The most amusing thing here is you saying that and then going on to directly compare the men's and women's game.
Mary Earps | wins BBC Sport Personality of the Year
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
The problem here is you've listed individual sports. This is why they remain engaging to watch at women's level. In a team sport the quality is extrapolated to the power of 11 for football, and not only that but despite such an incredible difference between the two (you're right in that they're not remotely comparable) female football and it's coverage has infiltrated coverage of the men's game and overtaken coverage of men's game at level of league 1 and below - despite these leagues being miles and miles and miles ahead quality wise.
Lionesses reached a World Cup Final, the first time for any of the British national teams since 1966 - Mary Earps even saved a penalty in that final and due to injuries to some other key players is pretty much the most prominent member of that squad (only probably Lucy Bronze could argue).
She then went on to be voted Best Goalkeeper in the World (her unique speech that day went viral) and Top5 in the Ballon D'or (the highest ever position for a goalkeeper in the Womens game). She also won Golden Gloves in both the World Cup and WSL.
I do understand why some might say she shouldnt have won, but I have no idea how anyone could know all this and then say she shouldnt be on the shortlist so I'll just assume you were ignorant of all the acheivements she has had in the past year.
He retired this year on the back of an incredible personal performance...
You know why.
I could go on to break it down in detail, but why bother. You know, I know, we all know.
More than Earp's. Even O'Sullivan had a better year than her. He won things.
Then why do you keep perpetuating the inane comparisons yourself?
You and I have been over this before. I think the sport is presently at a level so low it is amateur. It just isnt skilled enough to be in the same breath as some truly elite athletes and sportsmen and women. So her achievements in my opinion, are all within the context of a very poor sport.
Its the World Cup, the pinnacle of this sport. Doesn't matter if it's cricket, tiddlywinks or football - if you are the best on the planet out of Hundred of millions of people then you deserve recognition.
Reminder that Earps is the highest rated player in her position of ALL TIME.
Our fan base is mad sometimes. One of our players wins an award and the reaction of some is to seek out their thread and comment on why they shouldn't have won it.
Thoroughly deserved win, Well done Mary Earps.
And from a shallow point of view, she also looked incredible.
And from a shallow point of view, she also looked incredible.
I wonder whether the fact that she seems to be angling for a move to Arsenal and has seemed distracted in some of the last few games means her goodwill with United fans is at a low.
She hasn't asked to move, nor has she insinuated anything about wanting to move, so if it has affected people's goodwill then that's on them.
Its absolutely absurd that you think it doesn't matter. Why do you think there's never any tiddlywinks players on the list. Again you're missing the point - you can put all time in capitals if you want but its in an all but amateur sport and having watched as much as I could of the Manchester Derby the less said about her ability the better. Please don't go into a lengthy back and forth with me again, we did this in another thread. My opinion is simple, the sport is simply too rubbish at the moment to warrant discussion in the same breath as elite athletes. I've no more to say on it
Oh good grief you poor man baby.
Surely, regardless of whether you're right or wrong on this, it's irrelevant? She's at the top of her game in the sport that she plays, which is the most popular sport in the country. She can't play at a higher level - it's not like she has the option of playing with the men, even if she was good enough.
The rumours keep growing a la Russo (whey!) and if I'm right, she's stalling on a contract extension, so I do understand it
Sky shows roughly the same amount of games for WSL and League 1/2. It will cost far less for them to show the WSL then it will for them to show League 1/2. Championship games are still shown at a much higher rate. They've also brought in EFL Ifollow which means you can pay for matches on respective club websites to watch games. Women's football is growing (roughly by 45% according to Sky last or this year) so they are following the trend. It's not infiltrating coverage.
I honestly don't know much about women's football, but this is the goalkeeper who got famous from complaining about her kit not being sold?
Did she win something big this year? I only ask because I've seen people saying this was a box-checking exercise. If she's not won anything of note, or done something really big then I'd tend to agree with this. Well, unless it literally just goes on 'sports personality' and she has an amazing personality.
Did she win something big this year? I only ask because I've seen people saying this was a box-checking exercise. If she's not won anything of note, or done something really big then I'd tend to agree with this. Well, unless it literally just goes on 'sports personality' and she has an amazing personality.
Because it's not televised so little national interest - unlike the Women's World Cup final which was the most watched sporting event of the year in this country, 2nd only to King Charles' coronation as a TV event:
https://www.sportspromedia.com/news...itv/#:~:text=Confirmed:,emerge as 1-0 victors
The only absurd thing is your suggestion that the most high profile player, in the most watched sporting event of the year, doesn't deserve to be on the shortlist
Worth noting that those audience numbers didn't build overnight. The numbers watching women's international football and club football in the UK has been growing steadily.
