Football - what if women ruled the world?

[Katiekitty]

I've been wondering - if women ruled the world, would football quietly go away?

I'n not concerned whether it was played by men or women, but, if women held the majority power, as men do now, would football players be billionaire heroes? Would it make the news headlines? If not, where might the seemingly endless money involved in the game be channelled instead?

Whadya reckon?

I don't think it would go quietly away.

I do think that a bunch of overpaid woman-abusing shaggers wouldn't be national heroes.

And I think women's football would probably be shown on TV, but it wouldn't be the main game. There would probably be lots more diversity in sports televised - cycling, swimming, running, netball, hockey, skating, tennis, badminton, etc.

I've never been quite sure why women are so against football.

Is it just the male domination of the games we see on TV? In which case would everything be OK if they showed an equal amount of women's football??

David - for me, it's just the sheer fucking disproportionate attention it, its players, its commentators, its broadcasters, its fans and its hangers on are given.

The reason it is given this attention, is because it's a man's thing and mens things are important.

Also some of my resentment against it is the knowledge that from the 1930's onwards, various governments around the world mad ea deliberate decision to promote football as a way of ensuring that the energies, passions and interests of young men, were taken up by something that essentials doesn't matter. It serves our governments very well, that the energetic and dynamic members of society, have all their curiosity, desire for justice and fury about injustice, directed away from politics and how to organise society and towards whether that bloke should have allowed that goal.

Before football was so heavily promoted, young men used to go to political meetings.

You can see why governments didn't want that to be their chief entertainment.

I've never been quite sure why women are so against football.

You don't have to be female to hate foortball. I despise it; these overpaid, self-centred and nasty morons are supposed to be good role models for boys growing up? The whole game is made vastly too important for what it really is.

Good points by HerBeX, too - never thought of it that way.

Football is popular so thank God it's unlikely to "Go away".

Maybe Sky should buy up the rights for Coronation Street and Eastanders? (Which has way too much coverage)

Not all footballers are abusive I suggest you stop reading the tat in whatever rag yuou have your head in.

Sorry dadaz, football is far harder to get away from than Coronation Street or Eastenders. All the conversation from the blokes in the office on Monday mornings is about some dribbling chimps managing to kick a ball into a net.

"Not all footballers are abusive I suggest you stop reading the tat in whatever rag yuou have your head in."

I don't read tabloids or sleb rubbish magazines. Or real newspapers that much either for that matter.

The fact is, the image of the England team and the premiership, is that of really obnoxious, immoral, abusive shaggers.

Of course all of them aren't. By the law of averages, they simply can't be. There must be some decent men in there. But the very fact that the FA are content to allow their sport to be characterised in this way and dominated by that image, says masses about their values.

They're disgusting.

Yes and the prostitue using Rooney.

Eugh

Skin crawling stuff

Most involved in football are fine they are no worse than the average population. Because they are in the media's eye your more likely to hear about their behaviour than Mr smith across the street.

Football is popular because people enjoy playing and watching it, you may not see it but millions do each to their own. They make a lot of money because they generate a lot of money.

No, it's popular because it is so highly promoted.

If governments had chosen other male-dominated sports, they would habe been the ones to be popular

You know, Hollywood films are popular because they're the only one major cinemas will distribute.

It's the same thing. Football is popular because it's the first sport most people ever encounter and it's ubiquitous.

In the USA it's not popular. Because it's not promoted by the media to the same degree. Something else is. So something else is popular.

I think football genuinely has something special, not as a spectator sport, but as a game that is very simple and instinctive and can be played by almost any group of children or adults anywhere in the world. There is something in the whole 'jumpers for goalposts' cliche. Personally I discovered playing football at university and loved it despite being totally un-sporty (perhaps I wouldn't if we'd played it at school though - they managed to put me off most sports). And in the US soccer is a girls' game.

I do agree with you about the hype and vast amounts of money thrown around in the Premier League though.

The reason it's highly promoted is because it has a huge fan base. Football wasn't sprung on people it grew in popularity. It is also the easiest sport to play because you can play it anywhere just need a ball which is why it is popular in 3rd world countries as well.

And yes football wasn't popular in the US before you will now find that over the past decade its popularity has soared before 1980s virtually no schools offered soccer, now however they do.

It was sprung on people Saltatrix

It was popular, but nowhere near as much as now. Many govts made a conscious, deliberate decision to promote it and poured money into their national FA's.

Yes that's partly to do with them hosting the WC.

Its profile is higher there now.

And of course, TV coverage and since the rise of Sleb culture, football and football WAGS being promoted. It's all part of the buzz around football. You don't get quite so much of sustained coverage about other sportsfigures and their consorts. It's all part of ensuring that football is mainstream. Even if you don't ever watch it, ever read a tabloid or a sports mag, you still know who the ENgland squad are and in many cases, who their WAGs are and what handbag they are sporting this season. It's all part of the PR.

No it wasn't.

Football is how old?

In the days gone by football had an almost cult like draw to "The working man"...the celebrity gossip side of things like WAGS are driven by the need for gossip, obviously not male orientated.

Men like to talk about Football because it's important to tham (Obviously not ALL Men) just like Corrie and Eastenders are talked about when some ladies meet.

Mens footie generates huge money and footballers benefit from this...it's a private deal funded by football lovers and advertisers.

Support your local Womens footballers and the advertisers will pay for the rights to use womens football as a vehicle to promote their products.

That isn't going to happen though is it?

Because it isn't popular enough.

Yes, now football is important to men.

In the nineteen twenties, it wasn't so important to them.

Politics was important. Important stuff was important.

The media has a vested interest in ensuring that the majority of the population have their heads filled with meaningless shit and nothign else, whether that be corrie or football.

You don't get football matches being re-scheduled so that Corrie can be shown.

Men still played football in the nineteen twenties and thirties.

But they weren't so obsessed with it as now. It jsut didn't occupy that place in national discourse. It was one diversion, it wasn't the lowest common denominator ice-breaker it is now.

That's obviously to do with TV as well.

ha i always moan to dp that men would be more interested in politicis if it weren't for blinkin football.

i'm quite jealous that blokes can seem to get so totally immersed in it

i'd love to have something that takes my mind off worrying about everything for 90 minutes

That's what happens when things grow in popularity. There is nothing wrong with football itself, with more people watching sport you also have more people playing sports as well (something this country really needs).

Of course there are problems with individuals and sometimes the governing body.