As I type this I feel like I’m physically melting due to the heat (rather much like the Wicked Witch of the West at the end of The Wizard of Oz – 1939 version of course).
When I wrote my last blog about the men’s FA Cup, I found it relatively easy to find information about the wonderful teams that I followed - in particular Stourbridge FC, as their fans really embraced me with various offers of free pints and Balti eggs. I’ve since learnt, from old blog companion Samantha Beddall, that Stourbridge also have a women’s team that has just turned semi-professional – another great leap for the women’s game I wish them great success in the forthcoming 2019/20 season.
Back in 2014, Google provided me with up to date stats about teams, their
history, where they stood in their leagues and their relative postilion in
comparison to the big boys in the premiership.
However, having followed women’s football last season for a local
Championship club, I already know that it can be harder to find real time
scores and information – and this was for a team in the 2nd tier of
the sport. The BBC website provides
‘instant’ score updates for the men’s game, but often the women’s scores would
take hours to come through (this is also true for Official Club sites). I would often have to rely on Twitter feeds
and the help of other fans to keep up to date with live scores.
The same issues above can be said for the fixtures. This year’s men’s fixtures were released on 13th June, but I had to wait until 1st July for the WSL fixtures to be released! However, on that day I was most surprised to find that they only announced the opening round of games, and I had to wait until 10th July to get the rest of the season’s fixtures. What where they doing for those 10 days? I understand that many fans now support the men’s’ and women’s’ teams together, so fixtures cannot clash (this happened in last year’s Women’s FA Cup final as many West Ham fans could not watch the whole of the women’s FA Cup final due to the men playing at home on the same day).
The same issues above can be said for the fixtures. This year’s men’s fixtures were released on 13th June, but I had to wait until 1st July for the WSL fixtures to be released! However, on that day I was most surprised to find that they only announced the opening round of games, and I had to wait until 10th July to get the rest of the season’s fixtures. What where they doing for those 10 days? I understand that many fans now support the men’s’ and women’s’ teams together, so fixtures cannot clash (this happened in last year’s Women’s FA Cup final as many West Ham fans could not watch the whole of the women’s FA Cup final due to the men playing at home on the same day).
I am still waiting to find information for my local women’s team, as League Cup fixture dates where released weeks ago but I still don’t know who my team will be playing in their group stage (the Women’s League Cup, or Continental Cup, has an initial group stage in which all 23 teams of the WSL and Championship are divided into 3 groups of 6, and 1 of 5, and then the top 2 from each group goes into the quarter final stage).
I stand corrected as the above groups were released this morning - it still took a long time!
I stand corrected as the above groups were released this morning - it still took a long time!
I understand that things take time and we live a world in which our expectations have been raised for convenience and instant results! Perhaps I need to be more patient? I remember when I was a kid, my dad would go and watch the football and then wait until the next day to buy a newspaper to read about it (for those of you under age 25, a newspaper is kind of like a webpage, but written on this stuff called paper – it’s too hard to explain). In those days I would have to look at Teletext for scores and that would sometimes take days – don’t get me started on the Ceefax cinema listings! For those of you under 30, ‘telly text’ or Ceefax where like a slow rolling webpage that you accessed through a telly – once again, it’s too hard to explain!
My point is, that if the women’s game is going to improve, get more investment, get more fans, then the clubs and the media need to up their game as well when it comes to coverage and information. The BBC did a brilliant job with the 2019 Women’s World Cup coverage, so let’s see that as an excellent starting point to improve on.
In my next post I’ll attempt to uncover the puzzle box of trying to figure out what tier our Extra Preliminary Round teams Mossley Hill and Burnley Belvedere play in… Enjoy the weekend!
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