do you think englands womens squad will qualify for world cup in china?

Question

if they do i think it will put womens football on the map as it has very poor funding

Answer 1

It's people like you Missnikid that ensure women's sport continued to be poorly financed compared to the men's equivalent.

I don't understand why you don't support any sport for sport's sake let alone whether its a man's or woman's sport-there are so many positives in participating in sport whatever your age and sex that outmoded attitudes like yours are quite frankly, not neccessary.

I used to develop women's football for a living, and because I worked in an Euro 2005 region, I was involved in some of the programmes that were delivered around the competition, and so I was involved in women's football for a period of my time, despite not previously knowing a lot about it. As someone who went into the sport with my eyes open, I was very impressed by the serious ability and talent of a lot of the better teams and players. Players like Solveig Gulbrandsen, and Kelly Smith of England impressed me a lot during the tournament, and I would say that, had they got the physical strength to compete, they easily have the skill and awareness to play in the men's Premiership. So the quality is there if you look for it. The strength in depth is not there in this country (not sure about other countries), but that's because the FA outlawed the women's game in this country (to their eternal shame) until the 1970s, and also it is a cultural thing.

When I delivered programmes at a local level, the skill may not have been there for a lot of the girls, but that was understandable as they don't tend to play as a whole in the playground from a young age and therefore don't get opportunities to learn the technique and movements from a very early age like the boys do. But the enjoyment of the sport was there, you could tell, and that made it worth delivering. For a woman to say something like that is shocking, and it makes me angry.

As for the answer, I'm afraid I couldn't really say. When I finished working in women's football, I went travelling, and so fell out of touch with what is happening in this country. However, in terms of putting women's football on the map, I don't think that will happen in the way you might expect. Euro 2005 brought women's football to the public agenda, but as it is not supported by the TV networks (although the BBC is showing the major games), it is not getting the coverage it needs to sustain any of the improvements that were made from Euro 2005. I don't see the World Cup changing anything.

Women's football is poorly-funded compared to the men's game yes, but I wouldn't neccessarily say it is poorly funded compared to other European countries-in Britain we do generally put more money into developing sport than other countries in Europe. So in a few years, England should be up there with the best of the European countries. I didn't see much difference between England and Sweden and Norway in terms of ability at Euro 2005, so they're probably at or near that level anyway. Germany were miles agead at Euro 2005 though, so they would clearly be the ones to aim for, from Europe anyway.

Answer 2

I hope they do, after all they are representing England and I supported the men's even tho they got knocked out. Look out how rude the first answers are 'football is a men's sport' how bloody sexiest is that?! What idiots. I believe they should get more funding the men get paid soo much and football is a great sport if they get more funding it encourages more girls to join football and influence young kids especially girls to be healthy by playing football if they usually love watching men play.
Besides its not like they'll lose money football is a successful business for the many people that join in.

Answer 3

I think those ppl who have put derogatory comments about women and womens football should just stick to answering other questions!!!

Anyway,i think we will qualify for China but its gonna be a little tough with Faye White out for most of the season

Answer 4

Don't know but good luck to them. It would be great if women's football would become more well known because it's not talked about a lot.

Answer 5

they have a good chance with rachel unitt they have a very good player

ps people that not love women soccer d'ont belong here go to other questions

Answer 6

yeh

they rock i went to see ther game inraliegh and they one 2-0 against canada

Answer 7

yes i do they lets hope not up against sweden

Answer 8

Do they swap shirts at the end ?

Answer 9

Yes but I don't care

Answer 10

who cares..
im a women and think its quite pathetic really, footy is a mans game always has been always will be