There was a lot of growth between the WWC2015 to WWC2019. The Euros in 2022 saw a real leap in viewing figures - obviously culminating in the win for England. This year's WWC in Australia had some problems (I doubt many were watching those midnight and 3am kick-offs in the UK) due to the timezones. England's matches still found an audience and of course the final was on a Sunday lunchtime so a lot more accessible.
For club football (which they used to get for free and now they get very cheap) the BBC used to have to smuggle the odd match in usually somewhere on red button or the website. Now they've got one match per week usually on BBC1 or BBC2, though they still sometimes get bumped to red button when other live events clash.
The next big change might see WSL exempted from the Saturday afternoon broadcast blackout. I then expect to hear howls of protest from people who say they never watch it, but it's unfair because some people might see it by accident and not have a remote control handy
There was a year when someone won it because they sat on a horse that did all of the work. And the horse wasn't even racing, it was prancing around a square doing the horse version of those shit Instagram knee lift poses women insist on doing because they've got zero imagination. At least put a fez or fake moustache on for photos FFS.
Anyway, Sports Personality of the year is about how much of an impact an individual has had across the country. Mary has, quite clearly, been a massive success at helping more girls become interested in the sport as well as pissed off a bunch of whiney little shits who are mad at the world for their own insecurities.
Come on, if the arbitrary metric of 'high profile' in 'the most watched game', which they lost, is criteria to be considered then the award really is without value. Lets agree to disagree. I think there'll be a time in the future when women's football has improved enough to be more credible, but don't believe this time is now
Agreed, whatever about Earps, Zara Philips winning it was the biggest joke ever!
The whole thing went woke ever since the uproar in 2011 when there were no women included in the final 10 nominees.
In my view if this award is for genuine sporting achievement, Ronnie O’Sullivan should win it every year ….though most likely he wouldn’t be arsed to turn up to receive it.
In my view if this award is for genuine sporting achievement, Ronnie O’Sullivan should win it every year ….though most likely he wouldn’t be arsed to turn up to receive it.
Its hardly an arbitrary metric, I guess it's just difficult for you to accept that a women's football match was the most watched sporting event of the year in Britain.
Plus it's just one factor on top of the long list of accolades Earps has won this year.
BTW I'm not arguing for the value of this award because personally I'm not too arsed about it in general, but given the criteria of the award it would have been crazy not to have her on the shortlist.
Its neither difficult to accept nor to understand. It was a final on a sunday, on terrestrial tv. Sports fans from every nation generally turn out well when a national team or individual is in a final, from the Olympics to world cups, it's perfectly understandable.
Again its not really anything to do with my overall point which i won't bother repeating. Popularity, unfortunately often has very little to do with quality
Arsenal made bids for her last summer and surely her agent & Mearps herself must made it clear to Arsenal camp she wanted a move done?
All Earps has to do is come out and say she is happy at United and have no intention of moving to Arsenal, that she fails to do so indicates there is more truth to it than not.
It is not.
The award is for Sports Personality of the year. If it was for Sports Achievement of the year then you might have a point along with the others screaming about "what has she won?". In the end it is simply a popularity contest and the fact is that Mary is very popular and maybe, just maybe, the 50% of the population that she represents voted en masse for her whilst clearly from the debate here the mens vote seems hugely split on deserving candidates. It does not have to be the grand conspiracy that some of the loons, not you I hasten to add, seem to think it is.
She's said she's concentrating on the football, the fact that she's still engaged in talks with United regards a contract shows she's probably not against the idea.
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...and-keeper-bbc-sports-personality-of-the-year
I enjoyed this piece.
I enjoyed this piece.
She was always nailed on to win, last week she was 1/20 fav with some bookmakers. The reason she was that ridiculous price was the overwhelming majority of her fans are women and kids. It’s a fact most men don’t bother to vote, whereas women and kids do.
The general SPOTY rule is to have won something of note before being considered. As for personality, what personality? She was more renown for her whinging about being the only women footballer without a Nike sponsor than her sporting achievements.
Next year it‘s an Olympian year and extremely likely the SPOTY winner will be an athlete who’s actually won something.
Not a rule, you just made that up.
As for her personality, different strokes for different folks I guess, I find her charming. The simple issue is that a bunch of manbabies cannot accept that the majority voted for someone they would not have voted for and so rather than move on they have to start crying about conspiracies and "woke bullshit". For what it's worth I believe inspiring millions is a pretty significant achievement, easily on a par with the accomplishments of the men mentioned in this thread and very much in line with the spirit of the award.
Looking at some of the posts on this thread didn’t know the was so many gammons on red cafe
Anyone who unironically uses the term “woke” is an unmitigated moron.
She has just won the FIFA best Womens Goalkeeper award too as well as being selected in the FIFA World Womens XI, congrats to Mary
She really has taken the world by storm thes last few years.
Arsenal are getting one hell of a player.