Angry men about womens football

[Ontobetterthings]

I was listening to talk radio and there was a very angry man on ranting away about womens football. He was basically saying put it on a different channel. Noone wants to watch, even his wife agrees. He was out of breath he was that mad. I was quite taken aback. Far enough if you dont like it, dont watch. Why on earth he was this upset I dont know! Whats with this disgusting reaction! How weird!!

The penalty conversion rate is usually much higher as this article shows. Not a reason to slag off the women's game, clearly. https://shekicks.net/womens-euro-2025-why-so-many-missed-penalties/

If you’d seen my original comment you will have seen I said: “often from men and women of a certain age - not to say exclusively that age group or even a majority of them - I’m not tarring a whole generation with the same brush here!“

However, I did bemoan my mum and stepmum for holding those views and wondered at how it could have happened, given how kickass they were as females when it came to breaking social norms back in the Seventies and Eighties. And noting that it seems to be people in that age group (in their seventies mostly), that I most often come across holding that view. Just because I most often come across it in that age group, does not make it a majority of that age group, as I made clear.

Two different things entirely - sorry if my caveats didn’t make that clear and therefore my words offended you.

I’m glad you had a good night cheering on the Lionesses though and long may it continue!

Further to my last post. I think Women should be given their own BBC Channel or Channels.

With the TV Licence reaching around a whopping one hundred and seventy pounds. And less people now paying it.
We should get in there, while the going is good.

They spent a shit load of money on BBC 3
which was a disaster from the start. Watched by less than 3 per cent of young people and where the content is mainly dire. So we could over have that for starters

Also BBC Four only broadcasts for so many hours a day. So we could also have the spare capacity there as well for starters.

I am surprised that C4 who will show anything to make a shilling, and C5 and ITV have not come up with this idea by now.

l live in hope.
😻🤞🌻
x

I think ITV2 is already a womens channel. ITV4 is a mens channel. And ITV3 is for old people. ITV1 is supposed to be for everyone.

Maybe BBC could follow suit and BBC1 could be for men and BBC2 for women?

Do you not think that ‘programming for women’ and ‘programming for men’ is a deeply outdated and offensive idea that is built on false stereotypes?

You also fail to acknowledge that couples often watch tv shows together or do so as families!

Crikey…. I can’t believe you are advocating TV apartheid in the 21st century!

For what it’s worth I mostly watch Channel 4 and BBC 2 - mostly for scientific documentaries and comedy shows have I broken both my age and gender programming?

Growing up ITV was never on our TV as we didn’t watch soaps or game shows… or you’ve been framed, the game shows were too easy, and I don’t think I watched a single episode of home and away or neighbours either!

He was exhausted from all the attention. https://x.com/Number10cat

I would be surprised if he does actually have a wife - if he doesn't want to watch (anything) - then he doesn't have to - did he miss Coronation Street or something??.It's not compulsory watching, what a faff about nothing (him, I mean, not you OP) except publicly showing what a misogynist twat he is. x (Did he dare give his name???).

I'm not advocating anything, I'm saying it's fact. Advertisers of products aimed at men can advertise on the mens channel, advertisers of products aimed at women can advertise on the womens channel. Obviously that doesn't apply to the BBC as they don't run adverts. But pretty much every TV programme is aimed at either a predominantly male or predominantly female audience. Womens football might be an exception, it'd be interesting to see a breakdown of viewers by gender. If I had to guess I'd say about 60/40 in favour of men.

I just read a post on another chat site which was congratulating the Lionesses and saying well done.

That had three thumbs down. I replied to the poster, because you don't know who gives the bums rush on that site, and asked:

'Is it women playing football they don't like, or women, or football.?' I doubt they would ever own up to anything, but why the thumbs down for an achievement?

It takes all sorts.

Misogyny most likely. It also irritates me when people (men) say the men’s team are more skilled.
Well of course a team is going to develop more skill with decades of funding, providing teams with the best-of-the-best in terms of managers/coaches and having a massive pool of talent to pick from kids who have been allowed to dare to believe they can make a career out of it.

Give the women’s team that level of support and self-belief in little girls and mark my words in a couple of decades the level of skill will match men’s even if they generally aren’t as fast or powerful.

I don’t even like football but I’m excited for the future of it.

My DH went to a pub for the semi final and said the room was predominantly men - he said the atmosphere was great with most watching and cheering the lionesses on! My DS's were so excited about it too and were cheering them for on through all the stages.. a horrid msn like that isn't representative.

Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if more men than women watched these matches and I'm sure most enjoyed them.

