We have now arrived at day one of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, and the anticipation leading up to the event has been palpable. Tournament brackets have been furiously filled out and debates one which teams might do well have been raging through offices. social and mainstream media, and everyone your turn colleagues can’t stop arguing over which players will stand out, who might be this year's surprise and which games will be the most enjoyable to watch.
The tournament kicks off today at Parc des Princes in Paris with host France taking on North Korea and the tournament will run until 7th July and is set to be one of the most intense sporting events of the summer. If you aren't lucky enough to be able to travel to France and grab a ticket or tickets to some of the matches, don't worry, pretty much wherever you are there is extensive broadcasting of the games and you and your friends can get together, share some adult beverages and snacks while you cheer on your chosen team. You can start to hear the familiar rumbling of football chants in the air? People everywhere draping themselves in their favorite team jerseys, painting our faces, and seek out pubs and terraces that will be broadcasting each and every game. I am sure, no matter where you are, World Cup is palpable and in full view with every establishment showing sporting events showing the game and people flying flags on their cars indicating their allegiances. You can't go anywhere without having the fact that the World Cup is on being fully on display ! Except, that’s not quite what’s happening, is it? While last year’s men’s World Cup caused a collective excitement to sweep through most nations and not just those participating, the attention on the women’s equivalent is barely comparable. When I mention a summer filled with World Cup coverage, most people respond with a confused look, or politely tell me that I am mistaken and that we’ve got another three years left. It’s hardly inspiring. If you don’t know, now you know: This year, France hosts the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which will see 24 of the best teams in the world competing for one of the biggest accolades in women’s sport. Of course, fans of the women's game around the world have been excited about this competition for what feels like forever. We have arrived at the showcase event for the sport, and as the sport grows in popularity among women and all fans of the game, we're intrigued to see if we'll be seeing any traditional ardent soccer ( read men) chanting and sporting their countries colors. Love it or hate it, there’s no reason why anyone should be absent from the Women’s World Cup hype this year. If you’re a huge men’s football fan, if you know your Kante from your Conte, or have jumped on the exciting Liverpool frenetic title chase, or exciting brand of play that lead them to the Champions League title ( I throw this in even if as a Spurs fan, the loss still stings), then you’re going to love this upcoming summer. Many of the same traits you know and love are there: the balls go in the goals; the referees prance around the pitch, players play hard and with pride representing their respective countries, we will see screams of excitement and tears of disappointment. This version of the World Cup, will be in my opinion that most intensely contested competition in the short ( this is the 8th version) history of the World Cup. It is no longer the US head and shoulders above everyone with a few team close to them. I truly think there might be 8 viable contenders to take top spot this year. The tide in the women's game being more mainstream is changing. As mentioned above, many outlets announced unprecedented coverage of the event. FIFA has noted a record interest in bidding to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup, while we've seen some recent announcements from major corporations about significant sponsoring initiatives. Companies like Coca-Cola and Visa have implemented sponsor a series fronted by Clare Balding on Channel 4, which will see her travel across the world to uncover more about the sport. It’s slow, but it’s something. While big shifts at the top of the game are coming, it’s time for this to translate into our day-to-day culture. It’s simply not good enough that the women’s equivalent of the competition is considered lesser in comparison. Dress it up whatever way you like by saying it’s a different style of game or that you just find it less interesting than the men’s—it’s still sexism. Unfortunately, it’s a chicken and egg situation with women’s football. Sponsors are reluctant to support the games and broadcasters are tentative to show them if they feel like the eyeballs on the day aren’t going to translate financially. Less coverage means less public interest—and so the cycle continues. If anything’s going to push the game to its full potential, it’s the a combination of full broadcast schedule, higher than ever viewership numbers, new converts to being fans of the game, a great competition and sponsors realizing that the interest is there and that if they harness it, it can actually be a wise financial decision ( something I previously blogged about , see this link) investing-in-womens-sports-a-smart-move.html Considering some of the fringe sports people seem to think are mainstream of the fact some would be open to watching some semi-professional, salt-of-the-earth men’s action on a Saturday afternoon, then there should be no problem watching the highest performing women’s teams across the world. Alternately, if you hate soccer in general and don’t want to endure another year of pretending you know what “VAR” means or fully understand the complexity of the off-side rule, then why not enjoy the true satisfaction of knowing more than your colleagues on this subject they hold so dear? Talk about Canada's Christine Sinclair being on the cusp of setting the game's all time goal scoring record, or how the most recent Ballon d'Or winner Hegerberg has chosen not to play with her national team due to conflicts with her coach and federation, or discuss the emerging proffesionalism of the women's game or any women's soccer-related topic. Do a little research, learn a little about the game and you will be ahead of any of those hard core soccer fans who have little time for the women's game. Women’s football wins; you win; everybody wins. So get it up on the sports bar TVs, watch live streams, record the games and watch at your convenience, read up on all the coverage about game results, individual performances and player stories. It’s time to get excited!
