Yes, it is one thing watching a one off high profile final at Wembley and quite another turning up to Man City's youth ground to watch the Man City WSL team week in and week out. I gather if you want to watch Arsenal Women you go to Boreham Wood's ground. I don't think either venue is ever sold out; not even close. What the BBC and the other woke proponents of the Women's game dont quite seem to get is that affection/loyalty to a team doesn't happen over night just because of one high profile win. I suspect most folks on this board have supported Pools all their lives probably went with dad when young. We turn up on cold nights full of hope desperate for that buzz of seeing a Pools player lashing one into the net. We endure the misery we share with fellow Poolies and it helps a bit. Why do we do it? It is hard to say but we just do. That affection, that magnetic attraction builds over a long time and is based on a mix of nostalgia and an all consuming desire just for a win or two. You cant manufacture powerful emotional attachment to suit a political agenda.

I don't think the middle eastern owners setup the Man Ciity WSL because they are 'woke'.

The top premiership sides want to eat up as much of the money in football as possible. You don't have to grow your support organically if you can use your influence on the media to promote the idea that mens and womens footy is the same, then you can just convert the fanbase you already have to watching both versions of the game.

They can give the women’s game a tsunami of publicity, but turning up to watch those players at their respective club’s on a cold night in January will answer a few questions.
It’s the Wimbledon thing, every year the plucky Brit of either sex is hyped and both get beaten, the public go ape and deserted tennis courts around the country are full for a fortnight then the drama fades and the tumbleweeds (if we had them) return.
The media are good at pumping things up, but can only do it for so long, you need fans who care to make it work and that will be the judge.

Yeah, that is one way of looking at it and I get your point about trying to convert the fan base though I am not sure it is working so far. I don't think any of the Premiership owners are particularly woke but I believe it is now compulsory for all teams in The Premiership and EFL to have a Woman's team so I guess Man City decided to ensure the clubs success was reflected in the Women's team so money has been spent on signings. This is not always the case is it? Newcastle Women dont have anything like the profile of Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea. Come to think of it, whats going on with Liverpool Women? Do some big clubs care less about their women's teams than others?

Looking at Arsenal women's attendances from last season they attracted over 8000 against Chelsea and 13000 against Spurs. Which is way over there normal attendance, so clearly playing on men's traditional rivalries has a crossover effect.

The world football governing bodies have tried decades breaking into US, Asia, Africa etc. Even got the WC this year in bloody Qatar it was just a matter of time before they tried to really break the female market. Whether it will succeed in the long run is open for debate

I know a lot of feminist journos in left wing media are trying to score political points off the back of the lionesses success but just think it is not the whole story.

Give it a few years and every team will have to contain 5 female players, no body contact and no point.

just waiting for that trans word to pop its ugly head up and knacker the hard work that has been done. not much said about that in womens football against other sports. being a cynic i feel it could have been a case of keeping things quiet with the english lasses in a major tournament with a chance of winning it.

If things continue, what and who will be able to stop some second rate goalkeeper who now decides he’s a woman becoming England ‘women’s’ keeper…..?

Is woman’s football going to be like cricket. Full houses for internationals, T20 etc but county games and grass routes poorly attended.

the question is if you have never attended anything in the past why would you start attending something now. it may make you go if you had thought about doing so but not create a new interest overnight.

Womens footy won’t get a mention again till their World Cup not unless you read the BBC Website which appears to promote it but only the ones part of the Premier League clubs.

I hope all politicians commit to this.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... in-schools

Since when we’re they stopped

The patriarchy stopped them!! All they do is stop women from doing anything. They're all "ists" and "phobes". Haven't you heard?

Do they create their own myths …. girls were even in the school team at my son ‘s junior school in the early 80’s….but just the ones so inclined, most weren’t remotely interested.

All kids are not encouraged to do sport but girls more so.

We’ll that’s down to the school ethos, simple as that, or are junior schools none too hot on sports nowadays….?

I suspect the women’s game is now seen as a potential revenue stream by the suits.

all i can remember from school was the sporty lasses being quite happy playing hockey, netball, tennis and doing athletics. the lads had football in winter with cricket and athletics after easter. there were a number of lads that hated sports usually because they were crap at them, but every excuse known to mankind was trotted out by many lasses to be excused games. still now schools have a limited time for sporting lessons and you can only play one game at a time. in that case if girls football is to be king what happens to the other sports they traditionally play. womens gold medals in hockey and netball will certainly have their heads spinning.

They played a bit of rounders too at my old school. Don't remember much for girls in the way of athletics, cross-country runs and stuff were for the lads. It was a new school with a pool though, so everybody did swimming.

Stands to reason that these days girls are going to want to do football, cricket, athletics, even boxing. They are routes to fame and lucrative careers for the most talented. Same motivation that us lads always had!

Nobody ever got rich playing rounders.

so lets put all sports on the banned list you cannot get rich playing them. when i played football and cricket as a kid i never thought for a single minute that if i became good i,d earn money out of it. neither sex should be at a disadvantage for taking up anything as long as there is no agenda behind it. go back 50 years when we started seeing women driving wagons and buses. there was no real reason why they never did it and still feel it was a feminist agenda that pushed many into it where like some men it was not really the job for them. was around at the time of the first women bus drivers in peace time. out of the 6 in the driving school only one lasted longer than 6 months and even she did her best to pick and choose shifts to suit her as certain vehicles were always allocated to them.

