[Albion] Women’s Football

[jackalbion]

I think the problem is, that this Brighton team is pretty crap.

 

[dazzer6666]

This is a hot topic and I don't know if I'm able to discuss it in proper English really, but I'll give it a go and see were it land. As far as I'm concerned I really like to watch the women's World Cup, European Championships etc. I think the standard there is really good, and it's more or less tough but fair, no cheating, diving, a whole team surrounding the ref to try and change her mind and no hooligans around. That awesome! Club football is not there at the moment, clearly a level down and I often get the feeling it's a "totally different sport".

For me it's all about this I guess, "a different sport". I just don't get THAT feeling watching women in other sports. I love to watch downhill skiing, cross country skiing, Ski cross, table tennis, tennis, basketball etc. I can even watch boxing, judo and stuff like that and I feel that it really is boxing and judo. Women's handball is better than the men's, the play is so hard and tough and the likes of Bruno Fernandes would start crying within a minute! Women's cycling, running, ultrarunning, golf - I really enjoy it!

Football, and ice hockey, is probably the only sports that I feel is something different, at least at club level. I guess it will be better and better every year, but I'm not sure if it ever will "catch up". I will probably still go and watch a game every now and then and I guess I will take it for what it is.

Think you’ve nailed it actually - the constant comparisons with the men’s game are daft. Enjoy it for what it is (or ignore it if you’re not interested).

 

[Me and my Monkey]

So I went along to the Albion Women’s game for the first time last night. I was expecting to come away saying saying ‘fair play, the standard really has come on, I was surprised by how good the football was’.

I didn’t. I thought it was awful. I’m sure this will be an unpopular opinion, but I thought the standard was dreadful, the atmosphere absolutely crap, and the whole thing a total waste of everybody’s time.*

I’ve said it before, but why on Earth do women play on a full size pitch with full sized goals? It makes no sense at all. An average Premier League keeper must be at least 6”5. The average women’s keeper must be almost a foot shorter. How is that fair? The old thing about women goalkeepers being rubbish is harsh, because they are playing in goals that are far too big for them. It’s the same with the pitches, they can’t play the same passes the men can and they can’t shoot from distance because they can’t hit the ball hard enough. People say ‘it’s a different’ game and it is, but why should it have to be?

And before anybody cries sexism / misogyny etc, women tee off from different tees in golf, play less sets in tennis etc. Football should be adapted for women to make it more like football, rather than the watered down, weird version of the sport I saw last night.


I’ll be sticking to Haywards Heath Town or Lewes for my non-Albion football fix from now on, but I can’t be the only person who thinks the women’s game has it all wrong?




*except mine, as I got to meet Guy Butters.

There were a few men there last night with pre-set scowls on their faces, no doubt dying to get home and tell everyone how crap their evening was. I suspect you were one of them.

 

[um bongo molongo]

I think the problem is, that this Brighton team is pretty crap.

I think this is the issue. I’ve not been myself yet but I live in London and Gooner/Spurs mates have been to their women’s games, which at times fill their grounds, and really enjoyed it. Interestingly, my daughter has explicitly asked why I only ever watch men playing football and cricket and said she wants to see girls play. I’ve booked tickets to The Hundred at Lord’s (with the Women’s and Men’s double header) but haven’t decided what to do for football, as if I go the Emirates (or worse Tottenham), I obviously risk losing her to those teams! But I think there is quite a drop off in terms of both standard and experience to the Albion women at the moment.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

My view is the women’s professional game is in its very early stages relatively speaking and at the beginning of its journey. As another poster has pointed out, the standard has improved even over 2 years. Given the huge increase in women’s football at a grassroots participatory level (the number of registered teams in the UK has doubled over 5 years and in the US it’s off the scale) the standard will no doubt improve even further.

Like Tony Bloom seems to think, I believe the women’s game will become popular as a spectator sport. Not as popular as the men’s game but then no other sport is. This should not invalidate it though. It’s it’s own thing and seemingly has a different audience as well….although there is some crossover appeal.

 

[goldstone]

Agree with the OP. No idea why the Albion wastes money and resources on a women's team. I guess it's just a tick-box thing .... if we don't have a women's team everyone will criticise us. Be different Brighton. Don't worry about what other people think. Dump the women's team and spend the money on something worthwhile.

 

[MJsGhost]

I’ll be sticking to Haywards Heath Town or Lewes for my non-Albion football fix from now on, but I can’t be the only person who thinks the women’s game has it all wrong?

You might want to keep your views on women's football under your hat at the Dripping Pan.

 

[Exilegull]

That has always been my view. But the way it has been pushed and pushed and pushed by the Albion and the media in general suggests otherwise. Giving almost equal coverage to a sport that brings in a tiny percentage of the viewing figures and revenue is hugely disproportionate, and suggests that the opposite is what the aim is- they want everyone to watch it.