When the Women's World Cup was held here in Australia in 2023 there were huge and enthusiastic male audiences along with the females.

And then they have to deal with men telling them that they didn't have a broken leg. (Loads of comments around saying she was lying!) I do despair sometimes.

I also saw that clip on LBC and was honestly gobsmacked. As a foreign woman living in the UK, I always thought women’s football was viewed as equally important here—especially because many of the men I’ve met have been just as excited and supportive of the women’s game as they are of the men’s.

Yes, I understand that women’s football may not have the same pace or physical intensity as the men’s, but isn’t that true for most sports? That’s why we compete in separate categories to begin with. Otherwise, why not just have everyone compete together? Is this man seriously suggesting women shouldn’t play football at all?

To be honest, I never really followed women’s football before—but this tournament completely won me over. The matches were exciting, fast-paced, and emotionally gripping. I found myself on the edge of my seat. I was also thrilled to see more diversity on the pitch compared to the last Euros—more girls of colour coming through and playing brilliantly. It really made me feel proud and hopeful for the future.

Coming off the back of Wimbledon, I often say women should play five sets in Grand Slams just like men. After all, they’re competing against other women—not men—so why the difference? We don’t cut women’s football matches down to 30 minutes just because they’re women. Watching them play 120 minutes plus penalties was nothing short of incredible.

Football is one of the most physically demanding sports and women’s football has improved massively in recent years. The only way is up. I take my son to train at one of the Premier League club grounds, and whenever I see the girls training, I’m genuinely in awe—and also so proud.

I really hope this momentum continues and brings even more people into the women’s game. This win will definitely have a lasting, positive impact.

You do realise that not all channels use advertising!

I have a Sky+ box so skip through them, so obviously they are wasted on me!

You must realise that women need power drills, and men need vacuums!

Everyone needs cleaning products!

Honestly… the misogyny in your post is shocking!

My youngest daughter attends a Premiership football holiday camp, she is completely hardcore and can out compete the boys there and regularly does!

No one in my family watches football, so we always miss out on the fun. I didn’t even realise the World Cup was on until I saw on the news that they’d won.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like if my family supported a football team.

Easiest way to solve it is get them in a charity match against each other, men against the women, and see how that pans out. I would be very interested in watching that. Maybe once and for all we could finally find out if both the men and women live up to their hype because technically the men should annihilate them but also if the comments I’ve seen on social media about some of the women’s team being better than the men are true then they should be able to hold their own.

All channels except the BBC use advertising. You might skip through ad breaks, but many people don't, and you can't skip past in-programme advertising, product placement and sponsorship.

It's not misogynist to point out that advertisers often target by male/female, and that broadcasters build out programmes and channels to suit. When you are watching Gillette Soccer Saturday and the "Gillette, the Best A Man Can Get" ad comes on, who do you think they are targeting?

How strange….. nowadays there are literally 100’s of channels… surely if he didn’t want to watch it he could have just changed channel or do something else!
I’ve NEVER watched football.. but I don’t complain about it being on… it’s easy enough to avoid…
Ive not seen it (as I’ve said) but I’ve heard it’s better than the men’s football because you don’t get some over dramatic player falling/tripping and acting like they fell from a fourth storey building, rolling about clutching their leg and then hobbling about only to make a miraculous recovery and start playing again…
Men are jealous I think that women are actually winning…. When was the last time men won again??
Apparently something like 100 years ago women were playing a winning everything, and men hated it so much that they had it banned… awful…. Me and my DD have said maybe we’ll watch it on catch-up just to support the women!

I would like to see all 'reality' TV on another channel, not remotely interested in watching vacuous people auditioning for more idiot programmes. It won't happen though as long as there are people of no taste watching, same as sport, people have different opinions.

It wasn’t the World Cup.. I believe it was Europe only.

Solve what? What do you feel you need to solve? The men might beat them, but that doesn't stop women's football being hugely appealing to a lot of people. Nicer crowds too, certainly at the matches I've been to! No hooliganism, no gangs, no racist chanting. Lots of kids and parents and happiness and joy.

Also its far more accessible. Cheaper tickets and no season tickets required- yet!

It’s disappointing that such misogamy was aired. I hope the person don’t the interview put him in his place.
It does make me laugh that people get their underwear in such a twist about something they don’t want to watch being on TV… I mean you don’t even have to get off your arse these days to change channels!!

We love it in our house. Had loads of people round for the final and it was absolutely first rate, nail-biting, excitement. Plus, at least the women regularly win big tournaments...

They also advertise tampax and tenna lady in between football matches on Sky Sports! I know because I can’t skip past them!