SportTrades Adam Dennehey Writing:
Roughly every fortnight, I will write on the blog about a current talking-point in British Sport at the moment. As you should all know, the last fortnight or so has been a good one for both of England’s football teams. The men’s team under the astute leadership of Fabio Capello have qualified for the 2010 World Cup with 2 games to spare in Group 6. The Women's team have also had success in the European Championships getting to the final of the tournament before losing to the reigning champions Germany 6-2 in the final.
The men’s team under Sven-Goran Eriksson and then Steve McClaren really failed to inspire the fans and media alike. Now under Capello's authoritarian style the team have bonded and now are playing like a team. The recent 5-1 win over Croatia at Wembley was probably England's best performance since their last victory of that scoreline - that iconic win in Munich over Germany in 2001. With a system that’s bringing out the best in Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney, England should at the very least target the semi-finals in South Africa. That’s not to say that they will do so, but there's no reason why we should be scared of facing sides of the calibre of Argentina, Portugal or even France. After all those three sides form of late hasn’t been great and unlike our defence they are shipping goals.
Following on from the men's success has been the women. Hope Powell's team performed fantastically during the 2009 Women's Euros and were unlucky to lose by a margin of 4 goals in the final to Germany. For highlights of this match go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/women/8249716.stm. The girls had put up a good fight to get back to 3-2 following Kelly Smith's terrific goal, only to concede 3 goals in the later stages of the game whilst going all out for a goal. It was a brave performance from the girls and (unlike the men's team) there should be no shame in losing to the Germans who have won the last 2 World Cups and the last 5 European Championships.
In the last couple of days it's been announced that starting in the summer of 2011, there will be a professional Women's Super League. This is great news for the Women's game and if a suitable broadcaster can be found, there should be no problems in the sport gaining the publicity and fan attendances that it deserves to be getting. The Super League was originally intended to start next summer but due to financial uncertainties, mostly surrounding the demise of the suspected league's broadcaster Setanta it was announced in April that this league wouldn't be happening. Thankfully for everyone involved with the game, this blow is only delaying a great opportunity for 1 year, which in a way will give the FA more time to fund and organise the league better.
The FA's Chief Executive Ian Watmore is of full support for the league and knows that the announcement could not have come at a better time for the sport: "If we can build on this success then I reckon there's a tipping point where women's football could really take off'. Commenting on the potential of the league, Watmore feels that fans would have to play their part adding 'If we can get more football fans to see women's football at the highest level, I think they would get behind it and it could become as big as any women's sport around the globe".
I hope that Watmore is right. Women's football is highly popular in the States with its professional league (the WPS) the best in the world with most of the top players including England's Kelly Smith playing there. In Germany, the game is also taken seriously. If our girls are to continue to be competitive in tournaments they need to adopt a similar approach to the Americans and Germans and continue to go move forward.
In conclusion there is much optimism in both forms of the beautiful game. The men's team are looking forward to a World Cup in which they are rightly amongst the favourites to win the competition. There's also a host of young players in the squad like Theo Walcott, Ashley Young, Aaron Lennon and James Milner who will all be aiming to play a part in the Finals. As for the Women's game there looks to be a bright future ahead! Hope Powell has laid the foundations for the team with good performances in the last couple of major tournaments. With the Super League being announced for 2011 it can only increase the quality and competition between the teams and will give our girls a great chance of going further in those tournaments.
Great article!
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right in saying that the women's game has a bright future, on many fronts.
In the near-term, we should see some real success following on from the England Ladies' results in the Euros - not just from the present squad (which is on great form) but also from the younger players feeding into this.
Mo Marley's Under 19 England women's side actually won the UEFA Championship last season (although there was very little press at the time - a great shame!) and there are some really promising players who will make a good addition to the senior squad when the time comes.
www.girlsinfootball.co.uk/news/294
In terms of coverage and exposure, I'm very pleased to see the progress made so far, with the Women's Euro Final being shown live on BBC2 and match reports appearing in most national newspapers.
The situation we have today is something of a vicious circle:
The media is averse to covering the women's game because it believes that people aren't interested.
But people cannot become interested unless they see it, read about it and hear about it - which they won't, because the media won't cover it.
Unfortunately, the money is where the crowds are, as the sports industry is largely sponsorship- and advertising-driven, which means that unless we give the women's game a leg-up in the media, it will never break out of this vicious circle, only ever getting a token amount of interest and therefore not becoming financially sustainable.
We're not talking huge sums, by the way. Most people don't realise, but the likes of Kelly Smith - incredible, premiership players who are the female equivalent of Wayne Rooney and the like - are paid nothing to play in the UK.
They all have to work in 9-5 jobs in order to support themselves and their families, which means that they train in their spare time: evenings and weekends. It's not exactly the life of Christiano Ronaldo!
Even those who defect to the US (and who can blame them?) earn a salary that is capped at the equivalent of £20,000.
It would be a devastating shame if the WSL doesn't take off in the way that the WPS has in the States. I really, really hope that we can emulate the model they have over there because there are so many good things that come out of boosting the women's game: healthy role-models, a trickle-down effect down to grassroots sports and most importantly, an awareness that women CAN PLAY FOOTBALL!