Hope Powell Interview

[Driver8]

my pension fund seems to be doing even better than that, but I don't manage it.

It may well be but it won’t be risk free.

 

[GOM]

It may well be but it won’t be risk free.

I never mentioned anything about risk free, I just said I could happily live off £30k+ a year

 

[The_Viper]

Newcastle Jets(Australia) U15's boys team beat the Australian national women's team 7-0. The Australian national women's team are one of the best in the world at present.

That's why.

This. Enforcing mixed gender teams just ensures that our games continues to go backwards.

 

[Gwylan]

I think the argument that women's football hasn't developed at the same rate due to sexism is lazy. It's just as valid to point out there isn't the interest.

As an example the secretary of my son's club is female & so are the many fundraisers who hold it together. The secretary's daughter plays (and is very good) and we have girls in other age groups too, though no more than two in any one group. One of our ex coaches has a girl in Brighton under 10s and she's shit hot, and we've had Brighton and Lancing women players come to coach.

So, based on that we tried to start a junior girls team, and it never got off the ground due to lack of interest. We ran Facebook campaigns, posters, asking round in schools and yet we couldn't have even run it as a 7 a side.

Just going from my mates Facebook when the under 10s play other girls they kick ass but when they played boys they lost.

I wasn't trying to be nasty or sexist on my other post but I fundamentally agree with [MENTION=70]Easy 10[/MENTION]. There isn't currently the interest to sustain professional female players on high wages. It needs to grow organically.

But that's happening. BBC are showing the game. We staged a women's game at the Amex. But it will only continue to grow if young girls are interested in numbers.

Right now they're not. There's no doubt a large element of sexism to it - dads forcing the daughter to ballet etc - but there's also a lack of interest. My daughter did mini under 6s at my club and has been to 2 different football holiday clubs. She has shin pads and a Brighton shirt. But she's just not interested and I'm at the point of giving up because I don't want to force it down her throat.

We're having a similar experience with rugby. We've got a reasonably thriving girls team but to grow properly, we need the 9 and 10-year olds to come through. I'm not sure that it's always lack of interest, in rugby's case there's not the acknowledgement that females play rugby The final of the Women's WC was broadcast on ITV but that's the first time women's rugby has been shown in terrestrial TV. We're trying to get into schools - we've offered to send coaches into primary schools to run sessions (at no cost to schools or pupils) and have had virtually no interest - we're going to into just one school in the whole of B&H. So, it's not parents that think rugby is not appropriate for girls, it's the schools - and that's a big barrier.

Football is a bit further advanced but there needs to be more of a change - perhaps more female pundits on MOTD or Sky (I know Steph Houghton has appeared on Sky), more women's games on terrestrial etc. It's no surprise that the greater media coverage has spawned better attendances and more participation but it will be a slow process. There are still some barriers to overcome.

And football is in strange position for girls: some find it too rough and play netball or basketball instead but then there are those like my daughter (and several members of her rugby team) who found football a bit tame and wanted something more physical.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Why isn’t there a greater call for the FA and FIFA to allow mixed gender football teams beyond the age of 18?

Maybe/probably the average male professional footballer plays at a higher standard than the average female one but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a number of female players of a higher quality than their male counterparts playing in the leagues.

What is the justification for banning mixed gender teams?

Sorry but that doesn't play out in the real world at all.

My mate with the daughter in Brighton Under 10s moved her there because she was better than most of the boys she played with at age 7 (and, y'know, it's Brighton). Another one of our coaches at my club has his daughter in the under 8s team. Last season she was the leading goal scorer and player of the season. She could EASILY get in to the current Brghton under 10 girls but he chooses to keep her at a mixed club.

By 14 this changes dramatically. Our current under 14s have one girl and she's nowhere near the star player she was at 10. The boys she's competing with are bigger, stronger, faster, nastier and full of hormones that make them complete a-holes, plus there's already a need for her to come to games already dressed to avoid having to share dressing rooms with player in varying stages of physical development.

By 18 I'd like to see the best girls playing women's football and trying to raise the standards and trying to get other girls interested. As I said, I'd actually like our club to start a girl's section but there isn't the interest. In mixed teenage and over teams the very best girls are going to be substitutes or bit part players at best. You really haven't watched a lot of youth football if you think otherwise.