Should the women's game have smaller stuff in it?
- Thread starter Ekkie Thump
- Start date
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Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
I think it’d make the game better, for sure.
Also, how fecking sexist are you cnuts to tell me I can’t even discuss this because I’m not the right gender? Piss off.
Also, how fecking sexist are you cnuts to tell me I can’t even discuss this because I’m not the right gender? Piss off.
Or we could just make all the men's football stuff bigger. Just think how many goals we'd see with bigger nets!
I think give it a few years/decades and women will start to beat men in sports such as horse racing and motorsports. However, that is generally because they're at an advantage in regards to weight.
Because women are physically inferior to men, its not an oppinion just a fact and in sports phyisicallity is a huge part of the game.
I dont remember that, are you sure that isn't your suggestion?
No he actually did say it.
Should women's football play games just before men's games to get more crowds?
But football is not only about strength and pace, skills are more important. Is it less enjoyable just because the female wingers are not as quick as the male wingers? But even if I watch swimming or running I don’t care how fast women swim compared to the men who swam 10 minutes earlier.
Sure skills are important but the different in phyisicallity is so big that its like watching an amateur sport. Like asking 13 year olds to be as entertaining as full professionals, just wont happen.
It would only be a matter of time before someone complained about the pitches being cut up or something stupid if they were right after. You also don't want to grow the sport by seeing it as an additive to the men's game, it should stand alone.
Women's football doesn't need smaller stuff, it just needs more and more help with participation, marketing and it will keep growing. It is well placed to benefit from seeing the issues men's football has had and put some rules in places early to avoid running into the same issues. It's also potentially early enough in it's life cycle that you could even create a University/Academy draft system which I think will eventually come to the men's game.
I did just see that French rugby is allowing transgender women to play rugby now - a different discussion but I wonder if that could take place with women's football in the UK.
To allow the men time to warm up, that would mean kicking off about 3 hours before the men. And that’s with them sharing a changing room. Who’s leaving the pub 3 hours early to watch the women? It’s difficult enough as it is!
Another issue is that football is pretty boring unless you have a passionate interest in one of the teams.
They follow the Olympic committee guidance on it
Let’s address the pay gap 1st. Top earners in WSL earn upto around £35k a year. Conversely the likes of Liverpool and City are paying their mens players insane sums, upwards of £500k a week. So WSL players are earning less than 10% and that’s comparing a year to a week.
The size of stuff I’m not so bothered about as it’s the same for everyone playing - larger players will have advantages in terms of things like power, etc. Just as is the case in men’s football.
The size of stuff I’m not so bothered about as it’s the same for everyone playing - larger players will have advantages in terms of things like power, etc. Just as is the case in men’s football.
Personally I don't think changing the pitch size would make any difference. Clubs can already vary the size of their pitch fairly substantially as it is, and they regularly do game to game depending on tactics. If a smaller pitch benefited their women's team, then they can already make that change within the current rules.
In terms of ball size and goals, I wouldn't like to see that implemented as well, purely due to added complications at the grass root level. Local clubs generally are run on very tight budgets, and look to reuse equipment across all teams. So having to buy an extra set 20cm smaller would be a massive pain and a waste of money that could be spent in far better locations (though most will likely just use the male ones anyway).
In terms of ball size and goals, I wouldn't like to see that implemented as well, purely due to added complications at the grass root level. Local clubs generally are run on very tight budgets, and look to reuse equipment across all teams. So having to buy an extra set 20cm smaller would be a massive pain and a waste of money that could be spent in far better locations (though most will likely just use the male ones anyway).
That’s because they generate most of the profit for the club. This is how entertainment industry works, more popular people will always earn more money. If you want to address the pay gap, make women’s football more popular.
Silly post, the wages are directly related to the income generated. Since the men's game is much much bigger of course they should earn more.
Problem is there's some taller and more able keepers that will have it too easy with smaller goals and create another imbalance. When I watch a high level womens games, nothing about the dimensions seems wrong. As the game grows it will draw in more taller keepers, there's still many tall women out there or tall enough and able to improve to use the same goals.
Lower down I think smaller goals could help in the short term. Changing height would be easy but width means extra holes in the ground that need to be temporarily covered.
What they need is mini skirt or hot pants like volleyball. Then people will watch.. 
Chelsea's goalie is 5'11" and is taller than Jorge Campos, Rene Higuita and Peter Bonetti.
Her height isn't a problem at all.
I was focusing on the “comical goalkeeping howlers” part to be fair. Couldn’t believe that goal.
Yeah, not great!
I've seen a lot worse from our men's goalie over the last couple of seasons though.
Fair point
'twas my imposter
Think this could be really difficult regarding grass roots football and actually might make life harder for female amateur footballers. If a club has to purchase new gear in order to provide a women's or girls' team, then this will be a huge obstacle. And then there's also the organizational aspect of it (switch goals, adjust line drawings etc. probably every weekend). You'd definitely would have to think about how it can be implemented in the lower leagues before putting regulation in place.
don’t you have smaller goals and smaller pitches for junior football?
aren’t most pitches at grass roots level smaller than professional pitches?
i don’t think it’s a big obstacle if it’s something that’s needed.
Not really sure if I understand you correctly but youth goals, footballs etc. are far too small for adult women, at least here in Germany. Children play on smaller goals and smaller pitches (usually half of the actual pitch) until they turn 12 over here. Women would probably need something inbetween.
Or are you suggesting women should play on smaller goals only in the higher leagues? That could be possible but you'd exclude grass roots football, then.
im Just saying that there are already different sized pitches and goals. So if there was a need to have some slight differences, I don’t see it is a barrier.
i would have though pitches at grass roots level would tend to be on the smaller side of the regulations in any case - this negating the problem at that level?
obviously there is a range of how big/ small pitches need to be - it doesn’t seem hard to think that women’s pitches can be on the smaller side. I’m sure if they did want smaller pitches, it’s going to be a matter of a few yards, nothing seismic.
I don't know how exactly the situation in England looks like but amateur clubs in Germany are usually in very strained financial situations. Depending on the region, the best they can afford is a synthetic turf. Here in NRW, many clubs still have "cinder pitches" (if that is the correct wording). Goals, nets and utensils were often bought decades ago. From what I have experienced, they won't just buy a new set of goals for their women's team. And regarding pitch size, I believe people would just go with restricting the pitch with pylons or something like that.
Maybe English grassroot clubs aren't as poor as German ones but I really don't see that going down well over here.mI believe that if they introduce new sizes for women's football, then they have to exclude the amateur level from it.
Changing it makes sense. It almost like having a person who is 5 ft 5 trying to wear clothes made for someone who is 6ft.