Banning women was football’s biggest mistake

IMAGINE if, instead of all but banning women’s football for half a century, the FA had encouraged it. Where would we be now? Forget the professional side for a moment. It would obviously be considerably more developed without the ban, but the famous fixture in 1920 when Dick, Kerr Ladies drew 53,000 to Goodison Park for a charity game with St Helens cannot be taken as wholly representative.

Men’s football was still in recovery, having been suspended between 1915 and 1919 during the First World War. And on December 26, when the Goodison game took place, there were no men’s matches — the Football League fixtures over Christmas that season were played on December 25 and 27. Women’s football was popular but the reason the 53,000 attendance is still discussed a century later is because it was exceptional, not because it was the norm.

Yet what did the ban do for the women’s game in schools? The FA’s disapproval discouraged girls from playing the easiest, most accessible team sport in the world. Nobody plays a scratch hockey game at lunchtime in the playground. It needs protective kit, it involves the aggressive wielding of many large wooden sticks. It isn’t practical. It’s downright dangerous. Netball? A very technical game with small team participation numbers and two hoops required to be targets. Again, not much given to spontaneity.

But football? Jumpers for goalposts. One ball, you’ve got a game. Take the FA’s ban away and football would have quickly become the biggest school sport for girls as well as boys, as it may well be within the next five years given the inspiration of Euro 2022. Certainly every school, across every age group, should have a girls football team. It’s simple to play, simple to organise and its rules adapt easily to the freedom of expression of the playground. No offside, no problem. No one wants to go in goal? Rush goalie. For kids, football is in a class of its own. And certainly it would be already, without the actions of some very short-sighted men. What a colossal mistake they made.