was fantastic. Need more womens team at higher level for our girls to aspire to.
Posted 19:51 5th May 2008
Vanessa Fry says...
It is about time that the Women's game became professional. The Government should ensure that his happens as it tantamount to sexual discrimination. I hear all the views on women arn't as good....well how can they be if they are not able to give the game a hundred per cent of their time. All the premier sides should have women's team. Go get them girls
Posted 19:48 5th May 2008
Charlotte Pike says...
I think that in the UK, womens football is growing on many people and has become more popular, which is great! I think women are fully capable of playing as well as men, so why shouldn't their games be televised or their pay be lower. The citizens of the UK still need to warm to the idea a bit more, but we'll get there.
Posted 19:48 5th May 2008
Brittany Long says...
i play football for a girls team and have been for 5 years. Our club is expandin each season and we have gone from 2 teams to 6 teams over all age groups. We have been struggling for funding and now our ladies have been promoted we have to now try and get a pitch with all the requirements which is just more money which we simply dont have. My dad came with me to watch the final today and he was pleasantly surprised by the standard and said he thinks that it has improved even since last year when we went!!
Posted 19:44 5th May 2008
Janet Smith (West Ham United fan) says...
I run a Sunday girls team and learnt this week girls fromt the centre of excellence will not be able to play sunday league football. This means I will no longer be able to field a team. How can this be helping more girls play football. All girls teams in our areas stuggle to get players, how can this help promote girls football.
Posted 19:44 5th May 2008
Helen Brent says...
We have just come back from the Fa womens cup final in Nottingham. There was a good atmosphere there with many families there. It is a shame that the women's football does not get more recognition and support at all levels. The women playing there today deserve fairer treatment. They played as well as any other football teams, perhaps excluding the top men's clubs who should play better given what they earn! The women's game may be different to the men's but it's still football. It does not have the big money behind it because there is no betting, no huge sponsorship deals and no big egos as there is with the men's leagues. It's supposed to be our national sport so why not put some investment into the sport at all levels for both boys and girls, men and women. Why not have a professional women's league that can compete at the same level as in other countries? The women playing today deserve it. Well done Arsenal and Leeds United.
Posted 18:50 5th May 2008
Angela Hardman says...
I am a girls development officer for Ladybridge FC in Bolton we currently have around 70 girls playing at the club and have 3 girls teams aged between 10 and 15yrs. They play in the Bolton , Bury Distric Junior Football League the league has been around for a long time and we aimed at a girls section 3 yrs ago and have improved from 6 teams to 15 teams now activley playing on Sundays. We have some talented players at the grass root level and for these girls to progress they have to be given the same opportunities as the boys. In our league we will have teams at U10's U11's U12's who will play 7v7 football and U13's U14's U15's U16's who will play 9v9 football. It is on the increase but we need extra funding and publicity to help promote the development of girls and ladies football in the nothwest and up and down the country as it is growing but at a snails pace.
Posted 18:32 5th May 2008
Maire Smyth says...
i play football for a girls team and we have to pay for everything and i think that it is a disgrace that women have to pay for everything but men get it all free
Posted 18:07 5th May 2008
Melanie Glasby (Sheffield United fan) says...
I played for my primary school football team and have always loved playing. I have never joined a team as girls teams were never advertised - i didn't think there were any. In secondary, as far as i'm aware we didn't have a team. For a charity event we had mens football and womens netball (teachers against students). Asked if we can have a womens football game insted/as well - was told no because it's too hard for women to play on grass, and the men are already using the pitch. The best i can get of playing football is in park against my brother, his girlfriend and my sister. And for anyone who says womens football isn't as good as mens, no we may not be as quick but you actually get to see a game. In mens game whenever a player gets tackled, the ball gets taken off them, or they hit the floor the ref feels obliged to give a free kick. When women get tackled they get up, continue playing and don't hastle ref about free kicks. You can actually play a flowing game, you get a competition, and you can actually tackle the opposition. Can you honestly say the same about mens football?
Posted 17:52 5th May 2008
Ian Martin says...
Yes there are gross inequalities between male and female football - the way they play is the biggest, if you have seen the international standard of women's football it just about stands up to Men's Sunday league. I'm sure that if the standard was fantastic then there would be alot more interest, leading to alot more money etc...
