Ladies Only

I've been thinking a fair bit about Women's football this week. Random I know but that is the title of my blog. I attended the Lyon v Torres game last week and it just got me thinking about the current status and potential development of the game. Alot of time, effort and passion is put into Women's football, but is just seems to be struggling to make a breakthrough.

The game itself was reasonably entertaining, despite the incredibly cold temperatures. It turned out to be a little one-sided, but the 3-0 scoreline did not give a completely accurate reflection of the scoreline. Here's the report....have a read!

http://www.uefa.com/womenschampionsleague/matches/season=2010/round=2000060/match=2001493/report/index.html

As with anything, it requires investment. It requires sums of money being ploughed into the game to enhance facilities, training methods etc in an attempt to improve the level of the domestic leagues. Will that happen? I very much doubt it. Little chance of a return of investment....even less so than the men's game, and little chance that there are sufficient benefactors out there willing to lose money for the love of the game.

Similar to Futsal, can it really emerge in a crowded market to ever really make an impact and be a financially viable sport? I am not sure. One thing it does need is for one or two superstars to emerge to replace the Mia Hamm's, Birgit Prinz's, Hanna Ljungberg's etc.

Perhaps more so than Futsal, a better comparison may be Women's boxing. Trying to compete in a relatively crowded market, with a lot of dedicated individuals determined to make a difference but without the investment to really push the sport along. Maybe more than any of that, it is more an issue of social acceptance. I don't know exactly. What I do know is that it does need a some life sparked into it to push it to the next level.