Why Women Do It Better.

I should preface this post for the sake of American readers by saying that what I call football is what you call soccer. I suppose you probably know that, but just in case you don’t…

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The only sports I watch these days are rugby union and women’s football. I hardly ever watch men’s football because it’s a different game and doesn’t appeal to me.

I often watch highlights of a women’s game on YouTube, and I find myself disturbed by the comments left by apparently misogynistic men who feel that it’s a waste of time and shouldn’t be allowed. They say that the women’s game is not as fast, skilful, or strong as the men’s game; they say that a men’s amateur league side would easily beat a professional women’s team. I’m sure this is arrant nonsense, but it is true that women players are not as fast, strong, or skilful as the men, but there’s enough speed, strength, and skill in evidence and so it’s just as entertaining. If you’re going to take the view that it shouldn’t be allowed, you can apply the same argument to women’s tennis championships and women’s events in the Olympic Games. Men have their events and women theirs. The principle is the same.

So why do I prefer to watch the distaff side of the ‘beautiful game’? Because it’s played in a different spirit. There’s less naked ego on show in the women’s game; the one-to-one aggression between players doesn’t spill over into abuse – sometimes physically – of referees; if a player is injured she gets sympathy and concern from both teams, not just her own; you rarely hear women coaches shouting from the rooftops that they were ‘robbed’ by poor refereeing decisions; and the women players have much closer contact with their fans than the men do. But the big difference lies not on the pitch but on the terraces. They’re not filled with gangs of loud, aggressive, foul-mouthed, pea-brained simians as they are at men’s games. People can be comfortable taking their young families to a women’s game.

In summation, the women’s game is simply a lot more civilised. It’s truer to the Corinthian ideal, and that’s a major plus point with me. The Corinthian ideal is all but dead in the high-powered, must win at all costs, money-obsessed world of professional men’s sport now. The women, on the other hand, still mostly match up. Maybe it will disappear from their game one day, although the evidence of women’s tennis and athletics suggests it’s unlikely. I suppose it’s because women in general are less inclined to drop to base level than men are.

Time will tell whether I’m right on that issue, but if the women’s game does get to the point of emulating the men’s in all respects, I’ll stop watching it.