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Why Do/Don’t You Like Women’s Football?


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Personally I like international women's football. League football is still unfortunately not that entertaining. However you have to look at all the social reasons. It's not as simple as women are bad at football it is a lot more complicated than that. I've watched women's football at international level for a long time and it has massively improved though. I've also been to a women's match and they move a lot faster than you think. Personally I like to support it so it can achieve its full potential. If the grassroots were more even no doubt the gap in quality wouldn't be as big. I think what people sometimes need to think if you had a daughter who wanted to play it shorly you would encourage her. Also we know men have certain advantages so I don't see the point in comparing the two.

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I don't really have an opinion on it, don't think I've ever watched even a few minutes of a match. But I barely watch much football outside of Liverpool games these days and if I do watch another Premier League game I'm only half watching while doing something else

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2 minutes ago, Dan said:

Not a particularly high standard of football is the simplest reason, no matter what anyone tries to tell you.

In terms of quality I think it is about conference maybe the league below. However they would still get beat by a conference team because of the advantages men have with strength and size. However I think when you take into account social and grassroots that is an achievement.

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5 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

I'd love to hear some women's point of view on this @nudge @Vegan Kel 

I used to watch German women's national team in the past and found it entertaining and of good quality. Hardly ever watch it now because of lack of time and different preferences. When it comes to women's club football - I have little interest in it mostly due to not having any access to it to be fair. However I wouldn't rule it out if it was regularly on TV or if I actually lived in Bremen and could attend actual matches again. 

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5 minutes ago, nudge said:

I used to watch German women's national team in the past and found it entertaining and of good quality. Hardly ever watch it now because of lack of time and different preferences. When it comes to women's club football - I have little interest in it mostly due to not having any access to it to be fair. However I wouldn't rule it out if it was regularly on TV or if I actually lived in Bremen and could attend actual matches again. 

So do you prefer men's football because of social reasons or because of quality? Do you feel that it is unfairly critised by some people who don't consider the grassroots in men is much better and men have more of a platform?

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5 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

In terms of quality I think it is about conference maybe the league below. However they would still get beat by a conference team because of the advantages men have with strength and size. However I think when you take into account social and grassroots that is an achievement.

I've no doubt it has improved from a few years ago and with that has come a new TV deal, investment into the game, which you would hope should continue improving the standard. It won't ever be as big or as good as the mens game but it could grow yet. I don't however have time for those who are on their high horse about it.

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This has the potential to be an argument all night but all I’ll say is the reason people don’t like it is because we’re taught not to. If the women’s game was actively encouraged from childhood for everyone the quality, participation, finance and industry in general would be so much stronger and we wouldn’t be talking “bUt ItS sHiT ThOuGh”.

Enjoyment is everything, the reason we have such a stronger lower league and even semi-proset up is because even though we love watching the best play the best, more than anything we love watching football, any football. It’s why thousands turn out to watch their shit local team from Sunderland to Plymouth. You can watch Sutton United on BT Sport for fuck sake

If people were taught to enjoy women’s football and support the women then they’d turn up for their women’s team too. The moment you take the ability to enjoy the women’s game away you’re limiting their opportunities and the entire industries opportunities by limiting the potential fan base and tbh the sort of mass view that it’s shit is just part of a wider system of sexism preventing female athletes and those that occupy coaching, business and media roles within the game from reaching the levels it quite easily can

I look forward to seeing the game grow on the tele this season and once I get a few bob together I’m looking forward to seeing Brentfords women’s team this season too.

I saw the women’s AFL (waiting for @Toinho to slate AFL :ph34r:) game at Fremantle and there was something like 40,000 people there, it was entertaining, competitive and a good day out. Don’t see why women’s football can’t do the same if we put the right infrastructures in place that’s been denied in the women’s game for so long.

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I honestly don’t know why I don’t tbh. I don’t have an answer for it. I can’t say I have ever given it a chance but I don’t think it’s based on gender, I just don’t have any desire to watch it, possibly because it’s something I’ve grown up without really. I suppose I’ve got this far without it, I’m not sure why I’d start now. 