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So when did women's soccer at the international level start ?
The answer that different people will give that question is really very dependent an age. For many people, those perhaps not fully immersed in the women's game, they might answer 1999, when the US won the World Cup on home soil. I mean anyone who watched can recall the iconic image of Brandi Chastain whipping off her jersey and following to her knees after scoring the winning goal in the penalty shoot out. This was the first World Cup to receive extended television coverage ( although not all games being shown) and being in the US certainly helped with the exposure. It launched a new era of women's soccer and had many little girls of dreaming one day of playing on the international stage. The following world cup in 2003 was originally scheduled to be held in China but due to the SARS outbreak, it was moved back to the US giving them back to back competitions which once again helped with the games' exposure. However, this time around the US did not win and what people often forget here in Canada was that our team actually finished fourth. Here in Canada, the fourth place in 2003 aside, for many people, women's soccer and our national team really attracted interest and viewership during the 2012 Olympics. Canada's bronze medal and certainly the path the team had to take to get there, earned the players the country's respect and admiration. FIFA, UEFA, and many other regional and national soccer organizations have, in recent years, prided themselves on their support for women’s soccer. But the sport lags far behind the men’s game; no federation in the world offers equal financial support to the women’s and men’s programs, and neither does FIFA. This is front and center where United States, where the women’s team has had far more international success than the men’s and is currently in litigation with the USSF seeking equitable pay and treatment, in addition to damages including back pay. Among complaints about wages, the lawsuit also notes issues with where and how often the women's team played, medical treatment and coaching. In justifying this, soccer’s governing bodies often presented women’s participation as if it is a recent phenomenon, chalking up the inequalities in support for men and women’s soccer to the fact that the latter is just a more recent development. However, women's soccer in general and even at the international level can trace its history back over 100 years. The current inequalities stem from the fact that the football institutions around the world stifled, rather than encouraged, the women’s game. That has, thankfully, largely changed. The 2019 World Cup, the eighth of its kind, is getting unprecedented media attention around the world. But the legacies of that history weigh on the present. Women’s soccer has many antecedents going back to Asia, the Americas and Europe, and the sport began to be played in earnest starting in the 19th century. Do a little research and you have go as far back as the 1860s to find some mentions of informal games being played between girls and women. Towards the end of the 19th century there are records of over a hundred organized formal women's game. Some of these early games are said to have drawn attendance in the high thousands. The first women’s ‘international’ match took place in 1881 between England and Scotland, and may not have been an international at all: promoters may have called it that in order to draw larger crowds. Still, the sport existed, and, because the British Football Association (FA) saw itself as regulating only male players, until the late 1960s women’s soccer was largely unregulated sport, pursued by female players and their fans. In the 20th century, women began to play more regularly. During the First World War in Britain, as women were drawn into munitions factories and into the professions, they emerged on the field as well. Female matches took center stage between 1917 and 1921, with teams playing in front of large crowds—usually between 25,000 and 55,000 people. Players like Lily Parr and teams like Dick. Kerr Ladies FC became household names . On Boxing Day, 1917, the first England vs. Ireland international took place in Belfast with representative female players from each country. An England versus Scotland match took place in 1918, and England played France in 1920. Women’s soccer, in fact, got too popular. In response to the large crowds and continued support of mainly working men, in 1921 the Consultative Committee of the Football Association passed a resolution expressing “their strong opinion that the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.” The FA requested that “the clubs belonging to the Association to refuse the use of their grounds for such matches.” In other words, it effectively banned women’s soccer, stopping the sport’s development in its tracks. Though not all national federations put such bans into place, many did. It took nearly 50 years for this process to be reversed. In 1969 European federation began to integrate women’s soccer into the existing systems of soccer’s governance, but it was a piecemeal and uneven process that depended on extensive lobbying and organizing on the part of women’s players and the attitude of each national association. Gradually, however, a whole new generation of young women begin playing football more extensively than ever before. In 1970, a Women’s World Cup was organized independently in Italy, and in 1971 a second took place in Mexico City. Matches were played in the 100,000-person capacity Estadio Azteca, which was filled to capacity