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Women’s Super League Kicks off in the UK: A New Dawn for Women’s Football?

Published by Ian John on April 14, 2011

You may well have missed it but the inaugural FA Women’s Super League kicked off on Wednesday 13th April with a game televised live on ESPN between Arsenal and Chelsea ladies, which ended 1-0 to the Gunners.

Over the course of the summer, eight teams will contest 56 fixtures to decide who is the first Women’s Super League champion and the competition is being heralded as a first for women’s soccer and a crucial aspect in the planned development of women’s football in the UK.

The main impetus of this has been a £3m investment in the league by the FA, which has allowed each of the eight clubs participating to sign players on semi-professional contracts. It is hoped that this, and the continued investment in the game stemming from club revenue, will help raise standards across the UK.

It has been a long road for the women’s game to gain any sort of fair recognition in the UK. Up until 1993, the FA did not even acknowledge the women’s game and women were banned from playing in any FA sanctioned competitions. Since the FA officially recognised the women’s game, participation has grown so much that since 2002, women’s football is the most popular team sport to play for women in the UK.

England manager Hope Powell, who recently oversaw an important watershed victory for her team over women’s football superpowers the US at the start of April, hopes that the new league can help raise standards within the game as well as the profile of women’s football in the country.

“I’m hoping this league gives us a platform to build on,” Powell told BBC Sport. “Hopefully it will get some exposure by not competing with the men and by getting better attendances as the weather will be better.”

In her statement, Powell has underlined the greatest problem women’s football faces, which is the unfair but oft cited comparison with the male game. It is strange to think that in many other sports, Tennis and Golf for example, the women’s game is lauded in its own right. Yet in soccer, recidivist attitudes remain that regard women’s participation as “ladies playing a men’s game”.

It is an unfair comparison, the women’s version of soccer is played at a slower pace for certain and maybe lacks a certain the brutal element of the male version. Certainly, it lacks the prestige, but not because it is an inferior product, just a different one.

The women’s game is thankfully still clear of many of the maladies that so stain the male game, such as diving and conning of officials, bad sportsmanship, foul and abusive language continually at officials, sexist and outdated sports analysts and a willingness to blame every defeat on the officials. The women’s game places equal focus on technique at pace, control, passing, shooting. Yes it may be done slightly slower, but it does not mean it is any less skilled.

The league begins the start of a crucial two years for women’s soccer. The 2011 World Cup Finals in Germany look likely to be the biggest and most well-watched ever and in 2012, the Olympics will once again see many of the British stars playing in the Super League a chance to shine once again. With FA backing in the form of finance rather than empty words, regular exposure on television and perhaps with no male alternative available to compare with, perhaps women’s soccer will get a fair and equal chance to entertain this summer here in the UK.

It is an opportunity that has been long overdue.

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