Posted 16:52 5th May 2008
Tom Clarkson says...
Womens football is simply not good enough and that is why it is deemed as being treated unfairly. It doesnt matter how much money or attention is given to the women, the spectacle will simply not be entertaining enough because they naturally lack the pace or power of the mens game. I watched most of the womens world cup and have to say the standard was emabarrasingly poor, it made me cringe that this was given peak time viewing and that our nation were expected to get behind a sunday league type level of football. Thia is not me being sexist its simply me being realistic
Posted 16:48 5th May 2008
Alex Crosby says...
If women's football was of a high enough level to produce entertainment good enough for a large number of people to stop watching men's football, it would do so. Unfortunately, women's football is simply not as good. This is not meant to be a direct insult to women who play, it's just the facts.
Posted 16:28 5th May 2008
Peter Burke says...
Comparing men's and women's football is unfair. Do you hear people compare men's 100m times to women's in atheletics or swimming for example? The FA has badly let down the women's game by not investing in the League or it's players. The England players have to endure very poor playing conditions on the grounds that they share with semi pro men's sides then are expected to perform immediately they take to better pitches for qualifying games. If the Club's are better funded and become full time the standard will improve as will the England team. To have a Premier League where the players have to concentrate on jobs to live shows a lack of commitment by the overseeing board. Thank goodness that the players have more commitment. The League needs better structuring and also better promotion of itself. Even on the internet its a searching job to find out when games are on and even more difficult to find the addresses for the venues. We need to put the games in front of the public so that they are encouraged to support women's football. The younger girls who could be taken to games are the future of the women's game, let's advertise the game better and get the kids to ask their parents to get them involved. Schools could also promote the girls sides to encourage the kids to persue fitness and a team sport to supplement the exercise they may or may not get at school. So, come on Mr Barwick and your cronies, get behind the women's game. Re-structure and finance the sport, there must be lots of comapnies who could sponsor games/the league and clubs. Women spend lots of money in retail, lets see some of those who profit put something into the game.
Posted 15:48 5th May 2008
Hashim Razzaq (man u fan) says...
I was watching the women's FA cup final and honestly couldn't believe how bad the players were and how boring the game was, they had no awareness of where their team mates where, they couldn't pass, shoot or cross without the ball being blocked even if they had acres of space and time and the only decent thing about it was the defending and tackling which made the game even more boring, Also there was no passion in the game as the losing players didn't seem to care that they had conceded a goal are a free kick or whatever. I'll probably be labelled as "sexist" or something now but this is honestly what I believe seeing the game with my own eyes.
Posted 15:44 5th May 2008
Cheryl Jeff says...
Not many people realise that it was the FA themselves who did the most to damage the progress of womens football in this country when they banned women from playing the sport because it became more popular than the men's game back in the day. Unfortunately since then we have always struggled to catch up with our overseas counterparts. Again, a couple of years ago the FA committed to a professional league until they realised there was no money to be made in it - Fulham were the first club to develop a pro team where females could train and play full time and subsequently stonked everyone in their wake so without the investment from other clubs it was never gong to succeed. Women do possess an incredible amount of skill but the game will never compete with the mens game as it is impossible for the players who have to also work full time to support themselves through the sport. There are plenty of clubs around (not that the FA are particularly pro-active in this area either) but to be honest, without a professional league to aspire to - it will never be taken seriously in this country outside of the Clubs and players themselves. FA - yes that pretty much sums up their support really doesn't it!
Posted 15:01 5th May 2008
Nw Af (Manchester United fan) says...
Women's football just isn't very good! I'm watching some excuse for a match on BBC1 and the standard is on a par with Sunday league football. I'm afraid the girls aren't strong enough, skillful enough or fast enough to attract an audience, womens'football doesn't deserve this attention, nor does it deserve a helping hand. Let it stand or fall on it's own merits.
Posted 13:44 5th May 2008
Jordan Hodge says...
hi i am a player at grass roots level at the moment and the state of some of the facilties that ive played at are so poor we`ve had to play the game somwhere else to avoid injury. My brother who is 10 plays at little league and the facilties there are better than the one I use on a sunday I think the fa sould invest some money into Grass roots facilities or you can say goodbye to english players in the prem league.
Posted 12:11 5th May 2008