Aston Villa Women

[bobzy]

7 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

this is it for me...whilst i do agree that it's wrong to directly compare womens to mens football, but the difference in quality between the 2 genders does seem to be MUCH more than any other sport.

i went to a 7s rugby tournament a few years back and the england and wales international womens teams played each other during the afternoon and the quality was considerably superior to the amateur mens games...which you would expect. i guess with the amount of investment the women's game is getting now, i don't understand why the gap is still so wide

I imagine it’s mostly because the vast majority of women don’t play football. I know of one, whereas I know quite a few who play varieties of rugby (touch or normal) or play cricket.

I also think a big problem has been the attitude of men in football vs the other sports (it’s even partly evident here tbh). It’s called crap, dismissed immediately. Women have basically just received sexist abuse for daring to be involved in the game. If you play, you’re called a lesbian etc. That lineswoman (Sian Massey?) got a ton of abuse when she started out - and fair play for sticking around. There’s basically been a pretty toxic attitude toward the game for ages.

Next, you’ve had no reward for such a long time. I remember hearing that it cost teams more to enter their sides in the womens FA Cup (I think) than it did to win the competition. Where’s the incentive to bother developing the game?

So you’ve got not many women playing the game, a horrible attitude toward the game from male counterparts, no reward (or point) of establishing teams and then also the relative infancy of the women’s game in terms of getting a global audience. The first World Cup was in the 90’s. The league system in England was developed in the 90’s. The Super League came into play maybe 10 years ago.

Once you get more interest (which is happening, there’s definitely more girl 5-a-side games at Powerleague these days!), more investment and more reward, the game will start to flourish. It’s the early days of this now. You can’t expect investment to real sudden rewards in terms of quality - it’ll take a good 10 years for young girls to develop into footballers before the gap in quality between big sides and smaller ones even starts to reduce.

It’s getting there though, which is great. I’d love for either (or both) of my daughters to take up playing the game I love. I’d also hope they’d be able to do so without a bunch of dickheads commenting on how shit they are but, hey, baby steps

[MrBlack]

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

I mean some of these women goal keepers i have seen are useless.

Ahh, that explains why @useless is so defensive of the team. 

Edited April 29, 2021 by MrBlack

[hippo]

45 minutes ago, bobzy said:

I imagine it’s mostly because the vast majority of women don’t play football. I know of one, whereas I know quite a few who play varieties of rugby (touch or normal) or play cricket.

I also think a big problem has been the attitude of men in football vs the other sports (it’s even partly evident here tbh). It’s called crap, dismissed immediately. Women have basically just received sexist abuse for daring to be involved in the game. If you play, you’re called a lesbian etc. That lineswoman (Sian Massey?) got a ton of abuse when she started out - and fair play for sticking around. There’s basically been a pretty toxic attitude toward the game for ages.

Next, you’ve had no reward for such a long time. I remember hearing that it cost teams more to enter their sides in the womens FA Cup (I think) than it did to win the competition. Where’s the incentive to bother developing the game?

So you’ve got not many women playing the game, a horrible attitude toward the game from male counterparts, no reward (or point) of establishing teams and then also the relative infancy of the women’s game in terms of getting a global audience. The first World Cup was in the 90’s. The league system in England was developed in the 90’s. The Super League came into play maybe 10 years ago.

Once you get more interest (which is happening, there’s definitely more girl 5-a-side games at Powerleague these days!), more investment and more reward, the game will start to flourish. It’s the early days of this now. You can’t expect investment to real sudden rewards in terms of quality - it’ll take a good 10 years for young girls to develop into footballers before the gap in quality between big sides and smaller ones even starts to reduce.

It’s getting there though, which is great. I’d love for either (or both) of my daughters to take up playing the game I love. I’d also hope they’d be able to do so without a bunch of dickheads commenting on how shit they are but, hey, baby steps

As a participation sport the interest might be growing - no bad thing.

As a spectator sport I don't think it is - nor will it in the foreseeable future IMO.

[bobzy]

1 hour ago, hippo said:

As a participation sport the interest might be growing - no bad thing.

As a spectator sport I don't think it is - nor will it in the foreseeable future IMO.

It factually is growing as a spectator sport, so you’re just wrong. Might not be something you invest your time in, though, and that’s fine. 

[briny_ear]

15 hours ago, useless said:

If you're going to watch women's football you just have to take it for what it is, if you go into it comparing it to mens' football then you're setting yourself up for a disappointment. Their value shouldn't be measured by how they'd get on against mens teams, but how good they are relative to other womens' sides.

This is absolutely spot on IMO.

A problem for Villa Women is that they are not currently that good compared to the top women’s sides. They do not have a strong history of development - Birmingham are much stronger in that area - and only recently have they started to have serious investment. They have done well to get into the Super League and fingers crossed they can hang on. As long as they continue to get good support from NSWE, they should improve from where they are now.

Women’s football generally has suffered for decades from regulatory and financial neglect so it’s hardly surprising it isn’t at the same level as men’s football. But it is clearly on the move.

Edited April 29, 2021 by briny_ear

[hippo]

4 hours ago, bobzy said:

It factually is growing as a spectator sport, so you’re just wrong. Might not be something you invest your time in, though, and that’s fine. 

Ok - what I meant was attendance is some way off that of Male football and it likely to remain so.

