Women's Football

[wellquickwoody]

Right off I will make it clear that I expect to get accusations of sexism etc etc..

Women's football and the BBC, anyone else think that Auntie is pushing an agenda? With all the events that the Beeb have lost in recent years (much of footy, cricket, Wimbledon soon (?), F1) and their perceived left wing bias, could they fairly be accused of trying to create public interest in an event which an enormous majority have no interest in?

I will not try to disguise my feelings. I think that women's footy is not as athletic, powerful or as skilful as the men's game at the present time, please do not confuse this as me saying that it never will be. I also feel that although attendances are increasing rapidly at women's matches there really is no more appetite to see these games than those of men's non league teams. So Auntie have now announced that they will be screening LIVE the Women's FA Cup Final from WEMBLEY (no doubt encouraged by the FA who need to sell as many games at Wembley as possible, and free terrestrial TV coverage does raise awareness).

My beef is not with women's football or the FA, more with the a publicly funded body trying to promote their own events to disguise their abject failure to maintain any presence in mainstream sport, which happily sit very comfortably alongside the left leaning of the Beebs own journalists.

Flaming expected over here but I will be interested to hear the thoughts of others......

 

[brightn'ove]

Why is the Beeb terrible at broadcasting football?

It only shows the left wing.

 

[Worthingite]

The amount of times I've clicked on a headline on the BBC website to find it's about woman's football is ridiculous. It's a minority sport and yet they give it more coverage than any of the three other professional leagues outside the prem. They're trying to sell a product that just isn't working. And please don't mistake me for some sort of misogynist - there are sports where women excel more than men that deserve coverage (eg: Athletics, Lizzy Yarnold on her baking tray etc), but the issue I have is that they take a competition where the average crowd is less than 1000 (and yes I am fully aware that the Olympic women's final had 70 odd thousand in attendance) and give it more coverage than teams in the Championship drawing 25-30,000 a game.

 

[Creaky]

The loss of much of the main stream sporting events by the BBC is not down to them but to those like myself who willingly pay other broadcasters ridiculously high subscription amounts enabling them to price the BBC out of the market.

Having said that I don't think it is any bad thing that women's football will get greater exposure as the BBC lose out on more and more sports - I'm old enough to remember the time when women's tennis was very tame in comparison to the men's game, something it can no longer be accused of - a lot of the improvement has to be down to the added exposure provided by broadcasters around the world.

 

[Superphil]

The official Albion site seems obsessed with the womens game too, there are times when none of the headline stories have anything to do with the first team, or evens the mens game, but there can be 2 or 3 stories about the womens team. Perhaps not so much a Beeb thing, more an FA/FL directive?

 

[Wrong-Direction]

We need to bring the LFL over from the US, then everyone will be watching women's football!

 

[StonehamPark]

We need to bring the LFL over from the US, then everyone will be watching women's football!

Haha, look at the ref's face.

"Oh she gonna' rip her panties owf!"

 

[essbee1]

what annoyed me was that Lizzy Yarnold became world champion last
weekend and that makes her concurrent Olympic, European and World
Champ

What coverage did she get? - f*** all compared with f*** davis cup sh*t.

 

[jakarta]

Wouldn't happen in Germany....

 

[supaseagull]

Why do I feel like I've stepped into the 1950s?

 

[goldstone]

The official Albion site seems obsessed with the womens game too, there are times when none of the headline stories have anything to do with the first team, or evens the mens game, but there can be 2 or 3 stories about the womens team. Perhaps not so much a Beeb thing, more an FA/FL directive?

Agree with the OP and agree with this post too. And it's not only the Albion website. The match programme is full of stuff about the Albion women's team. Who cares? It's the one section of the programme (along with junior seagulls) that I never read or even glance at. It would be interesting to find out if ANYONE reads it.

The clips they show on the big screen at half time show just how bad the skill levels are in the women's game. Maybe one day it'll be worth watching, but that day is a very very very long way off.

 

[ozzygull]

Woman in this country tend to do way better then their male counter parts, yet they get naff all coverage and sod all pay. The England womans rugby team won the World Cup, yet all the players have a second job and I bet most of you didn't know. My daughter wants to be a professional cyclist, she trains just as hard as any boy, yet if she makes it as a top cyclist, it is very unlikely she will be able to make a living at it. There is sod all coverage of woman sports, so if the bbc are actually promoting something the good on them.

 

[Dan Aitch]

Maybe we could give women in football a bit more support and cheer them on with phrases like "Get your t1ts out for the lads" and "Show us where you pi55 from, you wh0re".

Alternatively we could shout those phrases at our own mothers, daughters and wives and see just how good they make us feel.

If you don't like the game played by people who aren't at Premiership level then don't watch.

If you don't like the game played by people who aren't at Championship level then don't watch.

If you don't like watching women enjoying sport then don't watch - no one is forcing you and no one requested your comments.

In a week where there are accusations of football returning to the bad old days of the 70s, maybe the exclusion of over half of our society, because someone doesn't like it and thinks the propaganda machine is in full swing, is a little insensitive.

I meet your "flaming expected" with a "Flaming? Not at all. Condemnation? Why yes. Get back to your trough and keep oinking in private".

 

[ozzygull]

Agree with the OP and agree with this post too. And it's not only the Albion website. The match programme is full of stuff about the Albion women's team. Who cares? It's the one section of the programme (along with junior seagulls) that I never read or even glance at. It would be interesting to find out if ANYONE reads it.

The clips they show on the big screen at half time show just how bad the skill levels are in the women's game. Maybe one day it'll be worth watching, but that day is a very very very long way off.

They scored 15 goals in one game. If goals in football are entertainment they beat the men's team hands down.

 

[Pondicherry]

What level does everyone think the England womens national team is equivalent to in the mens game? My guess is that they wouldn't beat any County League level teams.

 

[goldstone]

Football was always a man's game played by men and almost exclusively watched by men.

If the women's game is to become of sufficient interest to be screened on TV, then first of all someone needs to start supporting it, like maybe going along to games. And that "someone" I suggest should be the female half of the population. Why would men start showing interest in the women's game when they have masses of much much higher quality men's games to watch?

 

[goldstone]

They scored 15 goals in one game. If goals in football are entertainment they beat the men's team hands down.

If one team scores 15 goals in a game, that's not the kind of entertainment football fans are looking for. That's the kind of score you expect in kids' games.

 

[forrest]

I'm pretty certain the BBC have shown the women's FA cup final for several years now. Watched a couple of the finals myself.

 

[ozzygull]

I have to say I was never interested or concerned about the discrepancy between womans and mans sport, but if you have a daughter that has any ideas about being a top sports person, tell them not to bother because they will get sod all help and sod all coverage. Because all the coverage will be for over payed and pampered men.

 

[KZNSeagull]

What are the Beeb to do then? Spend billions of quid of tax payers money trying to keep up with Sky etc, or use the opportunity to show sport that none of the other broadcasters are likely to cover? I am pretty sure that the moaning would be louder if they did the former.

If they have any agenda, perhaps it is to encourage people to get out and play sport? Or to show sport that is played in the correct spirit? Or is your problem with the fact that the women are more likely to have success than the men's equivalent? The Brits do have a reputation for supporting the underdog and turning their noses up at people who find success.