Even Methven, who would cross London on foot to pick up a fiver on the pavement, has backtracked from the Charlton Women’s Team, all but admitting it’s a cash guzzler. If there was any money in it, you can be sure the SMT would be all over it, like @ElfsborgAddick at a sale in Primark. Women’s football should be left to grow organically, and find its natural place in the UK sporting eco-system. It’s had a lot of hype and lot of money thrown at it, but as someone once famously said in a different context, “you can’t buck the bucket”. Punters don’t want to pay to watch it.
Let’s go back to why this is now an issue. The pitch at the Valley looks like a cabbage patch. The playing surface is dreadful. Methven went public last week that the main reason for this was that more games than ever are now being played on it. A club sponsor on another forum then revealed that in return for a grant of £750,000 from the football authorities, Methven had signed a deal that the Women’s team had to play their home games at the Valley for the next ten years.
Women's football was growing organically in the 1920's. Crowds for women's games were growing to rival or surpass those for some men's teams. That's why the FA banned women's football for 50 years. And threatened to expel any Football Club from the English Leagues if they allowed women's football matches to be held in their grounds. No, this wasn't in Afghanistan. It was here in England. Until the mid-1970's. When the women's England team won the 2022 European Championships, they were not playing in front of 300 fans. But every one of those players had to learn their craft somewhere. Somewhere local, with the support of their local football Club. I find it remarkable that, with everything else being inflicted on CAFC by Duchatelet and the current shysters in the board room, the women's team can be blamed for the state of the Valley pitch to the point where they should seemingly not only be barred from playing on it, but they should be abolished entirely. Charlie boy, it seems ITTV isn't the only forum where some of your views are supported. And here I was thinking you were a thoroughly devious, dishonest chancer who I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw you.
I guess it’s not binary Lardi - you can surely agree with somethings Charlie says whilst still thinking he is a tool and ineffectual
Nobody has claimed the women’s team should be “abolished” @lardiman , where did you get that from ? It’s indisputable that the more you play on a pitch, the more you wear it. Given the club’s current predicament, they certainly shouldn’t be paying anything remotely like £800,000 pa to subsidise it. Let the market decide where best to host the games - why use a 27,000 seater stadium for matches that attract attendances of 150 ?
@Dick Plumb1 is correct Lardi. When you are feeling better (get well soon ) you should show your support for the Women’s Team by becoming their 151st paying spectator.
Women's League Cup Final on BBC1; Lucy Bronze blatant dive in the area - rightly rewarded with a yellow card. The commentator says "I don't think she cheated. She anticipated the contact". There was no contact. Bronze dived. Whether it's men's or women's football, commentators excusing cheating does the game no favours whatsoever. If the ref had bought the dive and awarded a penalty, would Bronze have said "hang on ref, there was no contact"? Like F*ck would she. When youngsters see top professionals cheating, then having it explained away with stupid expressions like "anticipating the contact" it just gives those kids the green light to cheat the next time they play. "Anticipating the contact" is as feeble as a shirt-pull not being a yellow card foul because it "isn't sustained enough" PS: I wasn't actually watching the whole game, I was just channel surfing during an ad-break on SSN. Honest
Ooo-er, that's a bit awkward... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cg5qev0948vo Football ain't what it used to be. Just ask Vinnie Jones & Gazza
Apparently age as well as gender is no barrier if you want to do well as a footballer in Finland https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ckgqpdwp012o
Interesting BBC News piece; https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cqxe751z2z0o I think there's a correction going on here. The explosive rise in attendances at some WSL games (not reflected in the lower women's leagues) probably was fuelled by the success of the Lionesses. Now that success has faded into the past a bit. And I'm not sure many are too hopeful about this upcoming tournament. I still hope women's football continues to grow in popularity. It can only be a force for good in society in my view. But it needs to find its own identity. Not just mimic the men's game.
Apparently Jones is p***** off with our pitch, understandably so. I imagine we'll almost certainly request our first game to be away to allow extra time for work to be done. Surely we should let the women play the games at Dartford for the 500 fans that have an interest. Ivor's 'mate' Methven was at pains to not open his trap too much on them, and when he did he was very sceptical on the benefit of them when budgets were taken away from the men's team to focus on the rubbish served up by the women. As a result, our pitch would hopefully be in better shape and help our survival in the Championship.
I would guess there are 14 or 15 teams in the Championship filled with better footballers than we will have by August. We had better hope there are not 21 teams like that. A better pitch will help technically better opponents. Are any of us really expecting Charlton to consolidate in the 2nd tier by out-playing opposing teams? On ITTV Bexley always blames the ref. Here, we blame the women.
The men's team is all that matters to Charlton fans. A combined use of the pitch by the women and whatever problem with the installation of the new pitch we are in this situation. I wonder if there are any other clubs not having a home pre-season game.
