History of women's football - Copa71
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Murder on Zidane's Floor
You'd better not kill Giroud
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Maestro14
OHKO'd a shiny Electrike
There was a really good article on the BBC website that came out around the time of the 2019 Women’s World Cup about the Lost Lionesses. The FA didn’t allow for England to send a team to the World Cup in 1971, so an unofficial team was created instead by a club coach at the time, Harry Batt, mostly made up of Chiltern Valley Ladies players, the team he managed. They went from playing in muddy fields with no spectators to being treated like superstars in Mexico and playing in front of around 90,000 fans. Batt was then banned completely from football afterwards by the FA.
It’s a really interesting story, and gives some indication of how women’s football was viewed in 70s England. How the FA didn’t just fail to support women’s football at the time, but actively discouraged women from playing for such a long time, a decision which the sport is still in the process of recovering from even now.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/extra/LNoYd7se8m/the-lost-lionesses
It’s a really interesting story, and gives some indication of how women’s football was viewed in 70s England. How the FA didn’t just fail to support women’s football at the time, but actively discouraged women from playing for such a long time, a decision which the sport is still in the process of recovering from even now.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/extra/LNoYd7se8m/the-lost-lionesses
The history of the women's game globally is mostly only documented in snapshots. The FA ban wasn't just the authorities saying, "well we won't be giving you money/resources," it created active barriers as well. FA doctors saying it's too dangerous for women - getting repeated by the press, getting told to schools, to local authorities renting grounds out. It wasn't just big clubs who were being ordered not to allow their pitches/stadiums to be used women's teams. Coaches and refs with experience who helped women's teams got banned or demoted.
Even as the bans gradually lifted it was still an obstacle race. They actively blocked sponsors - saying things like there's a risk of women/girls being exploited for commercial gain. Central control and the need to "be ladylike" was prioritised over participation and development.
A lot of unlikely incidents (some good, some awful) along the way and it's still the case that many girls will find it difficult to find local clubs and many women's teams have to cope with indifferent or even hostile authorities. But still, the changes have been massive in the past ten years. Hopefully that'll keep filtering down to young girls who want to play and into local football as well as creating a top layer of elite players.
Even as the bans gradually lifted it was still an obstacle race. They actively blocked sponsors - saying things like there's a risk of women/girls being exploited for commercial gain. Central control and the need to "be ladylike" was prioritised over participation and development.
A lot of unlikely incidents (some good, some awful) along the way and it's still the case that many girls will find it difficult to find local clubs and many women's teams have to cope with indifferent or even hostile authorities. But still, the changes have been massive in the past ten years. Hopefully that'll keep filtering down to young girls who want to play and into local football as well as creating a top layer of elite players.
A good read and I had a decent idea about the history (or lack thereof) of womens football in England, but that article talks about a pro league in Italy in the 70s and big crowds at the 71 Copa so I wonder why it then has taken decades to get the womens game goingThere was a really good article on the BBC website that came out around the time of the 2019 Women’s World Cup about the Lost Lionesses. The FA didn’t allow for England to send a team to the World Cup in 1971, so an unofficial team was created instead by a club coach at the time, Harry Batt, mostly made up of Chiltern Valley Ladies players, the team he managed. They went from playing in muddy fields with no spectators to being treated like superstars in Mexico and playing in front of around 90,000 fans. Batt was then banned completely from football afterwards by the FA.
It’s a really interesting story, and gives some indication of how women’s football was viewed in 70s England. How the FA didn’t just fail to support women’s football at the time, but actively discouraged women from playing for such a long time, a decision which the sport is still in the process of recovering from even now.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/extra/LNoYd7se8m/the-lost-lionesses
I don't think Italy was a pro league, semipro with some full-timers maybe. There a problem with that though. Semipro teams often rely on fundraisers and volunteers and the odd sponsor paying for coach hire or whatever.A good read and I had a decent idea about the history (or lack thereof) of womens football in England, but that article talks about a pro league in Italy in the 70s and big crowds at the 71 Copa so I wonder why it then has taken decades to get the womens game going
You can do that if there's also a thriving network of youth teams (funded by parents or schools) and there's some central organisation to run a league, (re)schedule matches, organise refs, log results, set the rules etc.
