As the final whistle
blew on the 2-1, Japan vs England, Women's World Cup Semi-Final, I (like many other long-suffering English football fans) sat silently, uninvited tears streaking
my cheeks. The 2015 Women's World Cup has seen an historic and glorious run of
play from the English side. Unlike the pathetically incompetent men's side who
didn't make it past the Group Stages of the 2014 Men's World Cup, the women
showed England how football should be played - with an aching hunger for
victory, not with woeful resignation to defeat.
The match had the
cruellest of conclusions. As English defender, Laura Bassett attempted to whip
Japan's cross out of the danger zone in the 92nd minute, her momentum meant the
ball was lofted back towards the England goal and over the head of keeper, Karen
Bardsley. A minute later the final whistle blew and England's memorable World
Cup journey came to a harsh ending. The images of a distraught Laura Bassett
lying on the pitch, weeping inconsolably were incredibly difficult to witness.
But the subsequent reactions of team members holding Bassett in their arms and
then manager Mark Sampson's wise response to a reporter's probing question gave
evidence of the existence of honour and compassion in Women’s football.
“What did you sat to
Laura?”
“I told her it’s okay to
cry… she’s been courageous, strong… she kept this group together. She didn’t
deserve that. But I think she’ll be looked upon as a hero. An absolute hero.”
Honour and compassion –
traits that I believe make England’s female footballers the most worthy of role
models.
Whilst the hope of World
Cup victory is over for England Women, the ongoing battle of the precedence of
women’s sport in English and most other societies alike is not; I hope
that Steph Houghton and her team continue to push for sporting equality with
their male counterparts.
During the 2015 Women’s
World Cup I grew exceptionally exasperated with misogynistic comments comparing
the women’s play to that seen in the Premier League or men’s World Cups. I am
sick and tired of the constant running commentaries from my male peers on
various social mediums about how, “If this was the Premier League, she
would’ve been red carded for that diving!”, or their ever so
intelligent insights into how they, “watched women’s football… it’s not
really football though is it?!” To those boys and men who believe that
simply by virtue of having a penis they are awarded the right to ridicule and
critique women’s professional football, ideally I would respond with a
lengthy string of expletives. However, instead I shall try to articulate a more
eloquent and less irrational response.
So this is my response:
You are the privileged
ones.
When you were
a feisty and athletic nine year old, you were not denied the
opportunity to play for your school’s football team, but told that instead
you must join the girls playing netball.
During the playground
games of primary school football, your (frequent) goals were not met with a cry
of surprise and dismay due to your gender.
As you grew up and
developed a passionate love for the sport, you did not spend time wondering why
there was such a distinct lack of female footballing heroes whom you could look
up and relate to.
Whilst attending a local
Championship League match with your best friend, his dad and uncle, you were
not fighting back prickly tears as the men joked about how, “women’s
football is fierce – there’s a lot of hair pulling and bitching!”
As you dreamed at night of
a footballing career, playing for Manchester United or Arsenal and eventually
captaining England, you were thinking of the £13,000,000 per annum salary that Wayne Rooney (captain of England
men) and his comrades earn. Not the measly £16,000 per annum that Steph
Houghton (captain of England women) and her professional female footballing
peers earn.
When you search ‘England Football Team’ into google, your heart does not sink every time
endless results about the men’s side pop up – concluding that the internet
deems men’s football, just ‘football’, whilst women’s football must always be
‘women’s football’. Because women shouldn’t try to claim the game they play is
proper football – that would be deplorable, right?!
Every time you make a
belittling and sexist comment about women in sport, you reinforce the archaic
societal systems in place which prevent young girls from pursuing their
sporting dreams; you reinforce the systems which deny professional female
athletes the same salary as their male counterparts; you reinforce the systems
which put less funding into girls’ school sport than into boys’. You reinforce
the systems that ultimately tell girls and women across the world that they
will never, ever be treated as equals.
So here’s to the
courageous, professional, female footballers everywhere. Here’s to their valiant
efforts to kick sexism out of the game. The likes of Rachel Yankey, Kelly
Smith and Karen Carney encouraged my 8 year old self to join my local team and today their legacy
lives on in the form of Steph Houghton, Eniola Aluko and Jodie Taylor. These
women are inspiring young girls across England to thump footballs around
their gardens, and if that’s not a victory - I don’t know what is.
