Sports Minister Tracey Crouch MP has criticised Manchester Utd over the lack of a women's team. "It is incredibly disappointing one of the biggest clubs doesn't have a ladies' team" she said. "They have an excellent centre for girls but don't translate that into a ladies' team. At a time when there is phenomenal interest in women's football, they should try to rectify that as soon as possible." Why? If women's football is strong it will thrive whether or not its clubs are associated with the leading men's teams. One of the most renowned women's teams are Doncaster Belles. They succeeded without being associated with a leading men's team. In fact, it probably helped them. They are recognisable in their own right and on their own merits and not because of the fame of the men's team with whom they share a name. If Utd are bullied into having a team as a sop to Crouch, it will demean the women's game. Tokenism is no good. Any views?
No, we shouldn't. Under no circumstances should we, we have to concentrate on real football not monkey tennis.
We did have. Nobody watched it, nobody sponsored it, nobody was interested at all. A business decision was made that it would be a pointless waste of everyone's time and effort. There was no money and no market for it. That hasn't changed either despite the claims that women's football is the biggest thing ever. It's an amateur sport subsidised by the men's game. It's effectively a winnet caught in the arse hairs of men's football. We also used to have a basketball team too. It was binned because it was pointless.
I'm surprised that you don't, as I doubt it would cost too much and it seems like a sensible marketing decision. Having said that, ours is ****e and largely ignored by the club and it's not like Levy to miss a trick, so it might not be worth it. The quality of the game is still poor, despite all of the publicity and the attendances can't be up to much, either.
Doubt the wave of publicity it is experiencing at the moment will last too much longer as it has been largely driven by the Women's WC and England getting to the SF in it. Naturally people have gotten behind this in a mix of patriotism and I strongly suspect that many have embraced it because of the overwhelming new found need of many to present themselves as totally PC and advocates of gender equality despite the fact that the women's game can never and will never hold a candle to the men's game given the gulf in natural physical capabilities. The fact that one of the biggest football clubs in the World and also a huge corporate entity in Man Utd do not have a women's team shows just how little interest there was before this summer's massive PR drive.
I don't think that it's going to be utterly **** forever, especially if it keeps getting support and publicity. With the cost of watching live football in this country, it might be an idea for clubs to promote it as a family friendly alternative. You still get to watch people playing football in your team's kit and representing the club and not have to pay out of the nose to do so. Any attempt to compete with men's football is utterly doomed though, obviously.
But will the publicity last ? Hard to tell at the moment if it will gather long standing interest or just a fad ( a la America's interest in last summer;s WC). As you say the price of watching the men's game is slowly pushing away working class fans (a disgrace BTW but that another issue) and they will surely pursue their passion in their football clubs elsewhere, whether it be the women's team only time will tell.
This isn't the first time women's football has had masses of publicity. Does anyone remember the last time? Arsenals women were largely the driving force behind it at the time.... Me neither.
Perhaps they saw the new replica kit with the plunging necklines and and thought we'd all like to see a bit of tit?
I don't think that United should be FORCED to have a women's team but in this day and age I'm with Peter Crouch's mum; it's probably the right thing to do. Ultimately it's United's decision though.
