Arsenal ladies team unbeaten but why is it many people struggle to name one player?

With just four games left to play in the Women’s Premier League Arsenal look set to finish the season unbeaten. But why is it most people struggle to name one female football star?

Arsenal Ladies sit top of the table having played 18, won 17 and drawn 1. They look almost certain to win the league for the fourth successive season, yet the title aspirations of their male counterparts lay in tatters after Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Manchester United. The Arsenal men’s team have not won the league since 2002, so how come the majority of the general public fail to identify female football stars? Is it about time women’s football got the media attention it deserves?

When asked to name a top flight women’s footballer, 9 out of 10 people were unable to name one, whilst 8 of the 10 could name 3 men’s premier league stars.

Adam Lakeland, Manager of Blackburn Rovers ladies said:
“What we need is for a big company like Setanta or Sky to take the plunge and to give women’s football the chance to be regularly broadcast.

“These companies show a lot of football and Setanta have recently started broadcasting a lot of conference games. Yet in my opinion the standard of Women’s top flight football is higher than conference standard.”

Elliott Noble, Manager of Preston North End’s Women’s junior under 10’s team agrees:

“If the women’s game gets regular coverage it will have a snowball effect. The more people you get watching, the more young girls there will be that want to play. This will create a bigger crop of players to choose from, the standard will then improve and so there will be more people that will want to watch, and the process repeats.

“At the moment the lack of media coverage means it’s almost impossible to create role models for young girls. You see Cristiano Ronaldo on the television at least 3 or 4 times a week. Then you have Arsenal player Rachel Yankey who is probably England’s most famous women’s player and you are lucky to see her on television once a year.

“Clubs could also be doing more. What many people don’t realise is that even though a lot of women’s and men’s club play under the same name and wear the same kit, in real terms lot of them are completely separate and detached from each other. The majority of them have different staff and coaches. The men’s teams don’t seem to do enough to support the women’s and junior girls team, you rarely see the men’s teams publicise the women’s teams and I think this is wrong.

“Maybe this is a problem that needs to be assessed at boardroom.”

Lakeland however praised the Blackburn board for their support of the women’s team:
“We are very lucky that the Blackburn board is one of the few teams in the league which give us their full backing. They provide us with excellent training facilities, funding and provide us with media support on their website. We would not have achieved so much without them.

Unfortunately the same cannot always be said for other clubs. Charlton Ladies and Fulham Ladies in particular have both suffered in recent times; these club’s invested money into their ladies teams then withdrew it when the men’s team were not performing so well. Luckily they both managed to survive but it was disappointing to see the Women’s clubs treated so badly.”

Funding seems to be a big problem in the women’s game. During the women’s world cup in September last year, the women’s team were only paid £40 a day and so many had to work full-time jobs when they could have been training. Bracknell Town Ladies winger Emilie Starmer is a regular commentator on women’s football, in a recent blog post she criticised the F.A and the media for failing to support women’s football:
“World Cup games were shown mid-afternoon on BBC2 – not exactly prime-time viewing for a sport that already lacks a high profile.

“The newspapers didn’t do much better with some barely dedicating a paragraph to the biggest games of the tournament.

“Did you know that the England’s women only got paid £40 a day for representing the country?

“That equals around £1400 for 5 weeks of work, an amount that has left some of the ladies unable to train because they need full-time jobs which limits how often they can train.

“This results in performances suffering which may mean that women’s football, already struggling for exposure, will get even less coverage.

“The FA claim the funding in women's football has never been higher, but you can understand why young girls perhaps don't aspire to be a professional footballer - it simply isn't financially viable.

“On the bright side, the women's game at grassroots level continues to flourish with a record 147,000 girls and women being FA affiliated last season.

“This is reflected in the England U19s reaching the UEFA European Championship Finals and the senior team qualifying for last year’s FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time in 12 years.”

Despite Starmer’s comments, Lakeland praised the recent efforts of the F.A. He said:
“The F.A have started to pump a lot of money into the women’s game to hopefully bring it up to speed with other countries such as Sweden and the eventual world cup winners Germany. But with a new Women’s professional soccer league in America called Women’s soccer LLC due to start in 2009 the F.A must continue to do all it can to ensure the best British players stay in this country.”

John Taberner, Chairman of Preston North End’s junior teams said:
“This year is the first year we’ve managed to have enough players to put out a team at each year group between the ages of 10-16 but overall participation rates for girls are still significantly lower than boys. Attitudes towards the game are slowly changing, it is more widely accepted socially now for girls to play football. We are beginning to attract a wider range of girls. The game is no longer all about strength; more athletic, fitter girls are proving effective in the game.

“Parents have a big role to play in whether there girls get involved, unfortunately although the situation has improved there are still a lot of stereotypes surrounding women’s football in the UK. Many Parents seem to push their girls into sports which are traditionally classed as being more feminine sports.

“What would help to overcome this problem is if the women’s game could get more media courage and the creation of role model’s that come with this. Hopefully this would encourage more girls to push to get involved in football and convince parents that there is nothing wrong with girls playing the sport…

“We must continue to work with the Council to make sure there are opportunities for girls to get involved with football.”

Preston City Council currently runs a coaching scheme on Saturday mornings where 10-16 year olds girls can come along and receive coaching for a very small fee. Many players who attend these sessions are then scouted by various clubs. Noble says this is a good thing but thinks clubs and councils could be doing a bit more:
“Many of the girls at my team have been picked out by schemes such as the community coaching scheme, girls that are not taken to a club such as ours remain in the scheme and consistently improve.

However there are few chances for girls who are not at a club to compete in tournaments. There is the Lancashire association girls tournament but this is only for girls who are already playing at a club. More needs to be done. Perhaps 5-a-side organisations such as power league could encourage more women and girls to get involved in competitive tournaments.”

Have your say, what needs to be done to bring the women’s game more in line with the men’s game?

Related Links

Emilie Starmer's Blog –
http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/sport/football/goalpost/s/2024204_investment_in_womens_football

Women’s Premier League Table - http://www.thefa.com/Womens/PremierLeague/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2008/03/Arsenal_extend_lead.htm

Womens Football Forum -http://womensfootball.eu/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=83d1d6ab899d282e0a7deeffc1f716f1&topic=3170.0

Women’s Premier Soccer League America –
http://www.wpsl.info/news/index.php?cat=1&id=289

Picture adapted From

www.TheFA.com
Andrew Bowden - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bods/544740353/