Can we have our ball back?

 

On Sunday the whole country seemed to revel in the glow of the success of the Lionesses at Wembley.  Perhaps Prince William caught the national mood as he hugged the team members before presenting them with their winner’s medal.

Our eldest son was in the stadium and said the atmosphere amongst the 87,000 spectators was electric.

Yet the story of women’s football sounds like it comes from a different planet, even more so when we realise the prejudice shown against them was just a hundred years ago.

It was in 1894 that Nettie Honeyball (what a wonderful name!) founded the British Ladies Football Club.  The game was popular amongst women, but it took the tragedy of war to bring it to significant prominence.

For, during the First World War the role of women on the Home Front changed dramatically simply because of the absence of so many men who were away fighting.  It was during this period in North East England that the Munitionettes’ Cup was established.  On Boxing Day 1917 a Women’s Football International was held between England and Ireland before a crowd of 20,000.  And then a Women’s Cup Final in 1918 was played before no less than a staggering 22,000.

Now, none of this success and enthusiasm went down well with the English Football Association who, in 1921 issued a statement which read: the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not be encouraged.

That started a ‘ban’ on the women’s game that lasted from 1921 until 1970.  Similar restrictions were also introduced in countries such as Germany and Brazil.

The FA made it impossible for women’s teams to play on any grounds that belonged to the Association.  Some teams tried to continue by playing on rugby pitches but, basically, the momentum of the women’s game was lost.

Historians conclude that jealousy played a big part in this prejudice as the ‘gates’ at women’s games were financially significant, and the FA had no control over these monies.  So, rather than seek a mutually beneficial way forward, the men took the women’s ball away.

What a difference a century makes, and how ‘absurd’ it all sounds now to read of the reasoning behind the ban.

Part of the dignity of being human and made, as the Bible rather poetically says, ‘in the image of God’, is the ability we have to change our minds and in that process to see the world differently and afresh with new perspectives.  Such a process leads to progress!

In a book the AFC Book Discussion Group are currently reading, Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes: Yes, we do have setbacks, but you must keep everything in perspective.  The world is getting better.  Think about the rights of women or how slavery was considered morally justified a few hundred years ago.  It takes time.  We are growing and learning how to be compassionate, how to be caring, how to be human.

Wonderful words of hope from a man who knew what it meant to live in bleak times.

Such a way of thinking meant that, following the success of England in the 1966 World Cup, the Football Association eventually said ‘yes’ in 1970 to those from the women’s game who had been demanding for decades that they  have their ball back!

Blog holiday now until September – have a lovely summer!