I made some comments on here a while back about women’s football and was told that until I bothered to go along to a game and watch it, my opinion wasn’t valid. Which I thought was as a very fair point. So I did, and it was crap.

This is the type of Andrew Tate like incel stuff Twitter is flooded with. Going to tell you the same things I tell them. Will try not to be too harsh as you need to have bad self esteem to be offended by women getting more publicity.
If media and Albion push you to go watch women´s football, you still don´t have to do it. Grow a pair and make independent decisions. They have a product you can get it or avoid it. You went to a game and came back to tell us it was boring because the goals are too big and there´s too many like you in the crowd. Good on you going there to get your belittling POV confirmed just like you wanted time well spent and not at all pathetic. You must really feel like a big boy now lol.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Agree with the OP. No idea why the Albion wastes money and resources on a women's team. I guess it's just a tick-box thing .... if we don't have a women's team everyone will criticise us. Be different Brighton. Don't worry about what other people think. Dump the women's team and spend the money on something worthwhile.

I can’t for one minute believe Tony Bloom does not see significant potential for the women’s game.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

There were a few men there last night with pre-set scowls on their faces, no doubt dying to get home and tell everyone how crap their evening was. I suspect you were one of them.

Comments like this sum up one significant problem womens football has - the level of debate on how to improve it. The OP came up with some thoughtful points, and suggestions and is met with some decent responses, but also nonsense like that (as well as the "if you don't like it, don't watch it" brigade). By shutting down debate like that, the only people willing to stick their heads above the parapet are f*ckwits like Joey Barton. And the womens game is the worse for it. There are people who like football and would like to enjoy the womens game, but right now the spectacle isn't there. Hence a crowd of less than 5,000 at a much-advertised game at the Amex.

FWIW, I tend to agree that slightly smaller pitches and goals would improve the standard. Maybe it could also reduce the number of ACL injuries that hit the womens game.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

This is the type of Andrew Tate like incel stuff Twitter is flooded with. Going to tell you the same things I tell them. Will try not to be too harsh as you need to have bad self esteem to be offended by women getting more publicity.
If media and Albion push you to go watch women´s football, you still don´t have to do it. Grow a pair and make independent decisions. They have a product you can get it or avoid it. You went to a game and came back to tell us it was boring because the goals are too big and there´s too many like you in the crowd. Good on you going there to get your belittling POV confirmed just like you wanted time well spent and not at all pathetic. You must really feel like a big boy now lol.

And this utter drivel

 

[Commander]

I’ve only seen the women live once this season, the cup game against West Ham. I thought the standard was pretty decent, tbh. I also watched the last 20 mins of the away game at Leicester on tv - it was very exciting, even if rather error-strewn.
I think we’ve got to be careful not to compare mid-table WSL players to top half Premier League teams. In the latter case we’re looking at some of the best footballers in the world, taken from a population of hundreds of millions of young men across the globe, developed over nearly 200 years. The cohort of women playing football to a high level is tiny in comparison. You need to give it time (and encouragement) to develop.

All makes sense. Except I’m not comparing the to Premier League players. I watched Lewes beat Horsham on Tuesday night, the standard there was far, far superior.

 

[aolstudios]

You say you said it before what were the answers? Because they probably remain the same as when you asked last time. I will help you with one part. "An average Premier League keeper must be at least 6”5. The average women’s keeper must be almost a foot shorter. How is that fair?". Its fair because they dont play against eachother.

Also, when the size of pitches/goals etc were decided, men were much shorter than they are now

 

[keaton]

All makes sense. Except I’m not comparing the to Premier League players. I watched Lewes beat Horsham on Tuesday night, the standard there was far, far superior.

And out of keeping with what Lewes have served up since October

 

[Commander]

There were a few men there last night with pre-set scowls on their faces, no doubt dying to get home and tell everyone how crap their evening was. I suspect you were one of them.

So it’s moved on from ‘don’t comment if you haven’t watched it’ to now ‘well you’ve watched it but you deliberately didn’t enjoy it’. Perhaps I should be forced to enjoy it somehow?

With food / drinks / travel I must have spent close to £100 last night for a family of 4. Maybe I’m different to you, but I don’t tend to give up my Friday evening to spend £100 and have my kids go to bed late for something I was hoping I wouldn’t enjoy. That would seem a very odd thing to do. I also covered this in the original post, but you clearly didn’t read it properly and just jumped on the ‘misogynistic evil man’ line. Which as @Stumpy Tim says, is part of the problem with women’s football.

Go and stand in the corner.

