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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To feel sad women are not part of the greatest show on Earth

100 replies

Futtonislovely · 08/07/2018 19:05

The World Cup is the greatest show on Earth, nations across the globe brought to a standstill, billions watching, lifelong heroes made with a kick of a ball.

Yet this is the MEN'S world cup. Women can't play, are not part of the coaching staff or managers. Instead our roles are reduced to WAGs or totty sitting in stands or occasionally inspiring mum watching son.

Women's football doesn't get the coverage, money or exposure, so will never pull in the audiences that the men's game does.

So there is no answer but I am feeling sad that a young girl can't dream of lifting the World Cup and becoming an idol to billions.

AIBU?

OP posts:

BadLad · 09/07/2018 23:32

If the female footballers were part of the team we might actually win. The female football team have won the world cup more often than the male team.

Which years have the England team won the women's football World Cup?

BadLad · 09/07/2018 23:35

Posted too soon.

Because Wikipedia says they haven't won it at all.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_Women's_World_Cup

Is Wikipedia wrong, or am I misunderstanding your post?

PinkCrystal · 10/07/2018 00:17

Well then at what age does this biology come into play since many 16 year olds played mixed sports.

Joey7t8 · 10/07/2018 06:57

Well then at what age does this biology come into play since many 16 year olds played mixed sports.

Well beforen 16.

See then article linked about a friendly between the USA (current women’s world champs) and a boys U15 team.

Even ignoring that the the boys won 5-2, you just have to look at the photos to see the vast physical advantages that even adolescent men have over adult professional women.

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4389760/amp/USA-women-s-team-suffer-5-2-loss-FC-Dallas-U-15-boys.html

derxa · 10/07/2018 08:03

I don't want to watch women's football.

Amanduh · 10/07/2018 10:21

England Women haven’t ever won any trophies

M3lon · 10/07/2018 10:32

I saw a mixed football match where a young girl about 6 years, was shouting: " I'm Harry Kane I'm lifting the World Cup! " She wanted to be Harry Kane, a sporting hero with England behind her. She was dreaming of that same glory. Sadly because she's a girl that will probably never happen.

The thing is that all the little boys currently pretending to be Harry Kane are also going to be disappointed...because sadly its probably never going to happen for them either.

This is why I can't get excited about the sex issue in sport. Almost nobody who wants the 'glory' has the ability to obtain it. Being female doesn't decrease your chances by much at all....

BusterTheBulldog · 10/07/2018 10:36

The Olympics is the greatest show on earth. Just saying.

BackforGood · 10/07/2018 17:04

@PinkCrystal which sports? as IME, boys and girls start playing separately once they get to secondary school.

Walkingdeadfangirl · 10/07/2018 17:31

Aren't their more women in the UK than men? If you want woman's football to be equal with men's then all we have to do is support it in the numbers that men do, pump money into it the way men do, talk about it all the time like men do and play it in our spare time the way men do.

If the demand and money was there TV companies would be tripping over themselves to show it 24/7. And then any girl could grow up to lead the England ladies team with as much support and fever that the men's team is given.

ThomasNightingale · 10/07/2018 17:40

The BBC have a public sector remit to increase their coverage of women’s sports significantly. There was a big advert about it in a break from the men’s football. I reckon that English interest in women’s football will increase significantly during next year’s World Cup. (I’m guessing that Alex Scott is going to do a run on Strictly which will help with awareness too).

StarCutterCookie · 10/07/2018 18:17

.... But when it was the last Women's World Cup I lost track of the number of men who said to me 'actually they're really good' hmm....

Cool story...

Unfortunately the standard is lower at present, it will take time, but I do think the physicality will be impossible to overcome and as such Men's football will continue to be rated with higher esteem.

ThomasNightingale · 10/07/2018 20:01

I think people don’t watch sports purely because of the quality of the players. There is an element of that, and an element of not wanting to watch a shit game, but they also watch because they’re involved in the narrative, the soap opera, the watercooler element. That’s what the women’s game is missing at the moment, and that’s entirely fixable.

PinkCrystal · 11/07/2018 17:52

My kids high school do all sports together up to age 16.

jennyFromTheRock · 11/07/2018 18:07

It's because women aren't as good at sports and this is the best of the best.

