As some of you know, I’ve gone a touch insane about football (soccer to Americans and Australians) thanks to my attachment to Arsenal and Premier League over the last year and a bit. While I do love our boys, something that has been getting to me more and more is the marginalisation and invisibility of women’s football. I have complained about the lack of coverage, in the media and in the presentation of games on TV, and the overwhelming assumption that no one is going to be interested. I’m interested! And not just because, you know, Arsenal Ladies rocks. So far my support has been fairly limited. I follow the Guardian news feed for women’s football in the UK, I keep an eye out for news stories elsewhere, and I’ve even started taking an interest in Australian soccer!

The trouble with living in Tasmania is that we don’t have a state team (the same is true for Aussie Rules) which means if you want to barrack for a team you have to choose them for some other reason. But, hey. My team is Arsenal and I’m pretty sure I’ve never even been to their area of London before. I’m not even sure where it is. I’d have to look at a map. And I have been so busy being obsessed with all things Arsenal that I haven’t got around to thinking about or choosing an Aussie team. I told myself that, you know, I’d wait until there was some women’s soccer before I got interested in the more local stuff. Or until my daughter gets on her own team.

But as it turns out, the Australian women’s “pro” W-League (I’m sure you can imagine why it’s in inverted commas, and has nothing to do with whether or not the players have a professional attitude) is going strong in its second season and I was delighted beyond all reason when it turned out the ABC was screening some W-League games on Saturday afternoons. So I decided to choose a team.

I chose Brisbane Roar for many reasons:
a) they’re kind of brilliant right now
b) they’re wearing ORANGE, a colour I never used to like but of which my daughters have inspired a new appreciation
c) I like the name
d) Brisbane is the non-Hobart city I have most affinity with
e) Just after I decided this, the ABC happened to provide me with a game in which said team scored a ridiculous number of goals and generally kicked arse. Yep. Those are my girls.

Heh, anyway November has been an interesting month for women & the beautiful game.

First up there was the exciting news that the FA is planning to launch an actual full-time professional women’s league in 2011, a time when public interest in women’s football should be at an all time high thanks to the World Cup (unlike the men’s game I can get excited about the women’s world cup because it doesn’t involve taking players away from our team and breaking them).

Raising the bar for the women’s game at Premier League (or rather Super League) level is going to cost, and there have already been protests that the FA’s demands for each founding club to pay its top four players an annual salary of £20-30,000. They also need to be able to spend £70,000 on running the club, to qualify for extra financial support from the FA. Considering the tiny amount (proportionally) put towards women’s football in the past, this is a huge step forward. Various owners of clubs that include women’s teams have had to consider whether this is something they can (are willing to) afford.

The new owners of Birmingham City, whose men’s team does not currently play in the top league, have vowed to financially support their women’s team to go forward under the new regulations and make a try for the Super League. Leeds Carnegie, formerly Leeds United, have also pledged to support their women’s team.

Meanwhile, England coach Hope Powell has been making headlines for her achievements, cited as ‘coach of the year’ in the Observer for taking the women’s team to silver in the European Championships, and campaigning for semi-professional salaries for her players. The under-19 team did even better in the Euros, beating Sweden 2-0 to claim their first major tournament win. The “most successful year in the history of the England women’s football team” was cemented by a win against Turkey in the World Cup qualifiers yesterday, though Hope Powell was less than pleased with her team’s performance.

Oh, and then there was Elizabeth Lambert, the woman who was credited with “ruining soccer” for an assault on a fellow player (this was before Thierry Henry ruined soccer again recently). The media hype surrounding Lambert and her admittedly vicious hair-pulling incident was unsurprisingly rife with sexist commentary, as noted by Feministing and Shakesville who manage to put things into perspective.

The Ladder for the Australian W-League can be found here, and the League tables for the English Women’s Premier League here.

Tags: arsenal, brisbane roar, soccer, women's football