 

[Exilegull]

Comments like this sum up one significant problem womens football - the level of debate on how to improve it. The OP came up with some thoughtful points, and suggestions and is met with some decent responses, but also nonsense like that (as well as the "if you don't like it, don't watch it" brigade). By shutting down debate like that, the only people willing to stick their heads above the parapet are f*ckwits like Joey Barton. And the womens game is the worse for it. There are people who like football and would like to enjoy the womens game, but right now the spectacle isn't there. Hence a crowd of less than 5,000 at a much-advertised game at the Amex.

FWIW, I tend to agree that slightly smaller pitches and goals would improve the standard. Maybe it could also reduce the number of ACL injuries that hit the womens game.

There are surveys and interviews that show most women dont want smaller goals smaller pitches and smaller balls and shorter games and everything else boomer men has been wanting to throw at their passion for decades and decades. The OP didnt come with anything thoughtful it is the same thing the same sort of men has said since the revival of women´s football possibly longer.
The answers will be the same as they always are because this has been talked to death at all levels. As mentioned the women dont want it. Takes five seconds to figure out it is logistically and cost wise nearly impossible to do. Maybe we could in England but what do you do in any of the hundreds of thousands of villages and cities across the world where women men and children share the same pitch and same goals. Who is going to pay for all the pitches and goals required to accomodate 16.6 million girls and women playing organized football. The women are happy about the game so would be done just because a small fraction of elderly men, who by the way will definitely find something else about the women´s game to complain about even if they get their goal size wishes through, and dont think that would provide enough motivation for FIFA and governments all over the world to spend the billions required to make this unwanted change.

 

[Commander]

This is the type of Andrew Tate like incel stuff Twitter is flooded with. Going to tell you the same things I tell them. Will try not to be too harsh as you need to have bad self esteem to be offended by women getting more publicity.
If media and Albion push you to go watch women´s football, you still don´t have to do it. Grow a pair and make independent decisions. They have a product you can get it or avoid it. You went to a game and came back to tell us it was boring because the goals are too big and there´s too many like you in the crowd. Good on you going there to get your belittling POV confirmed just like you wanted time well spent and not at all pathetic. You must really feel like a big boy now lol.

Wow. I really don’t know where to start with that. I went along to this one because my best mate’s daughter (who has become a massive Brighton fan, in part because of me) was a mascot, along with the rest of her girl’s football team, and I wanted to support her. I’m currently watching my son’s team train, they have a girl in their under 10’s team (and the Brighton academy) and she’s class. It’s absolutely brilliant that so many girls have got into football.

If you could point to where I am ‘offended’ by women playing football, I’d be really keen to discuss it with you.

It’s genuinely amazing that people are now saying the problem is it’s ‘the wrong people in the crowd’. With that kind of attitude they’ll end up with 200 people watching again.

I would argue that in your haste to show how right
-on and woke you are, you forgot to actually read my post properly, or consider any of the actual points I raised. What you wrote is an embarrassing stream of absolute drivel.

 

[Exilegull]

All makes sense. Except I’m not comparing the to Premier League players. I watched Lewes beat Horsham on Tuesday night, the standard there was far, far superior.

They are biologically not capable of performing at that standard. If you want to watch sports because of how it looks rather than what it is then you there´s always ice skating and the equestrian sports where the horse just walks around gracefully

 

[Commander]

There are surveys and interviews that show most women dont want smaller goals smaller pitches and smaller balls and shorter games and everything else boomer men has been wanting to throw at their passion for decades and decades. The OP didnt come with anything thoughtful it is the same thing the same sort of men has said since the revival of women´s football possibly longer.
The answers will be the same as they always are because this has been talked to death at all levels. As mentioned the women dont want it. Takes five seconds to figure out it is logistically and cost wise nearly impossible to do. Maybe we could in England but what do you do in any of the hundreds of thousands of villages and cities across the world where women men and children share the same pitch and same goals. Who is going to pay for all the pitches and goals required to accomodate 16.6 million girls and women playing organized football. The women are happy about the game so would be done just because a small fraction of elderly men, who by the way will definitely find something else about the women´s game to complain about even if they get their goal size wishes through, and dont think that would provide enough motivation for FIFA and governments all over the world to spend the billions required to make this unwanted change.

Presumably you don’t have kids that play football? As I can tell you that in the hundreds of thousands of villages and cities across the country, the pitch and goal size changes 4 times before the kids are 12. In fact, I am standing on Lindfield Common right now watching 3 separate teams train, with 3 separate pitch and goal sizes.

So again, what you say is complete nonsense- it’s already being done, and has been for years.

 

[Commander]

They are biologically not capable of performing at that standard.

Wow

Thanks for that, Andrew Tate.