 

[hippo]

3 hours ago, briny_ear said:

This is absolutely spot on IMO.

A problem for Villa Women is that they are not currently that good compared to the top women’s sides. They do not have a strong history of development - Birmingham are much stronger in that area - and only recently have they started to have serious investment. They have done well to get into the Super League and fingers crossed they can hang on. As long as they continue to get good support from NSWE, they should improve from where they are now.

Women’s football generally has suffered for decades from regulatory and financial neglect so it’s hardly surprising it isn’t at the same level as men’s football. But it is clearly on the move.

Considering the free coverage and publicity it gets not surprising. It will be a niche (spectator)  sport imo though. 

[briny_ear]

1 hour ago, hippo said:

Considering the free coverage and publicity it gets not surprising. It will be a niche (spectator)  sport imo though. 

On Boxing Day 1920 a Women’s football match drew a crowd of 53,000 at Goodson Park and in 1921 the FA banned all women’s teams from playing on affiliated grounds because they were worried the women’s game was attracting bigger crowds than the men. 

Since then, until very recently, women’s football has been systematically starved of official recognition and financial support but there seems no intrinsic reason why it can’t be as popular as the men’s game again. Look at women’s tennis or women’s golf - shows what can be achieved if you have the right financial structure and support.

I don’t know if you are suggesting that “free coverage and free publicity” in some way counterbalances the eyewateringly obscene amounts of money that are poured into the men’s game, but I suspect it will take a bit more than that to put things right! 

[Demitri_C]

43 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

On Boxing Day 1920 a Women’s football match drew a crowd of 53,000 at Goodson Park and in 1921 the FA banned all women’s teams from playing on affiliated grounds because they were worried the women’s game was attracting bigger crowds than the men. 

Since then, until very recently, women’s football has been systematically starved of official recognition and financial support but there seems no intrinsic reason why it can’t be as popular as the men’s game again. Look at women’s tennis or women’s golf - shows what can be achieved if you have the right financial structure and support.

I don’t know if you are suggesting that “free coverage and free publicity” in some way counterbalances the eyewateringly obscene amounts of money that are poured into the men’s game, but I suspect it will take a bit more than that to put things right! 

Forget 1920 how many fans were there in 2020 before the pandemic?

[colhint]

78,000 at Wembley.

74287 watched six games one weekend.

2019 ave attendance 3400 league 2 mens 4600 

womens pro football only really started 20 years ago

Edited April 29, 2021 by colhint

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

Forget 1920 how many fans were there in 2020 before the pandemic?

Its like you just ignored everything that was said after 1920 which explained the reason

[5-1]

It'll take years for womens football to develop. I'm in my early 30's and we had a girls football team when i was in year 9 for half a year, entered one tournament then that PE teacher left and the team was cancelled. As rightfully pointed out, women were banned by men for playing for years . The misogynistic comments whenever a women's football article is posted on twitter likely puts some girls off getting into the game too. The game has developed so much in the last 10 years and it will in the next 10 years. 

[Demitri_C]

10 hours ago, Zatman said:

Its like you just ignored everything that was said after 1920 which explained the reason

Im asking a question as i genuinely wanted to know the answer 

[hippo]

Just to say. If women want to play football - nothing should stop in. It's exercise for physical and mental health. They are just as entitled to play football as men.

If the womens game thrives and improves and becomes a major spectator sport to rival the men's game - I don't have a problem with that.

But right now it's a long way from that and we shouldn't pretend otherwise. 

[Zatman]

48 minutes ago, hippo said:

Just to say. If women want to play football - nothing should stop in. It's exercise for physical and mental health. They are just as entitled to play football as men.

If the womens game thrives and improves and becomes a major spectator sport to rival the men's game - I don't have a problem with that.

But right now it's a long way from that and we shouldn't pretend otherwise. 

60000 went to the Womens World Cup Final in 2019 with an average of 22,000 per match, the host country didnt play in the final either. 45000 went to the FA Cup Final the same year

Is many football clubs be happy to get such attendances for the mens team

[hippo]

20 minutes ago, Zatman said:

60000 went to the Womens World Cup Final in 2019 with an average of 22,000 per match, the host country didnt play in the final either. 45000 went to the FA Cup Final the same year

Is many football clubs be happy to get such attendances for the mens team

Yes but that isn't a like for like comparison. 

The average attendance in WSL 2019/20 was around 3500 - and that figure maybe skewed at tottenhams attendance was almost double its nearest rival. Also bear in the cost of a WSL ticket - some clubs charge as little as £35 for a season ticket - with it maxing out at £75. Attendance on the day averages at around £5.

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by hippo

[HanoiVillan]

22 hours ago, hippo said:

Ok - what I meant was attendance is some way off that of Male football and it likely to remain so.

 

Sure, but those are quite different claims!

[ferguson1]

Turns out Birmingham have been charged for fielding a suspended player last Sunday (Ruesha Littlejohn).  Can you imagine a points deduction and subsequent relegation  

[ender4]

22 minutes ago, ferguson1 said:

Turns out Birmingham have been charged for fielding a suspended player last Sunday (Ruesha Littlejohn).  Can you imagine a points deduction and subsequent relegation  

Against us?  

Surely they should award the win to us in that case?

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, ender4 said:

Against us?  

Surely they should award the win to us in that case?

no not against us. Reading I think