Women and football don't go, its one of the most popular all time sayings, that normally a male will receive a cuff around the ear for but nothing else. But is this sexist and untrue statement really true, and why is it perceived that only men can be entertained by football. Recently there has been quite a large scandal involving football pundit Andy Gray, who made a massive faux pas, when a live microphone twice picked him up making fun of the fact that a female linesman would be officiating a game in the English Premier League. This led to Gray leaving his lucrative position at Sky Sports and has now been taken on by talkSPORT, as well as another controversial Sky pundit, Richard Keys.
The main thing that annoyed me about Gray, was that his insults weren't even good insults, they were just basic and stupid, a bit like him I suppose, who mocked that the lines(wo)man - Sian Massey - wouldn't know the offside rule. Now come on Andy, as hilarious as hearing that is, is there any need?
Straight away a controversy was created, front pages of newspapers were taken up, important political topics were pushed further back into Rupert Murdoch's 'unbiased' papers, as The Sun, and News of the World, jumped to defend Gray, with the excuse that men could be heard saying up and down Britain 'well he's not wrong is he?'.
So was he wrong?
Well let's take a dive into history to look at the roots of football. Throughout the mid 1800s, football was created, and tweaked to become what we have today, played by men, for men. Men's sport, Andy Gray is correct, yeah?
No.
Women's football was developed in the 1920s when men's football was only really getting into the swing of it, more and more clubs were establishing themselves and leagues all around the world were being set up. Not too many women were keen to play as had no real time in their lives, but there still a few hundred in the country that would take part.
So that is the 1920s we are in with men and women both playing football.
The offside rule as we know it today was formally introduced in 1990, after different changes to it through the last 100 years. The female linesman the day of Andy Gray's last game was born before the rule was introduced, as are most female professionals in the game today, so why would they not understand the offside rule?
The world of football really is controlled by men, and women are seen as outsiders to the sport, and sometimes for good reasons. I still remember being asked who Man united were playing in the World Cup by a female, who has attended quite a few football games herself.
The whole real point of this rant is to try and show that women are just as much as likely to know the offside rule as men, and there is no reason as to why women shouldn't be involved in the game. Just because a lot of women choose not to get involved in it, doesn't mean all don't want to, just like not all males watch/play football. Really its just stupid and pointless sexism, and Andy Gray has shown himself up as a typical idiot male that lies within the footballing world, hopefully he'll be replaced by a women.