Although audiences are increasing, women’s football still lags behind its male counterparts in terms of funding, media interest and crowd turnout and it is the trending point of discussion in the sporting world these days.
The record high salaries of male Premier League players has no equivalent in the women’s game: which leads to the women’s game being subject to a lot of ignorance, especially on social media platforms.
When Sky Sports posted about Chelsea Women’s 9-0 win against Bristol in a Women’s Super League fixture, there were a fair share of trolls who were bemoaning about the women’s game and how conceding 9 goals in a game was ridiculous when men’s teams concede the same over the course of a tournament.
The Sky Sports admin handling the Instagram account had a fitting response for the troll, as he buried the deriding comment by stating the instance of Leicester scoring 9 goals in a game against Southampton in the Premier League last season.
Women’s football has been subject to amusement and ignorance for a very long time, until recently: as demands for equal pay in football had grown louder following the successful staging of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament in France.
With the US National Team triumphant in the final, the crowd in the stadium chanted: “Equal pay! Equal pay!” “I think we are done with the questions like ‘are we worth it?’, ‘should we have equal pay?’,” American captain as well as star player Megan Rapinoe said after the game. “Let’s get to the next point of ‘what’s next?’.”
With reputed footballing nations such as Brazil and England promising equal pay to both their men’s and women’s national teams, it is evident that women’s football is no more something to ridicule or be amused at the existence of.
It is a part of the game we all love and admire irrespective of gender, and there is nothing wrong with supporting something as effervescent as the comeuppance of the women’s game: as made clear by the Sky Sports admin.
