The growth of women's football is a journey and not the destination. The crowd for the FA Cup final should now be normalised. JohnnyTheNic
Women’s football success is two fingers to the bigots, the fascists and the stupids, was sold out before anyone even knew who would be playing. That’s how popular women’s club football is now. Big events. Big demand. Big crowds.
It must be confusing, even disturbing to those who have never ceased to enjoy disparaging women’s football, even though they look so out of touch. Now here it is, being taken just as seriously as men’s football; the FA Cup final is a national event broadcast live on the BBC to millions of people and a global audience.
How to explain this rise in popularity? The quality of the football has markedly increased with professionalism and financial input, but even so, more attractive football doesn’t in itself explain it. There are lots of strands to this. All of that tribal culture makes taking your kids to men’s football worrying for many. Do you want to expose them to some of the lunatic behaviour that is normalised in that context? We’ve all been at a game where kids are clearly scared as The Big Sweary Man loses his mind at a refereeing decision.
Then there are the players themselves. Each and every player in women’s football has had to overcome so many hurdles and so much micro and macro discrimination in order to even be playing football. And while plenty of men can say they have overcome lots of issues, none were stopped or discouraged from playing football simply because they were male. All women playing now have. All.
In short, 77,000 were at Wembley to see the FA Cup final because it is a more pure version of football, cleansed of the sins of the male game. That pulls in new football fans who like how it looks, and it also attracts those of us who just bloody love football whoever is playing and wherever it is played. And the latter shouldn’t be discounted.
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