As I say, I just don’t have a desire to watch Manchester United Women playing at Leigh Rugby League Ground, Brighton playing at Whitehawk or wherever they play or West Ham United’s Women playing at Dagenham & Redbridge or whatever West Essex/East London lower league/non-league ground. 

Quality isn’t an issue for me. If it wasn’t for my parents asking if I fancied an Indian on Friday night knowing I was in my flat alone, I’d have likely gone and paid £6 to watch Woodford Town v Southend Manor in the Essex Senior League, the ninth tier of English Football. I’m sure the quality of ninth tier football is pretty low (in fact, it definitely is) but that doesn’t necessarily bother me as long as I can say I’ve been entertained. I’ve never watched Women’s Football, in fact the only bit of it I’ve ever seen is the viral video on social media from about five years ago when some woman’s tampon come out in the process of making a tackle and I would be an ignorant moron to base Women’s Football off something that every woman goes through. 

I suppose I think of it as I don’t have an interest in all World Men’s Football, like I don’t have any interest in the top flight in Guatemala or Kyrgyzstan, that doesn’t mean I like football any less or makes me less of a fan of the game, I don’t have to like all football and want to watch all football and I just ultimately think that because there’s a Women’s Super League in England it doesn’t mean I have to like it. 

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1 minute ago, Gunnersauraus said:

So do you prefer men's football because of social reasons or because of quality? Do you feel that it is unfairly critised by some people who don't consider the grassroots in men is much better and men have more of a platform?

It's mostly the fact that back then when I got interested and started watching sports as a kid, (professional) women's football was pretty much non-existent in the first place so the question of preferring men's football over women's wasn't even relevant at that time. Quality-wise, I never cared that much; in fact I would still be stuck with my shitty local semi-professional factory club that I originally supported if it wasn't for the fact that it went bust and got dismantled back in the 90s that led me to "adopting" my father's club for the rest of my life xD I also watch Austrian and Southeast Asian football so I reckon quality doesn't play a big role when it comes to my preferences anyway :ph34r: 

As for alleged unfair criticism by some people - I don't know, I honestly never thought about it and I don't think it really matters anyway if someone on social media or in a pub says that "women's football is shite". In general women's football is socially accepted and is growing fast, as quality increases further and it gets more exposure it will also gain more followers naturally. 

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Personally I find it nigh unwatchable. Same goes for women's hockey, I have tried to watch some important matches/games but I just cant get into them at all. The gulf in class is just too much to get invested in. I can put it this way, I go to a live MLS game a few times a year just for the atmosphere and social aspect not for the football, I can do the same with women's and I have been to a couple when they had the women's world cup here a few years back. 

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2 hours ago, Danny said:

This has the potential to be an argument all night but all I’ll say is the reason people don’t like it is because we’re taught not to. If the women’s game was actively encouraged from childhood for everyone the quality, participation, finance and industry in general would be so much stronger and we wouldn’t be talking “bUt ItS sHiT ThOuGh”.

Enjoyment is everything, the reason we have such a stronger lower league and even semi-proset up is because even though we love watching the best play the best, more than anything we love watching football, any football. It’s why thousands turn out to watch their shit local team from Sunderland to Plymouth. You can watch Sutton United on BT Sport for fuck sake

If people were taught to enjoy women’s football and support the women then they’d turn up for their women’s team too. The moment you take the ability to enjoy the women’s game away you’re limiting their opportunities and the entire industries opportunities by limiting the potential fan base and tbh the sort of mass view that it’s shit is just part of a wider system of sexism preventing female athletes and those that occupy coaching, business and media roles within the game from reaching the levels it quite easily can

I look forward to seeing the game grow on the tele this season and once I get a few bob together I’m looking forward to seeing Brentfords women’s team this season too.

