Womens Football World Cup

[Hector]

I don't know much about football, but I watched the semi-final between UK and Australia last night and couldn't leave the TV!  I thought it was a very well played game and could have gone either way.  Well done The Lionesses though and good luck against Spain!

[Roger]

Having scraped through against Nigeria and Columbia, England really came through fighting this time and clearly deserved the win IMO. BUT there was a period, before England got their second goal, when the Aussies missed two chances which would have probably changed the result.

England took their chances well on the day and if they can repeat that against Spain they could be the Champs 

[Roger]

I'm looking forward to 11.00 am (UK) Sunday morning for the final - I wonder if it will be on Thai TV ?

England have a real chance here and for me, are the favourites. I wonder if or how Lauren James will be fitted back into the team ?

[Alfie]

I don't want to jinx the England women's football team by mentioning it, but I heard that dreadful song (from 1996?) on the radio the other day.

Is football really "coming home" this time?

[Roger]

I've already jinxed it Alfie - England ARE the clear favourites    (and therefore it might well go wrong    )

I hear there is discontent in the England camp too, with the Ladies demands for £100K bonuses for a win having been turned down. More generally, the usual rumbles about pay equality with Men are being floated but for me, the Women's pay should reflect the revenue generated by the Women's game. MMmmmm

Come on England !!

[Hector]

As I have mentioned before, I know little about football.  My only brush with a major English team was when I and another consultant went from here to carry out a Team Building programme for Leicester City back in 2011 not long after King Power had bought them. The good Sven was the manager then; nice guy with a rather attractive secretary I recall!
But my reason for posting is to sound out you football buffs about one particular question raised by the Ladies World Cup.  There has been a lot of hype in the media about how much this World Cup has raised the profile of ladies football and I am sure they are right and other factors like their professionalism, skill and so on are not in doubt, but in this age of equal pay for equal work I can't help wondering about the fact that the Lionesses are paid a lot less than their male counterparts, stand to receive a substantially lower bonus if they win (or lose) the final and the manager (Wiegman) receives some 10% of  the England male manager.  Do you reckon this will change?  Should it change?  It doesn't seem right to me, but then there may well be factors I know nothing about.
Just interested.  I shall be watching the game this evening!

[Roger]

Hi Hector. The pay for the England Ladies and their Manager is bound to rise significantly with time but where will the finance come from ? I'm guessing that even Women's League football is not self-financing at the moment and is subsidised by the Parent (Men's) Clubs ? But if the wider Women's game grows then their pay should reflect that of course.

Paying the Women equally atm would be 'woke doctrinaire' - they cannot match the skills, strength and competitiveness of the Men's game, (anymore than in the case of tennis, where Ladies did manage to wield the 'woke' axe successfully and get preferential pay - unjustly IMO).

All good fun . . . .

 

[Roger]

Congratulations to Spain - they were much quicker on their feet, stronger in control of the ball and they looked more organised than England. After 15 minutes Spain looked so much better I felt they were likely to be the winners.

But well done England with the silver medal     Football being what it is, with just one goal in it, England might still have pinched it with their hard running and shooting ability but it wasn't to be     The best side won.

On a day when many England players didn't play well, Mary Earp stood out with many fine saves - I thought she was a bit slow down when Spain scored, but otherwise, she kept us in it  !

[Teessider]

I agree Roger, the best team won. Despite the behaviour of the men in charge, the despised coach (Vilda) and the sexist football president (Rubiales). With regard to equal pay for the women this will only come alongside the problems it has brought to the mens game eg sportswashing, ridiculous levels of gambling advertising, and price gouging making attendance unaffordable for many.

[Roger]

Teess your identifying of Rubiales as 'sexist' earlier was a good point, given the ongoing hullabaloo we now have.

But there are pictures that seem to show Hermoso lifting Rubiales on the pitch before the presentations in the elation of it all - in the spirit in which Rubiales gave her a kiss later 

Yes the short kiss was an imposition in the exuberance of the moment, but honestly, surely it's mountains and molehills.

The joy of Spain's triumph has now been largely dissipated in this nonsense    and IMO that is a great shame. The Lady footballers would have been better to move on and ignore it.

Hysteria rules !

[caller]

Hysteria rules !

Judging by the reaction to Rubiales defiance at a meeting of the Spanish FA, wildly cheered and supported by those present, including the managers of the Ladies and Mens teams (before subsequently backtracking in their support for Rubiales), it apprears that hysteria, mysogyny and sexism is rife at the top levels of Spanish football. 

Seriously, what were they all thinking of?

And then there is EUFA. Rubiales is a vice-president, although I am not sure what that role entails? They have been completely silent on this matter. His FIFA suspension affects his role there as well.

He is, or was, leading the joint bid from Spain, Portugal and Morocco to host the 2030 World Cup.

He tried to get his wiki entry in Spain removed. A quick look at wiki shows why.

I'd say football is better off without him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Rubiales

[Roger]

Caller you may well be right and they should have got rid of Rubiales somehow, someday.

But THE kiss . . . . 

It's sad that the hullabaloo has taken the focus totally away from that great triumph of the Spanish Ladies   

[caller]

In this artice from the beeb, Guillem Balague, who regularly writes about Spanish football, and about Spanish players and transfers in the premier league, made an interesting comment about Rubiales, which is something we may not have understood in the UK:

It's difficult to exaggerate how influential Rubiales was. His defiance suggests he may have felt safety in that influence.

Note past tense. Basically, in good old UK parlance, it seems he got a bit too big for his boots. Read in conjunction with his wiki entry, it does appear that he either failed to realise that he had crossed a line, or simply wasnt bothered because of his influence As you say Roger, his behaviour at the WC and his subsequent posturing has made him the main story, which in part, may have been his intention.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66626866

[Roger]

Yes Caller big for his boots as you say but I can understand that happening in the ruling ebullience of the moment. If Rubiales wanted the spotlight, he certainly succeeded !! But he may not enjoy the result   

[Roger]

In this link there's a Twitter video of Hermoso and others having a good natured laugh about the 'kiss' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12461601/Luis-Rubiales-sends-FIFA-newly-revealed-footage-Jenni-Hermoso-laughing.html

Rubiales' Mother ails in Hospital after her 'hunger strike' and his Uncle unhelpfully weighs in.

The hysteria whipped up by enthusiastic feminists continues . . . . mountains and molehills 

[Alfie]

I see that Rubiales has resigned now. About time too.

[Roger]

Hi Caller - maybe so but the whole matter has been mountains and molehills for me. Will this be the first step in repairing the "hysteria, mysogyny and sexism (is) rife at the top levels of Spanish football" as you mentioned earlier . . . OR is Rubiales the fall Guy, the sacrificial lamb whilst the wider matters remain the same ?

Either way the Spanish Ladies diminished their great triumph by opportunistically whipping this up, when it was evident that no real harm had been done and that the 'victim' had found it amusing