Emma Keeling
Football has given women’s World Cup a bowl cut
Parents! I’m afraid you have another thing to worry about. Not only do you need to make sure your kids don’t become, sick, unpopular, poor, bullies or Australian politicians in charge of immigration, you also need to be on high alert in case you have bred a sexist. I should know, I was that kid.
They were dark days. For a start I had a bowl cut, secondly I was conditioned to think that way, although I didn’t know it. As a child I thought girls were a bit useless and rather boring. It wasn’t until I was aged 11 I realised the opposite was true. Apologies, that was sexist. I still have relapses.
I saw boys as the chosen ones. They got to do lots of cool stuff I didn’t, and they also played football. So I ended up the only girl in the boys’ team. I pitied the girls who couldn’t kick, despite the fact they’d never had the years on the pitch I’d had. My excuse for my lack of awareness is I was eight. Football federations haven’t got any excuse – they’re old enough to know better.
I’m not accusing football of sexism on this occasion, but wonder if football’s governing bodies are distracted by all the cash kicking around the sport. It’s recently come to my attention the Copa America and the Concacaf Gold Cup finals are scheduled for July 7, 2019, the same day as the women’s World Cup final. I would’ve read about that clash earlier, but a lot of journalists seem to have forgotten to write about it.
Where is the consternation, the shock and disbelief? Copa America is a men’s tournament organised by South America’s ruling body, the Concacaf Golf Cup is a men’s tournament that takes in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Do those organisations not care about their women players? Not that much, it seems.
I know Outlook calendars sometimes fail to sync on computers, but we all know when it’s Christmas and World Cups are as big as Xmas, well, the men’s is anyway. It’s like Santa turning up and forgetting to bring presents. One day football organisers, you only have to remember one day.
In a bizarre turn of events only the National Party might empathise with, Fifa has sent out a lot of positive messages about women’s football. They’ve announced a new global strategy to grow women’s football (good), revealed plans to introduce an equivalent to the men’s Club World Cup (also good). And then the entire Americas, from Alaska to Cape Horn ignore the Fifa memo. Somehow they got it right in 2011 and 2015, when there were no clashes. Sadly, they have regressed.
Well pat me on the bottom and ask me to get you a coffee. Why would you undermine football’s female showpiece? Four years ago the final had a global audience of 750 million.
Fortunately, a seven-year-old girl in Blackpool, England, has done more for women’s sport in a week than football can schedule in a year. Darcy was picked on for playing with the boys. Her Mum tweeted her bafflement and it went viral. The boys on her team were ‘wonderful’ but the opponents don’t always shake her hand at the end of the match, and the parents make comments.
Darcy has been been supported by Manchester United men’s and women’s teams, as well as other sporting greats and commentators. Many tell a tale of being the only girl in the team, fighting for the right to be seen as an equal. I have no doubt there are boys playing netball who feel the same.
Parents, stop embarrassing yourselves and for heaven’s sake don’t tease your son about ‘being beaten by a girl’. This is not the 1980s. We can no longer blame being socialised in our youth for our 1950’s thinking.
And you, regional football organisers, come back here. This stuff isn’t hard. A bit of thought can do so much. Even a kid can work that out.
Four years ago the women’s final had a global audience of 750 million.