|
Perhaps many readers will be inclined to dismiss from
their minds the question of whether girls should play football, with the
thought: "It doesn't matter; they do."
Now that the Football Association has "put its foot down
with a firm hand," however, the question has again become one of topical
interest.
As a mere man there are just one or two points that
strike me in connection with the matter. The first is, are there not enough
games quite suitable for women and girls without their wanting to play such
a game as football, about which there is a controversial atmosphere?
There are dozens of good girls' games - or perhaps I had
better say, good games for girls. It seems to me, however, that the whole
business is simply another case of the girls wanting to copy the men.
Do football girls really get any pleasure out of their
play? I very much doubt it. It is the same as with smoking, the majority of
them positively detest it - but it looks big, you know!
From the point of view of the spectators, the position is
even more ridiculous. The grand old British sport of football then becomes a
pantomime. Instead of the spectators watching tactics, they watch antics.
As a
music-hall "turn," a girls' football match is in its true
company; as a healthy outdoor sport, it is out of its element
entirely.
The trainer
of one of the best-known girls' football teams has been saying, in a
contemporary, that she can see the time coming (in the near future,
too) when the best girls' team will be able to play the best
professional team in the country.
The comment
which comes immediately to the mind is "Don't be silly!" A
team of schoolboys would beat Dick Kerr's team, or any other girls'
team, with the greatest of ease. Why? For the simple reason that
football is essentially a game for the male sex - women are not
"built" for it.
A word to the
girls who do play - stop it! Whatever you think, you are not admired
by the opposite sex.
|