for some of the games. In the United States, like with women's sport in general, the 1972 Title IX legislation was a game-changer, spurring on the development of women’s soccer programs at universities, which became the foundation for successful national teams. The first FIFA Women’s World Championship, was held in PR China in 1991 with 12 national teams. There were 26 matches in total, with five double-headers. FIFA used the symbolic phoenix, indicating beauty in Chinese culture, as the key theme for the opening ceremony and the trophy. Not convinced of the public appetite for the competition, FIFA gave away a significant amount of all the tickets used during the tournament with some indicating as much as 40% of the tickets were complimentary. The U.S. team won the tournament, bringing home the country’s first World Cup. But while they were celebrated in China, there was almost no coverage back home, where their exploit went largely unnoticed and un-celebrated and un-recognized. Sweden hosted the second Women’s World Cup in 1995, and the Olympic Games first showcased women’s soccer in Atlanta in 1996. The United States has held the two aforementioned competitions in 1999 and 2003, and the tournament returned to China in 2007. The level of media and corporate interest in the tournament expanded considerably with the 2011 tournament in Germany, when all games were broadcast in the United States for the first time. Women's soccer continued to be part of the Olympics since 1996 and FIFA created a pattern of having a country host both the U20 and Women's World Cups in subsequent years in the attempt to create further interest for the game. This occurred in Canada where we hosted both the 2014 U20 competition and then the 2015 World Cup. The last edition of the tournament had an expanded field to include 24 teams. Europe had eight berths (England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland), along with representatives from every other confederation: Africa with three, (Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria) Asia five (Australia, China PR, Japan, Korea Republic and Thailand); CONCACAF four (Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States); South America three (Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador), and Oceania one (New Zealand). This year's event will once again feature 4 teams, with a breakdown of UEFA having nine teams ( host, France along with England, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Spain and Netherlands), Africa having the three spots again ( Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa), Asia once again with five ( Australia, China PR, Japan, South Korea and Thailand), Concacaf down to three ( US, Canada and Jamaica) , South America also three, ( Brazil and Chile, along with Argentina who won the CONCACAF - CONMEBOL playoff) and finally New Zealand from Oceania as has been the case for a few competitions. But what does increased representation mean? National associations routinely under-fund their women's national teams and success at previous tournaments is no guarantee of continued success. China, for instance, after finishing second in 1999 and making the quarterfinals in 2003 and 2007, failed to qualify for the tournament in 2011 and were knocked out early in 2015. Moreover, there is incredible variation in the players’ preparation. Some countries have developed increasingly strong professional leagues, obviously most fans of women's soccer know about the NWSL and past version of the pro league in the US, but countries like Sweden, Germany, France and England have established strong leagues with players becoming in many instances professionals and this contributes to the quality of their national teams. But many teams have struggled mightily on their way to the World Cup, suffering from chronic under-funding and a lack of support at home. This year's event will have a field with a larger number than usual of pretenders to the title, but will also have a certain amount of teams that will simply not measure up to the top countries. In essence for some of the games, you will truly have the case of professionals competing against amateurs. The women's game continues to grow and more and more countries are seemingly fielding competitive women's national teams, but the inequity faced by some of the individual players in terms of support, compensation and competitive opportunities will result, that in essence for some of the games, you will truly have the case of professionals competing against amateurs. This World Cup in my opinion will be a key turning point in the growth of the women's game both on the international level but also for the growth of domestic pro leagues. We will experience coverage and exposure via both traditional media and all the varying social media platforms. We have already started to see all kinds of promotional videos being issued by different national teams as well as other organizations promoting the competition and this is only a positive as current fans look forward to watching the games and a new generation of fans hopefully jumping on the bandwagon. Today there are an estimated 30 million female players globally. The evolution of soccer as a sport and as an industry over the last 30 years has been dramatic. As we watch the best of these players take to the pitch, we should remember that their very presence is the result of a long, often forgotten, struggle on the part of generations of women to insist that they have a right to play at the highest levels of the game. |
AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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