News.
Charlton Athletic shuts down its women's team as a "cost-cutting measure" following the relegation of the men's team from the Premiership. "The club's entire women's section - senior teams, academy and centre of excellence - are to be scrapped", says the report. This despite the women's team winning Charlton's only trophies in recent years, and providing the best challenge to the Arsenal Ladies' domination in the FA Women's Premier League last season. Charlton players also have the honour of being called up to the current England women's national team.
For a bit of context, a link that's been posted before: an interview with Rachel Yankey, Arsenal Ladies striker and England international, just after the Arsenal Ladies won an unprecedented quadruple: the UEFA Women's Cup, the FA Women's Premier League, the FA Cup (which they won against Charlton 4-1) and the League Cup.
Some of this I've already said in comments elsewhere, so my apologies if you're reading this for the second time. I don't know how many of you follow women's football, but this comment on the BBC boards made me roll my eyes. People -- women and men -- are supporting women's football, even if not in the same numbers as men's football. The audience at the Women's FA Cup final last season is proof of that, in England at least. And did the commenter not see the crowds at the UEFA Women's Cup final?
Oh, right, that's because there's hardly any coverage of women's football on TV. As it is, there's little chance of capitalising on the possibility of expansion because of underfunding and lack of exposure/marketing and the reluctance to recognise that hey, giving women's football bigger and better venues may well be worth it. Women's football gets so little in England -- shutting down its women's section isn't going to save Charlton much money.
(If I get started on women's football in other parts of the world, I'll be here all day. Suffice to say that I hope the Matildas will do very well in the 2007 Women's World Cup, because after the disappointment of the Olympic qualifiers and missing out on the Australian football boom, they deserve some of the romance that football is good at.)
Instead of going into a panic over losing broadcast rights to pay TV, the BBC and other broadcasters should be looking into new markets. There aren't many women's football leagues around the world and only a few of them are professional leagues (e.g. the Swedish women's league), but there's more than enough in there for greater coverage that what we're getting. It can't be at all a bad thing, for one, to have the pleasure of watching players you know are in it solely for the love of the game.
For a bit of context, a link that's been posted before: an interview with Rachel Yankey, Arsenal Ladies striker and England international, just after the Arsenal Ladies won an unprecedented quadruple: the UEFA Women's Cup, the FA Women's Premier League, the FA Cup (which they won against Charlton 4-1) and the League Cup.
Some of this I've already said in comments elsewhere, so my apologies if you're reading this for the second time. I don't know how many of you follow women's football, but this comment on the BBC boards made me roll my eyes. People -- women and men -- are supporting women's football, even if not in the same numbers as men's football. The audience at the Women's FA Cup final last season is proof of that, in England at least. And did the commenter not see the crowds at the UEFA Women's Cup final?
Oh, right, that's because there's hardly any coverage of women's football on TV. As it is, there's little chance of capitalising on the possibility of expansion because of underfunding and lack of exposure/marketing and the reluctance to recognise that hey, giving women's football bigger and better venues may well be worth it. Women's football gets so little in England -- shutting down its women's section isn't going to save Charlton much money.
(If I get started on women's football in other parts of the world, I'll be here all day. Suffice to say that I hope the Matildas will do very well in the 2007 Women's World Cup, because after the disappointment of the Olympic qualifiers and missing out on the Australian football boom, they deserve some of the romance that football is good at.)
Instead of going into a panic over losing broadcast rights to pay TV, the BBC and other broadcasters should be looking into new markets. There aren't many women's football leagues around the world and only a few of them are professional leagues (e.g. the Swedish women's league), but there's more than enough in there for greater coverage that what we're getting. It can't be at all a bad thing, for one, to have the pleasure of watching players you know are in it solely for the love of the game.