Do Girls Belong on the Football Field?

The short answer from me would be yes.

I think women should play in men’s leagues and it should be a mixed sport. I actually don’t think sport should be segregated and think the idea that one gender holds an advantage over another is a bit ancient-like thinking. When we begin to think that one gender is disadvantaged over another then we play into sexist stereotypes that were held 40 to 50 years ago and beyond.

Come on, we’re far better than that.

Have you ever watched women play football? I have. Our school was one of the first in the county to allow girls to have their own team. In fact, our girls were so good that they had regular meetings and trainings from our local professional football team. They were stars in the area. The boys? Well, we always lost; our team was very poor albeit a few budding stars that went on to play professionally. The local professional team had no interest in us.

I’m of the mind that if we were to have our girls play the boys they’d have beaten us hands down, and maybe blindfolded. They were never allowed to mix with us, which was sad. I’ve always thought that was wrong. That didn’t stop their stars playing alongside us at lunchtime when those of us that had footballs at home brought them to pass the time. They were good, damn good. I can always remember Julie and Valerie running circles around most of us boys and being prolific when it came to seeking out the goals.

I hate the fact that it isn’t mixed. I feel slightly saddened that there’s still an aura of weakness when it comes to discussing women and sports, and it shouldn’t be like that. It’s sexist and it’s old style thinking; that sort of mentality belongs in a museum along with all the other Victorian bumf.

I’ll admit that I’ve not watched women play football yet on TV, not a full game anyway. I’d love to see it though, and I’d love to see them pull in crowds like they did when all the men were at war in the early 1900’s. Yes, I’ve read that women pulled in quite a crowd, almost 51,000 people before the banning of the game in 1921

On 5 December 1921, the FA cited strong opinions about football’s unsuitability for females. It called on clubs belonging to the associations “to refuse the use of their grounds for such matches”. The ban changed the course of the women’s game forever.

Sad, because I expect if that ban had not been enforced then I football would be quite different than it is now. Alas, it wasn’t to be, and after the ban was lifted in 1971 it has been very slow to pick up, and it’s not widespread as of yet.

There is hope though!

EA Sport’s game series, FIFA has recently introduced women’s soccer into its platform and I’m wildly impressed, the women are good! My only issue is that you can’t set them up to play with any of the male teams, but I guess that makes sense when you can’t really do it in real life anyway. It’s a step in the right direction though.

I didn’t even know about the professional aspect of women’s football until I played with some excellent American women strikers. I’ll admit, I was curious. I hope others will be too.

I hope this sparks off a progressive era in women’s football, where women can pick up a football and men wouldn’t think twice about what they’re doing. I hope it sparks up a discussion about mixed gender games and sets off a snowball effect of point-of-no-return moves!

I live in hope, anyway.

I’ve never viewed women as ‘the fairer sex’ because I’ve mingled with a lot of people and I know that they come in all shapes and sizes. My Father-in-law was over here when I was writing this, and even he, after a moment’s thought, agreed with me that sports should be more mixed than not.

I don’t think women are weak. When we segregate sports or even disagree with a gender participating then we create the false illusion that they are not as able, which through my experience is entirely false. I have been punched square on the nose by a woman before and it hurts just as bad as it would from a man, I shit you not.

Please. Let’s stop buying into these false illusions and appreciate games for what they are.

Games.

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