La Voz de Galicia – November 18, 2022 →
I considered writing about what it means that in the era of political correctness, a World Cup is being celebrated in Qatar. But I realized that I don’t have the tools to reflect on the hypocrisy surrounding the world of male soccer. So in an attempt to understand the history of this sport, I decided to learn about feminine soccer. I confess to know as little about one as about the other, and that my ignorance (it’s my unconscious bias) was surprised when understanding that its origin and popularity were as linked to the masculine as to the feminine.
I learned that the British Football Association, the genesis of organized soccer as we understand it today, was born in 1863, and that the British Ladies’ Football Club, the feminine version, was created in 1894. Upon the arrival of the First World War, when women began to occupy job posts in the factories of the United Kingdom (since the vast majority of men had to go to war), there also began soccer games among the women of different factories. These games became so popular that, in 1920, the game between the Dick, Kerr’s Ladies and the St. Helen’s Ladies comes to have an audience of 53,000 souls. And during the following year, the Football Association, alleging that “soccer is improper for women,” decides to prohibit feminine soccer in stadiums associated with the organization, a prohibition that lasted until 1971…
I also learned that in Spain, the feminine soccer selection, born in 1971 is not «recognized» by the Spanish Federation until 1983. And that the professionalization of feminine soccer began, literally, last year…To conclude, I learned that the history of soccer has as many injustices as real life.
