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Hope Powell Interview
- Thread starter Postman Pat
- Start date
GOM
living vicariously
I never mentioned anything about risk free, I just said I could happily live off £30k+ a year
The_Viper
Well-known member
This. Enforcing mixed gender teams just ensures that our games continues to go backwards.
We're having a similar experience with rugby. We've got a reasonably thriving girls team but to grow properly, we need the 9 and 10-year olds to come through. I'm not sure that it's always lack of interest, in rugby's case there's not the acknowledgement that females play rugby The final of the Women's WC was broadcast on ITV but that's the first time women's rugby has been shown in terrestrial TV. We're trying to get into schools - we've offered to send coaches into primary schools to run sessions (at no cost to schools or pupils) and have had virtually no interest - we're going to into just one school in the whole of B&H. So, it's not parents that think rugby is not appropriate for girls, it's the schools - and that's a big barrier.
Football is a bit further advanced but there needs to be more of a change - perhaps more female pundits on MOTD or Sky (I know Steph Houghton has appeared on Sky), more women's games on terrestrial etc. It's no surprise that the greater media coverage has spawned better attendances and more participation but it will be a slow process. There are still some barriers to overcome.
And football is in strange position for girls: some find it too rough and play netball or basketball instead but then there are those like my daughter (and several members of her rugby team) who found football a bit tame and wanted something more physical.
Sorry but that doesn't play out in the real world at all.
My mate with the daughter in Brighton Under 10s moved her there because she was better than most of the boys she played with at age 7 (and, y'know, it's Brighton). Another one of our coaches at my club has his daughter in the under 8s team. Last season she was the leading goal scorer and player of the season. She could EASILY get in to the current Brghton under 10 girls but he chooses to keep her at a mixed club.
By 14 this changes dramatically. Our current under 14s have one girl and she's nowhere near the star player she was at 10. The boys she's competing with are bigger, stronger, faster, nastier and full of hormones that make them complete a-holes, plus there's already a need for her to come to games already dressed to avoid having to share dressing rooms with player in varying stages of physical development.
By 18 I'd like to see the best girls playing women's football and trying to raise the standards and trying to get other girls interested. As I said, I'd actually like our club to start a girl's section but there isn't the interest. In mixed teenage and over teams the very best girls are going to be substitutes or bit part players at best. You really haven't watched a lot of youth football if you think otherwise.