You rapidly get into the chicken/egg situation. You can't run a semipro top tier without lots of youth team players and local clubs. You may not be able to tempt girls to even try to nag their parents into taking them to (let alone paying for) football training, unless you and your mum and dad have seen women play football.
Women's football is full of these glimpses of what enthusiastic volunteers and the occasional sponsor who fancies doing something different can do.
Ultimately though, it takes a lot of pieces to work together to make a pro game work. National FAs moved from outright bans, via indifference and obstacle creation, to tolerance and humouring it. It was only when they realised they'd started to run out of new markets for the men's game that they started to gamble on the women's.
Had no idea about any of this. I'd always assumed it was interest levels and funding that had previously held women's football back. But appears there was a lot of active road blocks being put up. Really good thing that it appears that most of these have now been removed in a lot of places.
Grande
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Yes, there were a lot of road blocks and outright sabotage, fuelled by a lot of contempt and ‘care’. The wildest thing to take in however, is that it was actually set down in official policy and even law for the most part of the 20th century.Had no idea about any of this. I'd always assumed it was interest levels and funding that had previously held women's football back. But appears there was a lot of active road blocks being put up. Really good thing that it appears that most of these have now been removed in a lot of places.
Murder on Zidane's Floor
You'd better not kill Giroud
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Ridiculous to be honest. It's football, it's for everyone.Yes, there were a lot of road blocks and outright sabotage, fuelled by a lot of contempt and ‘care’. The wildest thing to take in however, is that it was actually set down in official policy and even law for the most part of the 20th century.
Grande
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Well spoken.Ridiculous to be honest. It's football, it's for everyone.
BazzaBear
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Indeed. It points out how ridiculous it is when people bemoan the level of skill in the women's game as if it's inevitable because they're 'just women'. The game is just developing having been actively worked against by the authorities ever since the end of the second world war. Of course it isn't at the same level of coaching, athleticism and skill yet.How the FA didn’t just fail to support women’s football at the time, but actively discouraged women from playing for such a long time, a decision which the sport is still in the process of recovering from even now.
Maestro14
OHKO'd a shiny Electrike
Went to watch this yesterday, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of the players they interviewed were great characters and the stories they told were familiar to me as someone who’s grown up hearing tales from my mum playing football in the 80s. It also highlights the injustices they had to face as well, some I knew about already but others I had no idea about. Would definitely recommend, even to anyone who doesn’t know anything about the history of women’s football.
I saw this film last week and it is as good as this review says it is.
As a woman born in 1967 I am beyond furious that I didn’t know this had happened in my lifetime as I grew up as a girl not allowed to play organised football anywhere.
It wasn’t until I was 22 did I get to join a team and play Sunday League football.
As they say, if you can see it you can be it, but the mediocre misogynists in positions of power made sure we couldn’t see it so couldn’t be it.
Grande
Full Member
I saw this film last week and it is as good as this review says it is.
As a woman born in 1967 I am beyond furious that I didn’t know this had happened in my lifetime as I grew up as a girl not allowed to play organised football anywhere.
It wasn’t until I was 22 did I get to join a team and play Sunday League football.
As they say, if you can see it you can be it, but the mediocre misogynists in positions of power made sure we couldn’t see it so couldn’t be it.
It’s a deep wrongdoing, wilful wrongdoing as well, with imolications stretcheng far beyond football.Went to watch this yesterday, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of the players they interviewed were great characters and the stories they told were familiar to me as someone who’s grown up hearing tales from my mum playing football in the 80s. It also highlights the injustices they had to face as well, some I knew about already but others I had no idea about. Would definitely recommend, even to anyone who doesn’t know anything about the history of women’s football.
As a dad with three daughters and who love football, it’s bad enough in itself. As a human I’m disgusted by the intentions that has lead people to supress this from me and also my daoughters. But I’m also very happy about things like Mary Earp (please stay!), Man United in the WSL, and excited to see this film!