Football is without question the world’s most popular sport. In many countries it is not just a sporting event but a way of life. This is especially true in England.
Growing up as a child in England football would be part and parcel of every teenage boy’s life. Before, during and after school your coats would be down on the ground marking the goalposts and then my friends and I would begin a good old ‘kickabout’. It would not matter what the weather was we would play in rain, sun, wind, sleet or snow. Football was our life.
During those wild teenage games the girls in my school would often want to kick the ball but were always afraid to join in as it was a “Boys game”. Fast forward two decades and not much has really changed. The women’s game is now a lot more professional than it has been yet this is still blighted by the rather male dominated sports coverage in our media.
Yesterday the vastly improved English men’s team beat rivals Croatia 2-1 in a friendly. The game was shown live on Sky Sports and as usual my local pub was packed, tattooed skinheads in England shirts looking like an army or Orcs from Mordor cheering on the national team. Following the game there were highlights on BBC and ITV and this morning the game had six pages dedicated to it in my newspaper. This was just a friendly.
During the last major football competition, Euro 2008, England did not qualify. Yet still the pubs were full for each game, The Orcs, would adopt a team and cheer them on until they got knocked out. England have to look back to 2006 when the country came to a standstill for two weeks in the Summer watching England eventually lose to Portugal in the Quarter finals. Yet again another major sense of under achievement.
This afternoon in Finland the England woman’s football team face The Netherlands in the Euro 2009 semi finals. Just one game away from reaching a major final, something the male team has not achieved since 1966. I’ve been following women’s football since the days of the legendary Mia Haim back in the mid 90’s. The skill and depth of the football has increased dramatically and I would go as far as saying that some of the women could survive in the male game, easily.
Yet why do our media tend to ignore this fantastic achievement? If it were the male team the pubs would be full, most of the country would be off tomorrow with a hangover but instead the game is put on a lesser of the cable channels to make way for a rather meaningless game of one day cricket between England and Australia (I think we have had enough cricket over the summer!).
When I asked The Orcs if they were going to watch the game they grunted in unison “Why would we”. I don’t blame them I blame the media. When a meaningless friendly has six pages of my paper devoted to it yet an achievement by the female team that the male team has not achieved since 1996 only raises one small paragraph then something is vastly wrong.
So come on everyone in England, cheer on the girls this afternoon. Football may really just be coming home
