17-04-2024, 18:40
Aren't Women's and Men's Football very different games? They are played on the same size pitch with the same basic (largely now idiotic) rules, but they look and proceed almost nothing like each other.
Men should be delighted to have women watching their game, commenting on it, discussing it and helping to run it in all sorts of ways, but why do they want or need women (who have never played THEIR game, never could and never will) refereeing them? Similarly why would women want men (who have never played THEIR game, never could and never will} refereeing them?
Referees need to be sensitive and to understand THE game they are refereeing. That's why we see so many EFL and Premier League matches being ruined by both refereeing decisions and bizarre changes to the laws of the game. The ref' simply does not comprehend the game at the level at which it is being played. HE does not get how the players and managers even feel! If HE doesn't what chance has SHE from one step further away.
There is no way in which men and women can be equals in each other's games. We can appreciate and even absolutely love each other's sports, but there is no way of participating in the sense that a Hollie Doyle or Rachel Blackmore do in horse racing.
My view is that it is patronising to women to put Rebecca Welch in charge of a Premier League game. The WSL needs her. It needs all the female officials, coaches and managers it can get so that it can grow and provide role models for young girls starting out in the game.
We can, and are already sometimes, taking gender equality to the point that it becomes hogwash. Equality doesn't mean the same. Much as I admire Bukayo Saka I am never going to black, nor am I ever going to have his ball skills. Nor am I going to become Eni Aluko or anything like her. We can provide equal opportunities and respect for all who play irrespective ......... but going down this road of pretending we are all the same in the way we play and even think is nonsense.
If we can't embrace and celebrate difference we start down a road that ends in discrimination, tyranny and wars. We all need the best woman referee to be IN the women's game, as much as we need the top female player to play in that game too.
We shouldn't be treading on eggshells trying not to say the ref is rubbish because she is a woman. What we need is men who played the game at a good level to be continuing in the game as referees and decision and policy makers. And women need that same progression within their game.
It takes a lot of bravery to be a referee at all. So we need to respect them and stand by their honesty 100%. WE don't need anything which makes that harder for the ordinary fan.
Men should be delighted to have women watching their game, commenting on it, discussing it and helping to run it in all sorts of ways, but why do they want or need women (who have never played THEIR game, never could and never will) refereeing them? Similarly why would women want men (who have never played THEIR game, never could and never will} refereeing them?
Referees need to be sensitive and to understand THE game they are refereeing. That's why we see so many EFL and Premier League matches being ruined by both refereeing decisions and bizarre changes to the laws of the game. The ref' simply does not comprehend the game at the level at which it is being played. HE does not get how the players and managers even feel! If HE doesn't what chance has SHE from one step further away.
There is no way in which men and women can be equals in each other's games. We can appreciate and even absolutely love each other's sports, but there is no way of participating in the sense that a Hollie Doyle or Rachel Blackmore do in horse racing.
My view is that it is patronising to women to put Rebecca Welch in charge of a Premier League game. The WSL needs her. It needs all the female officials, coaches and managers it can get so that it can grow and provide role models for young girls starting out in the game.
We can, and are already sometimes, taking gender equality to the point that it becomes hogwash. Equality doesn't mean the same. Much as I admire Bukayo Saka I am never going to black, nor am I ever going to have his ball skills. Nor am I going to become Eni Aluko or anything like her. We can provide equal opportunities and respect for all who play irrespective ......... but going down this road of pretending we are all the same in the way we play and even think is nonsense.
If we can't embrace and celebrate difference we start down a road that ends in discrimination, tyranny and wars. We all need the best woman referee to be IN the women's game, as much as we need the top female player to play in that game too.
We shouldn't be treading on eggshells trying not to say the ref is rubbish because she is a woman. What we need is men who played the game at a good level to be continuing in the game as referees and decision and policy makers. And women need that same progression within their game.
It takes a lot of bravery to be a referee at all. So we need to respect them and stand by their honesty 100%. WE don't need anything which makes that harder for the ordinary fan.