Women's World Cup 2023

Quoted from thornemariner

I watched quite a few of the Women's Euros games in South Yorkshire last year and really enjoyed the games. I would love to see another tournament like that in person. Plenty of other Mariners there too.

I was following the French as well as England as France played their games largely at Rotherham where tickets were relatively easy to obtain.

The level of skill is rising in the game. I watch a fair bit of it locally.

Donny Belles play at my local side's ground and are charging only £19.69 for a season ticket to mark their forming in 1969. I'll have some of that. Just £1.70 a game and the game is just a brisk three mile walk after my Sunday lunch (ten minutes on the bus if raining).

How many season tickets can one man have Chris? 😉

Quoted from aldi_01

I think the continued comparisons, albeit usually done by media types or fans with nothing else to say don’t help the game at all.

Whilst the fundamentals are the same, the game isn’t. One has had over a 100 years to establish itself and in many places has obscene amounts of cash thrown at it, the other is still regarded as being in its infancy.

There’s clearly a double standard within the game and regardless of FIFAs alleged dedication to inclusion and equal opportunities etc, it’s clear they don’t really value the Women’s World Cup. Media companies certainly don’t, nor do Nike it would appear…

Personally, I haven’t seen any of it, for various reason but mainly because I’m not that interested, the same reasons I didn’t want the u21s tournament. Not because I’m some weird misogynist but because I haven’t. If the women’s game can get more girls and kids into football, that can only be a good thing.

I'm the same I just don't watch it because of a mix of, I'm generally not interested in women's sports as a whole anyway, but women's football doesn't help itself by pushing itself as this great game comparable to the men's when I can watch the same quality of football at a Highschool Under16s game or down the park watching some local Sunday League.

I saw on social media them making a big deal out of the Aussie games attendance being like 75,000 "people saying that no one cares about women's football", then the usual social media responses saying the same thing, where are they on a normal game day? When crowds in most cases barely make it into the 1000s

Through my daughters taking something of an interest in the game, we started to watch womens football as well as Grimsby games to try and show that it isn't simply a game for men. That has led to both of them being involved playing, one with a boys team and one in a girls team.

Having watched a bit of womens football, and going to the Womens FA Cup final in May, I think there is actually quite a lot of comparable similarity then it gets credit for. The tactical flow of a game is highly similar, and the technical proficiency is nearly the same at the highest level.

There are two things that will always separate the male/female game, one of which is blatantly obvious and doesn't need in depth analysis, the other is also fairly common sense but can be improved over a lot of time.

The first is the obvious physiological differences that exist. Of course there isn't a firm and definitive rule but in general men tend to be faster and stronger than women. At the highest level of any sport driven by physical qualities men will primarily come out on top owing in no fault to anyone other than genes. For that reason the speed of the game is unlikely to ever be as quick as the mens but everything else is approaching the same level and can very often be good to watch.

The other one is the depth of quality. You can go and watch Grimsby Borough or Clee Town and see something of a decent standard of football. Go down a bit beyond the top level of the womens game and I think the quality starts to deteriorate quite quickly. As more and more young girls start playing and continue into adulthood then this can and hopefully will see the standard improve within the whole pyramid of the womens game.

It's a persons own perspective whether they choose to watch it, that's everyone's right but I've personally quite enjoyed it whenever I've sat down to watch a game.

Gold star from me Chris.

I helped run the local ladies football team here for 3-4 games whilst they looked for a permanent manager. Loved every minute of it. Standard wasn't great but the banter was better than local mens football in my opinion.

Would shut the curtains if they were playing in my backyard.

Quoted from sonofmadeleymariner

I'm the same I just don't watch it because of a mix of, I'm generally not interested in women's sports as a whole anyway, but women's football doesn't help itself by pushing itself as this great game comparable to the men's when I can watch the same quality of football at a Highschool Under16s game or down the park watching some local Sunday League.

