Women's game not publicised enough?
30 April 2008 - 8:50
- Women's game not publicised enough?
I thought that there would have been quite a bit of publicity over Arsenal's feat last season of winning an unprecedented quadruple - the three home trophies plus the Women's UEFA Cup (the equivalent of the men's European Champion's League), the first English team to have won this European trophy. But, there was very little to be seen about this, except on websites devoted to the women's game.
However, the Women's FA Cup Final was televised live as usual, and the attendance at the game was a record 24,000 plus.
The Women's World Cup was played in China, and England reached the quarter finals, which was rather better than expected, and would have qualified them to play in the next Olympic Games, if it were not for the fact that a Great Britain team is needed, (but that's another story.)
The television coverage of the WWC, especially the England games, proved popular, and this could have helped engender more support, especially as England had some television coverage of their on-going campaign to qualify for the next European nations tournament. And these games have attracted reasonable crowds, despite details only usually being known by people who are already interested. And, in case you think I'm just being critical of England, I travelled from Wales to watch an England game one Saturday last year, then found out that I could have travelled just a few miles to watch Wales playing the next day - but the game had finished a couple of hours before I found out about it!
But, here is where we get a problem: lack of publicity before games, and a lack of reporting after the games. And this applies even more to the club games than internationals.
If anyone tries to arrange to go to a game, it is often difficult to know if it's going to be played, and where - changes of venue are not uncommon, and times of kick-off are changed relatively late. The same also applies to postponements because of bad weather This applies to the bigger teams, so what it's like for fans going to smaller teams I'd not like to guess.
The two top teams currently are Arsenal and Everton. As I said earlier, I'm an Arsenal fan; however, the distance from where I live means I often will go to Everton, which is much closer, so I follow the fortunes of both.
Both teams have the support of the main men's club, whereas some women's teams have been dropped from the main organisation and either have to fend for themselves (eg Charlton) or have more or less given up (eg Manchester United).
Everton have an annual "ladies' day" at Goodison, where the men play a Premiership match, but Everton girls are ball-boys (or ball-persons) and the team is introduced to the spectators.
Arsenal present trophies to the ladies at half-time at the Emirates occasionally.
This sounds good, but, if you go to watch an Arsenal home game at Borehamwood, you might get 300 spectators on a good day; at Marine FC, where Everton normally play, you'll be pushing 100.
So - where is the support for the women's game? Is it just that no-one's interested in the league matches?
The answer to that is a resounding "No".
Arsenal ladies got a chance to play a game at the Emirates last season, but various health and safety rules etc meant that it was going to be played behind closed doors, with just family and friends of players able to attend, until some season ticket holders complained, and it was decided that each could attend along with a guest. They had fewer than 100 season ticket holders last season, and many weren't able to go at the short notice they were given, so a ground holding 60,000 was virtually empty.
This season, however, when they arranged a game at the Emirates, it was widely advertised. Attendance was restricted to the lower tier on one side, all-ticket, but it was a sell-out; over 5,000 attended.
As luck had it, results prior to the game meant that if Arsenal won, they'd be champions, and although their opponents, Chelsea, gave an early scare by taking the lead, Arsenal went on to win.
The FA Women's Premier League had the foresight to have the trophy ready, just in case, and the fans had the pleasure of seeing it being presented to the girls, and them celebrating the win. A truly enjoyable evening.
I would like to think that this would encourage other teams to follow suit, but it seems unlikely.
I recently met someone at an Everton Ladies game who went with his daughter for the first time. She wants to go again, so I suggested a game at the end of the season where people attending will be able to have their photograph taken with the one trophy Everton won this season, the Women's Premier League Cup. A great idea in principle, but they already have tickets for the Everton men's game which will be played around the same time (kick off an hour after women ko).
The women's game really needs to get some more backing from the FA, and some more organisation.
They can't change their dates of games to suit television like in the men's games (not that it really matters - the only coverage that they get is the brief highlights from one game on Sky Sports News), as they are not professionals and need to earn a living like most people, but they need more support and encouragement from official organisations and the press.
Meanwhile - if you can't get to Nottingham for the FA final between Arsenal and Leeds on 5th May, it will be on television (BBC1, I believe), so those who have not watched the women's game yet, why not give it a try?