Women's Football

Latterly, Women's football has been highly sought upon as one of sports successful landmarks, however it still faces many struggles in challenge of their popularity and lack of ''masculinity' in the game. 

The history of women's football has seen major competitions at both national and international levels, as mentioned earlier, women's football has faced many struggles over the course of the century. However, in the early 1920's one match in England achieved more than 50,000 spectators, none the less, the FA then introduced a ban in 1921 that disallowed women's football games from the grounds used by member clubs, this ban remained until 1971!

The revival of women's football came when the English women's FA was found in 1969, more women's teams became popular within the sport, Italy became the first country with professional women's football players, followed by Japan and the USA. 

However, merely discussing the lack of popularity and coverage of the sport, women still struggle for pay and opportunities similar to male football players.. league and international women's football has enjoyed far less media and tv coverage, but this is not to say that the participation and enjoyment of women's football continues to grow, with the country's biggest clubs hosting women's super leagues. 

Despite the encouraging representation of women's football across the globe, there have been many challenging controversies. In 2004 FIFA's president Sepp Blatter suggested that women footballers should wear tighter shorts and low cut shirts to create a more female aesthetic and attract more male fans, his comment was correctly criticised and the opinion of both women and men came together.  As football fans  we celebrate football as a sport, we do not see these people as sex symbols. 

Later, in 2011, Iran had to forfeit an Olympic qualification in Jordan after taking to the field in religious headscarfs and body wear. FIFA automatically awarded a 3-0 default win to Jordan with an explanation that the Iranian kits were an "infringement of the Laws of the Game" due to safety concerns. After a lot of unnecessary delegation, FIFA approved the future use of hijabs. 

Girls of all ages now widely participate in tournaments and leagues within the country, most recently Chelsea Ladies became the latest WSL 1 team to win the league, cup finals such as the women's FA cup are hosted at some of the biggest grounds in the country and attract thousands of modern day supporters of football.

Despite this all it is to remembered that we should all celebrate football as a sport no matter what gender, race or culture, at the end of the day the same rules apply, the aspect of the game is still the same yet the era of sexism and a stereotype surrounding women's football lingers. This is a minority, yet we cannot let the minority define sport, we should all be kicking a football for the same fans, with the same passion, for the same reason... because we love football!!