I saw on social media them making a big deal out of the Aussie games attendance being like 75,000 "people saying that no one cares about women's football", then the usual social media responses saying the same thing, where are they on a normal game day? When crowds in most cases barely make it into the 1000s

How can you know that if you don't watch it?

Quoted from gtfc_chris

Through my daughters taking something of an interest in the game, we started to watch womens football as well as Grimsby games to try and show that it isn't simply a game for men. That has led to both of them being involved playing, one with a boys team and one in a girls team.

Having watched a bit of womens football, and going to the Womens FA Cup final in May, I think there is actually quite a lot of comparable similarity then it gets credit for. The tactical flow of a game is highly similar, and the technical proficiency is nearly the same at the highest level.

There are two things that will always separate the male/female game, one of which is blatantly obvious and doesn't need in depth analysis, the other is also fairly common sense but can be improved over a lot of time.

The first is the obvious physiological differences that exist. Of course there isn't a firm and definitive rule but in general men tend to be faster and stronger than women. At the highest level of any sport driven by physical qualities men will primarily come out on top owing in no fault to anyone other than genes. For that reason the speed of the game is unlikely to ever be as quick as the mens but everything else is approaching the same level and can very often be good to watch.

The other one is the depth of quality. You can go and watch Grimsby Borough or Clee Town and see something of a decent standard of football. Go down a bit beyond the top level of the womens game and I think the quality starts to deteriorate quite quickly. As more and more young girls start playing and continue into adulthood then this can and hopefully will see the standard improve within the whole pyramid of the womens game.

It's a persons own perspective whether they choose to watch it, that's everyone's right but I've personally quite enjoyed it whenever I've sat down to watch a game.

Excellent post and sums up the situation. My grandchildren live in Florida and girls at school in USA are introduced to football ( or soccer as they call it) very early - 7 or 8 years old. As a consequence it is well structured and organised. This is one of the reason why the USA womens team is so good.

In the UK, we're notoriously lacking in people with coaching qualifications (for both boys and girls) in comparison to most developed countries. The Yanks are really, really keen on the organisational side of things and have plenty of qualified coaches. Of course, some of it is to do with money as well. It tends to be a sport played by kids from wealthier families over there and there are lots of paid soccer camps and the like.

I know there has been some headway made in trying to get more qualified coaches over here, but the numbers still pale in comparison to the likes of the US, Germany, etc etc.

Quoted from Maringer

In the UK, we're notoriously lacking in people with coaching qualifications (for both boys and girls) in comparison to most developed countries. The Yanks are really, really keen on the organisational side of things and have plenty of qualified coaches. Of course, some of it is to do with money as well. It tends to be a sport played by kids from wealthier families over there and there are lots of paid soccer camps and the like.

I know there has been some headway made in trying to get more qualified coaches over here, but the numbers still pale in comparison to the likes of the US, Germany, etc etc.

Coaching qualifications are interesting discussion point.

Aside from the basic ones, the cost for those more in depth qualifications increases dramatically and I’m sure it wasn’t so long ago that they were more expensive to do in the UK than anywhere else.

There’s also the old boys network too. Plenty of people could and would pass the UEFA A and B licenses for instance but getting it the pro game, even women’s, is notoriously difficult so factor in costs and you can see why we have so few.

Once there is a level of parity between the men’s and women’s game, then you’re more likely to see an increase in quality, greater infrastructure and likely a more concrete system.

Women’s football, it could be argued, is still in its infancy. If it’s still the same in 100 years then perhaps questions can be asked but right now it’s unfair, and besides, I’m not sure the corrupt, corporate greedy, tax evading sportwashing we’re seeing in the men’s game men’s it should be placed upon a pedestal.

I think we also need to move away from the idea that just because someone doesn’t watch it must mean they’re against it or bigoted or whatever. It’s not helpful, sometimes we have to accept that just because someone likes one version of something, they’ll instantly like them all…

I looked at doing my badges and working my way up but it is very expensive and the timings of courses do not allow you to work a normal job alongside working towards that next level of coaching (football I'm specifically talking about) I ended up jacking it all in