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?

Good article.

I didn't even know the England women's games were being shown.

If you schedule it in the middle of the afternoon and don't tell anyone, of course it will have a low audience.

As with any TV programme. Whereas if you heavily promote it, raise a buzz around it, do a bit of marketing, biogs of the players etc., people will watch it. Same as they do with hitherto obscure athletes who've got media attention at the Olympics. They don't bother to create a buzz around women's sports.

Some woman swam round britain a few years ago. I can't even remember her name, to my shame. If she were a man, she'd be a national hero.

I have seen women's football games including the national teams there is a difference. It's really not because they are women, women's tennis and athletics receive the same amount of attention as the male versions.

Football isn't popular because it's on TV it's popular because it appeals to the watcher.

The Women's game is different to watch and will never take off unless Women in particular go and watch it in droves.

Quite rightly Tennis and athletics get good viewing figures, but how good would those viewing figures be without the Men's game to back it up?

To understand the footie mentality you have to be part of the clan....it's too hard to judge from outside the fence.

To understand the footie mentality you have to be part of the clan

Agreed: for me the love some men show for football is utterly incomprehensible.

To understand the footie mentality you have to be part of the clan

Not really, you can understand something without having to be part of it. I can understand why Take That are so popular even though I'd rather claw my inner ears out with a spoon than listen to them.

The f-word article has some good points but also some utter inanities. The mid afternoon scheduling was to do with the tournament organisers, not the broadcasters and besides, I remember pretty England men's World Cup football games being screened at 7.00am in the morning, middle of the afternoon, lunchtime etc. The game was carried on one of the five main terrestrial channels (BBC2) which is actually a pretty good slot - plenty of other football games which get higher audiences (e.g. UEFA Cup) are screened on digital only channels, e.g. ITV4, BBC3.

Interesting question about gymnastics, but the same applies to a lot of other smaller sports which used to get more coverage by virtue of the BBC having a larger sports rights budget and having much more sports dedicated programming (e.g. Grandstand, Ski Sunday). We used to have a lot more track and field on television and a lot more winter sports as well.

Only on the feminism board because of another thread but am a massive football fan and couldn't help dipping into this one. Should stress that I'm not a bloke looking to pick a fight, but I really do find some opinions here odd.

Firstly, football is obviously a massive presence in our media. Sadly, the nature of our media is such that it is difficult to find positives about anything that 'enjoys' this level of exposure. The stories will always be about the shagging, the hookers etc etc.

You have to dig a little deeper to find the positive stuff. The times ran a faascinating few articles on Craig Bellamy and his charitable foundation in Africa recently (would link, but I think it was after the paywall went up). Roy Keane has endured some pretty horrific savaging in the media (some of it justified), but the only time he actually took legal action was when a journalist, with the best will in the world, revealed how much of his salary went directly to charities back in his native Ireland (It was a very significant portion). Football has taken the lead in addressing issues of racism and sexism in the game. From the moment the Premiership was formed there was a formal agenda to encourage more families to games (having been to enough matches in the '80s, I can't tell you how great this has been).

Football is a million miles away from perfect, but it has a great deal to teach other sports and interests. Bear in mind that while some people think of football as simply what is on the back pages and the TV, for the millions of fans it is actually about community, it is about scouring through the small print later in the Sport section to see if there's a report on their team, its about getting up on a Saturday or Sunday morning and getting some exercise with your mates.

Football is like a pen: in the right hands it can be a massive force for good, in the wrong hands it can do the opposite. The majority of people who love football love it for good reasons.

Football has always been popular. Its lowest ebb was the '80s, when English clubs were out of Europe and crowd trouble, racism etc was rife. It learnt its lesson. It still has a long way to go, but the vast majority of criticisms on this thread are without insight or foundation.

Welcome to the feminist board Deepheat.

Has anyone seen that episode of the Simpsons where Homer gives up drink? He goes to a baseball game and says: "I had no idea how boring this game is!"

Football fans are not "Simple Minded" they are lovers of a beautiful game.

Manchester United play manchester City this weekend.

You wont want to go to any pub that has SKY screened because all the viewers of that unpopular pastime will be crammed in wearing their colours.

So is the nature of the beast and long may it continue.:)

Well to be fair some of them will be terribly simple minded.

And some of them will be great intellectuals. Like everyone else, they're a cross section.

I can't disagree with that Herbex :)

HerBex - Homer's a moron. Baseball is brilliant.

Interesting perspective smallwhitecat, although Albert Camus might have disagreed with you, bearing in mind his most famous quote:

?All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football.? (He played close to international level football as a goalkeeper)

Of course some football fans are very intelligent people.

I don't understand Eastenders or Hollyoaks but I appreciate that all the avid watchers aren't bunny boiling inbreds :)