I saw the women’s AFL (waiting for @Toinho to slate AFL :ph34r:) game at Fremantle and there was something like 40,000 people there, it was entertaining, competitive and a good day out. Don’t see why women’s football can’t do the same if we put the right infrastructures in place that’s been denied in the women’s game for so long.

Couldn’t have been at Fremantle there’s no stadium there that holds anything over  5,000. If it was the game at Optus stadium it was thousands of free tickets. Women’s AFL won’t take off. It’s a man’s world that game.

As for women’s football, I watch a fair bit of the Matilda’s games. The quality has improved drastically over the last decade or so. I haven’t been to the Perth Glory women games for ages but sometimes try watch them on tv if it’s aired.

 

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Low quality doesn't bother me. I just couldn't be arsed to start following a whole new universe on the other side of the sport for something that isn't that popular to begin with. I fully support the girls to keep growing their sport but I'm not ready to follow basically another universe. Only when Peru plays.

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I don't follow it in the traditional sense we all follow men's but I have been to about 6 or 7 games now, primarily as it's an easy way to tick off grounds and as most of it in the UK is played on Sundays I never really have to do it at the expense of something else.

It definitely lacks the physicality and finer complexities of men's football; it is nowhere near the same spectacle at all. But without wanting to sound like a safe-space dwelling millenial I do think some aspects of it are good - primarily the diverse crowds it draws - it is genuinely nice to see people who never in a million years would bother with football get on board in some capacity. Similarly I do like the fact that I can watch it without the usual braying pissheads and general messes you get at men's too, the women's game will never have the brainless tribal mentality men's does and it is infinitely better than that.

What I fear is that it is being handled the same way things like mental health or Pride are at the moment - the relentless exposure and need to be seen to promote it will do more harm than good in the long run unless it is genuinely well targetted. The BBC are absolute cretins for this. Two things have to happen. Firstly - recognise it is a separate sport much as ice and field hockey are. Second is a genuine, well-placed campaign by men's clubs to promote their women's side and an appeal to families, hipsters, weirdos and whoever else that they may actually enjoy it. It has to capitalise on this summer. The BBC treating it like the Second Coming when only 2,000 watch the live text will kill it.

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I don't mind watching women's football, it's a sport to me the same as watching women's hockey or watching schoolboys 8,9,10-year-old football etc, but I would never watch women playing rugby, that would be like asking a guy to put a skirt on and play women's netball. 

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I enjoyed watching the Womens' WC in the summer, but to me the biggest negatives are how huge the gaps are in different teams levels of development. 

You have the Americans, who are stupendously better than everyone else, which makes it a bit less interesting. At the other end of the spectrum, you have teams like Thailand who are extremely far behind the general standard, to an almost uncomfortable degree. 

But this is mostly an issue in the womens' game being under-exposed and invested in. The Americans for a long time were the only country which took it seriously, and so massive population + massive public enthusiasm + serious investment and effort, has made them basically untouchable even compared to the other major nations. Then at the other end you have countries who can't even amass a squad of professional players because there is no system in place at all. 

To me, the thing about women being slower and less strong doesn't make it less enjoyable. It just makes the game a bit different - it makes a bit more open because there's more space. It's a bit like watching football from the 80s or 90s, before the mens game became crushingly intense like it is today.

Some people don't like that, some prefer it, but I don't think it's something that makes it objectively better or worse. 

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11 hours ago, Toinho said:

Couldn’t have been at Fremantle there’s no stadium there that holds anything over  5,000. If it was the game at Optus stadium it was thousands of free tickets. Women’s AFL won’t take off. It’s a man’s world that game.

As for women’s football, I watch a fair bit of the Matilda’s games. The quality has improved drastically over the last decade or so. I haven’t been to the Perth Glory women games for ages but sometimes try watch them on tv if it’s aired.

 

Not at Fremantle but Fremantle play their home games at the Optus Stadium. Yeah it was free tickets but it still shows the appetite for the game there as it was a massive amount of people that turned out. You very much couldn’t give free tickets away to a lot of people for women’s football for example

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