UneMoonit · 11/07/2018 18:55

If people watch women's football, the commercial apparatus is all there ready.

So there's your answer.

Personally I find women's football at the highest level generally dull and boring by comparison, the game really benefits from speed, aggression and skill levels that are as close to superhuman as can be found, and I haven't seen these things in evidence in the women's game (I have tried).

worstmovieever · 11/07/2018 18:57

The World Cup isn't the greatest show on earth.

SugarIsAmazing · 11/07/2018 19:00

I have watched women's football before and I'm sorry but it's a lot slower paced and boring.

ghostyslovesheets · 11/07/2018 19:05

Women's football is ace - watch some - the FA Cup Final this year was blistering - brilliant to watch - women are catching up - despite NOT having the same opportunities to play, develop or play full time

My Daughters school has no women's team - they aren't allowed to play with the boys - they can only play evenings and weekends with their teams - and have only played since they where 7/8 - if they want to play for a big club they do it while working PT and OMG we scored

BackforGood · 11/07/2018 19:07

@PinkCrystal. Thanks. I was thinking of affiliated clubs, so football teams playing under FA rules, swimmers swimming under ASA rules etc etc. They compete against / play with players of the same sex.

I disagree UneMoonit - there is some fabulous football played within the women's game. I do think we all 'get on board' more when we recognise the players, know all about the teams though. So, watching last night, I really wanted Belgium to win as I know most of the players from the Premier League, but didn't have the same affiliation with France. Part of the issue with a lot of people (not saying yourself) is that they rarely watch Women's football, so they don't know the players to start with. It's then more difficult to engage.

CatchIt · 11/07/2018 19:11

Funnily enough, from the little I know about football, our women's team have always done better than our men's team yet sadly it's barely acknowledged.

And that's what I love about equestrian sport. Men and women compete against each other as it's their partnership with their horse that really counts, not whether you're male or female. 🐴 win. 😂

Backinthebox · 11/07/2018 22:48

I was also going to mention equestrian sports. Jonelle Price won Badminton this year in an absolute belter of a competition and kept Oliver Townend from winning the Grand Slam. No one mentioned that one was male and one was female, they were both just competitors in the sport.

On a different note, I was in India recently and found myself chatting with the staff in the restaurant I was in about cricket. They all were sure the England Men’s Team was ok but the England Women’s Team were amazing. All the staff were weekend cricketers themselves and between them they knew all the names of the England women’s team - more than most English cricket fans would! Women’s cricket is apparently given considerable screen time in India. Perhaps we could learn from this.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 11/07/2018 22:55

I don’t want to watch women’s football. I do for a bit but then I get bored. Same with women’s cricket.

Fantastic for them and their fans but not fir me.

CountFosco · 12/07/2018 06:31

I don’t want to watch women’s football. I do for a bit but then I get bored. Same with women’s cricket.

I feel the same about men's sport. It's something that excludes me, why should I be interested? My favourite sport to watch has always been tennis and funnily enough it was the first to give women equal coverage on TV.

I think the TV coverage of women's sport is vitally important to increase women's participation in sport. The number of my DDs' friends who at 9 and 10 are already not interested in participating in sport because it is 'for boys' is terrifying.

stayathomer · 12/07/2018 06:55

i think the posters talking about viewing figures are bang on. I and most of my friends have no interest in football hence would never watch either men or women's. Id assume the volume of people who watch football are male, hence they watch the male one, saying that my DH watches women's too and has said its a pity more people don't watch it, but I do think it's just because they don't get the numbers because women aren't interested in that particular sport and you always watch your own (Id watch the women's matches in Wimbledon over the men, women in Olympics etc). In ireland when Ireland when Ireland won the rugby (men) people said isn't it great that rugby is getting as popular as football. So they're fighting to get rugby as popular too iykwim! I think there are issues of course, and putting an 'm' in front of a male marathon runner's number is a good way to start, or using the word 'male' or 'female' for the sports is good, but the thing people won't face is that men and women are different physically and so they can't neces be mixed no matter how we want them to. The strongest and fastest males ARE faster and stronger than women and so it makes it unfair to mix them. People do need to accept that too.

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