To ask everyone to watch the World Cup Final at 11 on Sunday?

[YetiTeri]

It doesn't matter if you don't like football, or if you don't like sport this tournament and this game is about so much more than that.

• it's about showing women's sport is worthy of investment.

• it's about giving different role models to young and particularly teenage girls.

• it's about showing rivalry in performance but not through violence.

• it's about showing our daughters they matter as much as our sons.

• it's about showing women they can be coaches and compete with men on an equal footing.

• it's about highlighting the battles women from many countries have undergone to get to this tournament.

• it's about showing homophobia has no place in team sports.

And it's about giving women a voice in their sport.

The Spanish team are there in spite of their coach and have some really disturbing stories about how players have been treated. Without any eyes on women's sport these sorts of issues are allowed to take root.

Put the football on for her 😁

I will most certainly be watching it. I've watched every other England game in the tournament and quite of few of the others. I scheduled my WFH days to be on the England game days. If they can win, they will be the Euro champions and the World champions at the same time, which is something the men have never achieved. What an incredible time for football and women.

At secondary school, myself and my friend were huge football fans but football was not on the curriculum for girls. We had to take our case to the Head of PE who let us swap from Hockey to football. We were not the best but loved it!!

I will be watching just as I have watched almost every match in the world cup.

It has been great.

If people want to show that women’s soccer is worth of investment, then supporting the women’s soccer leagues is more important than international tournaments. Showing up, buying tickets or season tickets for games and merchandise will help to make women’s leagues as marketable and lucrative as men’s leagues. When women’s soccer is as successful a product as men’s soccer then parity of pay and investment can happen, but that won’t happen without people turning up to games week in and week out, not by watching three games every four years. I’ll probably watch the game on Sunday, in the way I tune into canoe slalom and curling every four years. But I don’t assume that it’s a worthy activity that has a big meaning, or that my passing interest drives investment for the sport.

I love other women’s sports though. I follow gymnastics very closely, where generally in the west women’s gymnastics is more popular. I watched the netball World Cup, and I’ve been watching both the men’s and women’s Hundred. I don’t think that making football the default women’s sport in the way it for men’s sports is a good thing. And I think that to be successful long term, it needs to be something that people want to tune in to watch, or show up at a stadium because they want to watch the product, not because they were hectored into watching by someone online.

I'm Scottish, I'm not a football fan but will be watching. This is huge for women's sport.

I will be watching and I’m not a fan of football or even English but I’m proud of them.
Hopefully the women can do what the men can’t, bring home the Cup 😀
,

No they won't.

It's been a good and entertaining competition , but we need to see women's football for what it is, its own game. It will never be the same as the men's game. Like women's tennis, it needs to know it can't be as fast or as powerful and be worth watching in it's own right because of the finess, tactics or different entertainment value.

Just like female tennis players still can't beat long retired male players, women footballers can't beat good U16 sides. That doesn't mean the game can't have value as a women's sport. But it does need to understand it's different and not try to be a pale imitation.

I’ve watched it all and I can’t wait for Sunday.
such a great team.

As for Lauren James … it wasn’t a stamp!
she shouldn’t have done it, was punished, apologised.

Some of the many reasons, why I will be watching this Sunday!!

I have no interest in football and don't watch the men's world cup but will be watching for the reasons you list.

I'm super keen on Lionesses for a few different reasons and... very much in the yabu camp. I am more than just a female who does wimmins power things. Take your sisterhood encouragement anti-patriarchy rubbish elsewhere.

It annoys me that I have to keep hiding MN threads about the Lionnesses on MN because they all all anchored in these evangelical obsessions and can't see England's achievements as anything else. Thank goodness for the sanity of Twitter & Facebook where fans can just be happy & excited for the athletes.

ps: I didn't watch the Netball WC games, either.
pps: when I grow up I wanna be Mary Earps. Squee !!!

Yabu

We have plans for Sunday that have been in place for ages. I'm not going to let other people down by saying that I'll be staying in to watch the football.

Ew no, am going to watch it even less now - hate these 'can i ask you' threads!

Dh and ds are planning a pre match breakfast for us all - I have no idea what this will consist of 😂 but they are really excited.
I’m so torn because although I agree with a lot of the points made by the OP and subsequent posters, I’ve never watched a game of football and I find the whole thing deathly dull. So while I like to support equal opportunities for women in sport I don’t really want to support it by watching 🤣
dd2 will be at work, dd1 is home and says she might watch.

I love football and will be watching the Lionesses!

I won't be watching unless someone else puts it on. I'm just not a football fan, whether it's men or women playing.

The rugby world cup in a couple of weeks however...!

You know what, I do hate football, but I did come up with a lot of logical arguments about it to my husband.

1. Women's football isn't 'as good' because at the moment, a small niche of girls actually try. The current crop mainly had the WAGS as female role models connected with the sport.
2. Mens football is probably the most egalitarian international talent screening programme that exists - you simply can't make it without talent, and even the very poorest have been spotted and developed.
3. It's a very 'safe' sport to learn as a child. Lots of girls are driven into swimming, gymnastics and dance etc, which can be insanely demanding on young children, and they can end up with distorted bodies, schedules, and are usually on the scrapheap by their early twenties. Football wouldn't have nearly as dire consequences if you just play as a child and give up.

No thank you.

If PW flew to Australia to watch one match, he’d be criticised for contributing to the climate crisis

Likely to be driving with DD, but she’ll probably be watching it on her phone. DH - the most keen football fan in the house - is very excited, has watched the whole tournament, and will definitely be watching the only England World Cup final he’s ever had the chance to see.

He (very) briefly considered flying to Australia to see it when he got an email about tickets this morning. I said definitely not!!

He is yet to he criticised for flying to watch mens sport, is travel for mens sport somehow carbon neutral?

DD and I will be far too busy competing in our own sport on Sunday to watch another.

Yes definitely!
With the men's football, I often feel a sense that we probably won't win and not to hope for too much. But we've fostered this amazing team of fantastic, talented sportswomen and they have got to the final with a very good chance of winning! To be celebrated and enjoyed on Sunday

We went to see the Lionesses play locally earlier in the year. It was great! Very confident, entertaining - and lots of goals.