Karen Carney review of women's football

[tommybooth]

One brain cell at best.

 

[Longballutd]

The below link is about average attendance in WSL and this is where the work needs to continue.

They are growing the numbers at games but attendance is still very very low even with adult tickets ranging between £6-£12 and kids £3-£7.50. It’s very much an affordable family day out compared to a mens game and that’s what they need to promote to get bums on the seats.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1395936/fa-wsl-attendances/

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

For me the biggest weakness with the women's game is its direct link to male teams. Because rightly or wrongly they are pretty much all not self-sustaining you have situations like last year with Reading where the women's team ended up having to get itself relegated because the club couldn't sustain them in the top flight with the male team dropping into the third tier, as happened with Notts County and Chalton in the recent past.
If I ran the women's game I would run it much more like an American professional league, its crazy that the Northwest and London have nine of the twelve clubs! Abolish all the linked clubs have all EPL teams pay into a central pot and then divide the money out that way, additionally I would require that each of the teams offer the created franchises in kind support, be it access to training facilities, coaching, medical, media opportunities. That way the woman's game gets to develop organically and you don't end up having to blow clubs up because of outside factors.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

I think the womens game is doing well tbh. I'v watched it for years either going to mcfcw or England women and thwe improvements in the last 10 or 20 years has been brilliant. I really cant wait for the next generation of girls that have been growing up with a football at their feet to come along and prove a lot of myths wrong.

They're going to be as good, intelligent, quick witted, tactically aware as the men. Just not as powerful.

I dislike all the politics, a lot of it is turning into hate and dividing people..... the game should just grow organically, has it has been for decades... And will get bigger in future. Womens football stars will be as big as female tennis stars.

Overall I think the womens game is healthy.

 

[SebastianBlue]

 

[Colin Bell (genuine name)]

I have tried to enjoy women’s football and in the main, I quite like it. It’s just not the same and never will be the same as elite men’s football and I am certain that this is predominantly due to the fact that on average women are 10% smaller and 10% slower than their male peers.

I think that the women’s game could be massively improved as a spectacle if they reduced the length and width of the pitch by 10% and possibly the size of the goals by 10% but by reducing the goal size the penalty spot would have to be moved closer to create a balance.

I remember watching Lucy Bronze in the previous World Cup before the one just gone and she was outstanding but I watched as she and a defender chased for a ball hit towards the corner flag and both of them just seemed to take an age to get there. It just made the watching experience less intense. It’s imperceptible but it’s there, that subtle difference in the pace of the game and the intensity that the added speed makes in the men’s game.

I think a lot of the players in the women’s game are highly skilled and deserve to be rewarded for reaching the upper tiers of their sport, I think that they are being short changed by being expected to play on a pitch with the same dimensions as the men’s game when there is such a big difference between men and women physically.

 

[Mon Autre]

I have tried to enjoy women’s football and in the main, I quite like it. It’s just not the same and never will be the same as elite men’s football and I am certain that this is predominantly due to the fact that on average women are 10% smaller and 10% slower than their male peers.

I think that the women’s game could be massively improved as a spectacle if they reduced the length and width of the pitch by 10% and possibly the size of the goals by 10% but by reducing the goal size the penalty spot would have to be moved closer to create a balance.

I remember watching Lucy Bronze in the previous World Cup before the one just gone and she was outstanding but I watched as she and a defender chased for a ball hit towards the corner flag and both of them just seemed to take an age to get there. It just made the watching experience less intense. It’s imperceptible but it’s there, that subtle difference in the pace of the game and the intensity that the added speed makes in the men’s game.

I think a lot of the players in the women’s game are highly skilled and deserve to be rewarded for reaching the upper tiers of their sport, I think that they are being short changed by being expected to play on a pitch with the same dimensions as the men’s game when there is such a big difference between men and women physically.

I think it's a bit of a leap to say you are certain the drop in standard between the men's and women's games is predominantly down to physiology. There wasn't even a professional game in place when the current crop of players first kicked a football. They haven't benefitted from the same level of support and coaching throughout their formative years as their male counterparts. So I don't think you can really make a fair comparison until you've had a full generation come through who have had the same opportunities.

As for the pitch size and goal size etc. Whenever I've seen any of the women's players asked about it they've said that isn't what they want. Also wouldn't the goal size have originally been agreed at a time when the male players were on average much smaller? And therefore the goal dimensions for the women are probably more in proportion to how they were originally intended in the men's game. With more women's teams looking to play more games in the main stadiums it would just be a massive faff to change all that stuff around so it won't happen anyway.

 

[Colin Bell (genuine name)]

I think it's a bit of a leap to say you are certain the drop in standard between the men's and women's games is predominantly down to physiology. There wasn't even a professional game in place when the current crop of players first kicked a football. They haven't benefitted from the same level of support and coaching throughout their formative years as their male counterparts. So I don't think you can really make a fair comparison until you've had a full generation come through who have had the same opportunities.

As for the pitch size and goal size etc. Whenever I've seen any of the women's players asked about it they've said that isn't what they want. Also wouldn't the goal size have originally been agreed at a time when the male players were on average much smaller? And therefore the goal dimensions for the women are probably more in proportion to how they were originally intended in the men's game. With more women's teams looking to play more games in the main stadiums it would just be a massive faff to change all that stuff around so it won't happen anyway.

Pity. As I believe a reduction in pitch size would make it a better spectacle in my opinion.
Even with parity in coaching from a young age and if skill levels achieved match that of the men, there is nothing other than testosterone injections and evolution that is going to make the women as fast or as strong as men.
It‘s just an idea that could make the women’s game more competitive and attract a wider audience and shouldn’t just be dismissed on grounds of equality.

 

[Mon Autre]

Pity. As I believe a reduction in pitch size would make it a better spectacle in my opinion.
Even with parity in coaching from a young age and if skill levels achieved match that of the men, there is nothing other than testosterone injections and evolution that is going to make the women as fast or as strong as men.
It‘s just an idea that could make the women’s game more competitive and attract a wider audience and shouldn’t just be dismissed on grounds of equality.

And if strength and speed is your highest context then sure, it's quite likely that you'll never enjoy it as much and that's ok. But I don't watch women's tennis and think "if only these players were as fast and strong as the men. They're top top athletes.

 

[Colin Bell (genuine name)]

And if strength and speed is your highest context then sure, it's quite likely that you'll never enjoy it as much and that's ok. But I don't watch women's tennis and think "if only these players were as fast and strong as the men. They're top top athletes.

We’re not talking about Tennis or hockey or rugby. The thread is about how to continue the growth of women’s football and I am making a suggestion to make the women’s game more exciting to a wider audience.
I love watching women’s tennis but it’s a different game to men’s tennis. The prize money is the same as the men’s game. they have longer rallies and they only play the best of 3 sets in grand slams where as the men play best of 5. There is recognition of the difference between the sexes and physicality in Tennis.
That recognition of the difference is missing in football. If there is a woman’s game and a men’s game being shown at the same time, I want the chance to be genuinely undecided as to which game I watch. At the moment it’s always going to be the men’s game and there in lies the problem. How do you get more people to watch women’s football. My suggestion is to make it faster and more technical by reducing the size of the pitch to suit the physicality of the women’s game.

I also love watching women’s golf which also recognises the differences in physicality by placing the women’s tees closer to the hole than the men’s tees.