This whole football thing is nothing new, the England Women’s cricket team won the Cricket World Cup in 2017, yet there was none of this hysteria.
It’s the MSM and interested party’s courting a potential ‘Milch Cow’.

so lets put all sports on the banned list you cannot get rich playing them. when i played football and cricket as a kid i never thought for a single minute that if i became good i,d earn money out of it. neither sex should be at a disadvantage for taking up anything as long as there is no agenda behind it. [/quote]

Crikey, who said anything about banning anything? Agree 100% with "neither sex should be at a disadvantage for taking up anything."

I played sports because I enjoyed them, never in a million years could I imagine doing it for a living. I think most dedicated sports folk are rather driven individuals, obsessive even…takes up too much of your precious time.
Even most sports clubs only seem to welcome the members kids, so you never get the best in the town.

England have won up to now 118 medals in the Commonwealth Games in some more enduring sports than football yet there is not the same euphoria as the womens football ?

that is totally true. the main problem is football is the countries main national sport unlike commonwealth games stuff, both codes of rugby and all traditional summer sports. its bound to get a big mention but like everything these days they just go to OTT on it. us older end didn,t need some inspiration from someone to take football and other stuff up. we did it because others did and found enjoyment out of it. this inspiration to the nation is totally bollox. once they find they are crap at it and their mates do not want any part of it they,ll slink away for ever. just like i did after my one and only forced visit to a dance school.

You'll make Strictly yet, Mr Accy.

The lioness’s got a tsunami of publicity ……. and whoever gets that, gets the rewards.
Sadly, the public are like sponges, they absorb what’s in front of them.

All the fuss over the attendence I’ve just seen highlights of woman’s hockey at Commonwealth Games. Obviously not as big as Wembley but it was packed out.

the english win over the aussies got less than one minute of mention this morning on the sports roundup. hockey for both men and women is a sport where size does not matter with much less a difference between the mens and womens game. when i started playing it in 1963 i had to start at the bottom with the 3rd team. they played the ladies section every season and usually the lasses won.

Pools womens team headline the OS
https://www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk/news ... re-season/

And their match report for a friendly is longer than the Wimbledon game. What was the attendence?

I doubt that there's a strict word limit for these things. Or that both reports were written by the same person.

What's your concern? That there's a conspiracy in the club hierarchy to prioritise the women's team?

I'm happy to be kept informed about the progress of all the club's sides. Come on you Monkeyesses!

To be honest I’m just sick of woman’s football made out as if people are that interested. What league to our ladies play in? Where do they play? When do they play etc how many people attend. I do follow the youths and I used to go to the reserves when we had oneevery Wednesday afternoon but woman’s football sorry not for me but everyone to their own.

The woke mainstream media are in raptures over wimmmmin’s football, so you’ll get it day and night and be enthused by it to the point of ecstasy like them or denounced as a misogynistic, male oppressor. Ah well.

HUFC have had a women's team for 7 or 8 years now. They had a pretty good side that was challenging for promotion in their division, then the wheels came off along with everything else with the cutbacks Raj had to make after the 2019-20 season was stopped by Covid. All the best players left and the scratch team Pools were able to put out last season wasn't competitive. Along with all the other positive steps taken around the club, a recruitment drive for the women's team was announced in the pre-season. Judging by recent results they are back on the up.

How do I know this? Because the OS and the club programme have done updates on HUWFC for years. Where do they play their home games? Grayfields. Have I been? No. Never seen a Youth or Academy game either. But I like to know how they are all getting on. Up the Pools!

what will they denounce other women as who have no interest in the game played by their own sex but are quite prepared to watch the blokes play live or on the box.

The thing is, separating the footy from the politics. Happy for women's football to thrive but I cant stand the aggressive feminism which takes a ride on the back of the women players who I have no doubt just want to play the game. The aggressive feminists aka the BBC, Guardian journalists etc.

Fair enough. My point is that Pools' support of a women's team predates all the hype around the success of the England women's team - which is anyway dying down now that the Prem is up and running again and the media have it back to obsess over.

‘Women’s’ football I’m referring to is the England women’s team, which has been seized on by the media, they didn’t really seem to care before that about genuine grass roots woman’s football.

when its took over by sky or someone else next time around it will hardly get a mention. womens crown green bowls will then be the future.

When working out the back I always play Talksport on the radio, we’ll used to.
It’s become rather odd with it’s total obsession with the top six of the Premiership. Anything else after the top six is mere froth blowing across the airwaves.
I’ve decommissioned it.

going back to being a kid when i read chas.buchans football monthly and the football star it did concentrate more on the top division but others had a look in somewhere. its always been about the premier league on the radio but as you say things are reaching a new low with the top six getting the publicity and the others just seemingly there to give em fixtures or make up the numbers. wish that european league would get off the ground just to wave goodbye to those teams.

Give it time and it’ll happen.

souness in bother now with the bbc diversity dept...dear oh dear...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62548431

But that particular game was a ‘man’s game’, never noticed any ladies playing.
The world is slowly going mad.

From the reports on that game if any wimmin had been playing they'd be dead now.
They don't understand the context in which Souness said what he said.

I don’t think there had to be a context, the Stasi just leap on trigger phrases.
I suspect the narcissistic underlings are happy with that trophy.

Snowy no woman playing but the token ex woman footballer was on panel giving ‘expert’ views.