“The result of the match should not have seen the light of day” | Relief

“Friendly: @AthleticClubFem 0-6 Athletic Cadete A”. These four words and two numbers sparked a wave of hatred towards women’s football: 4000 retweets, 7000 favorites and 753 saved. The tweet came from the profile @canteradelezama, an unofficial X account that reported and continues to report primarily on things related to the lower categories of the Bilbao club. This happened on August 18, 2021.

The result of the match – because, as The Athletic reported after the excitement, it was a training session and not a match as such – filled the arguments of opponents of women’s football. The criticism, as is usually the case in such cases (there are already several), was directed – wrongly – at demands on the part of the players for improvement of their conditions and at the footballing level of their heroes. Some examples: “Equal pay. A sports cadet (14 to 15 years old) must earn as much as a women’s sports club or more” or “Against the cadets… Any regional team catches them (El Guillen too) and puts them in 10. I say this in order to land when they ask for equalization of salaries, television, etc., etc. This is not because they are women, but because the level is very low.”

Disappointment gripped the players. Some, like Virginia Torrecilla, expressed the general excitement with the words: “(…) You play with your fellow “drunks” and see if you can beat the 14 year olds!!! Which is always the same. ! If you don’t like footfem, don’t subscribe and that’s it!!!!! 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽.

Although the debate surrounding the issue has attracted more opponents than supporters, there are examples of several players who have unsuccessfully attempted to join the men’s team, as well as various academics who advocate mixed football in the not-too-distant future.

5-2 vs USA vs U15 team.

On March 30, Nekane Diaz, who was part of the team, relived that day on the YouTube channel “Let’s Talk About Them.” “Yes, I don’t remember the result, because the result really didn’t give us anything.”, admits the former red and white. “We felt from the inside that this should not have come to light because we are not the only team that competes with the men’s teams from our team,” she added.

And he was right. Teams from the same club often play against each other. Footballers against footballers too. In 2017, the USA lost to the Dallas U-15 team with a score of 5:2. A year earlier, in 2016, the Australian women’s national football team lost 7-0 to a team their age.

USA, Australia and Barça. Last year, Luis Cortes – coach of the Saudi Arabian national team and former coach of the Cule – spoke about a friendly match against Cadet Lleida before the 2019 Champions League final. The reigning European champions lost to them with a score of 1:3. Then Barca faced their first European final. On the contrary, the Olympique de Lyon is physically much superior to the culé. For this reason, the duel against Cadet Lleida – due to the relative difference between both teams – made sense.

“You are looking for other aspects than winning the game.”

A few days after the Athletics match, Neutral contacted the club, who stated that the match was part of a training session and was not considered a friendly. The rules varied according to the specific needs of each moment. No judges, no specific duration, no set number of substitutions. There was also no rest or match report. However, the damage was done.

“This is a match where you compete with the players. In this case, with guys who are physically superior to you. So you are looking for other aspects other than winning the game. “You try to become strong in action, you try to win arguments, you look for other types of actions in which you know very well that you cannot beat them.”

“At the end of the day, what gets people’s attention and what they’re looking for is the sauce of saying, ‘The male cadet scored six points against the female cadet. And the female cadet asks for decent conditions, etc.” At the end of the day, this is what people who don’t know anything about women’s football are looking for.” Nekane Diaz lamented in “Let’s Talk About Them.”

FIFA rules and the Maribel Dominguez case

So, if female footballers are so inferior to them, how is it possible that there are all-girl teams in the lower categories that can succeed in the men’s league? Because the differences are not technical, but physical. “You can compete with certain players. But in reality, they will be superior in speed and strength, but they do not have to be superior in technology. So, you can make seven technically good actions in which you achieve the goal and are not realized, and in the end they beat you in speed and materialize six,” explained Nekane Diez, one of the most experienced strikers in our football.

Typically, it is in the children’s category that girls begin to experience those physical changes that deprive them of the opportunity to compete on equal terms with their peers. In fact, in several autonomous communities, such as Castile and León, a first-year cadet football player is allowed to play in the children’s category. That is, a division below that corresponding to their age, in order to reduce the physical differences between both sexes.

In 2004, FIFA was candid: “There needs to be a clear separation between men’s and women’s football.” World football’s governing body recalled that gender separation is a fundamental principle in football. The decision came after the aforementioned organization vetoed the signing of Mexican Maribel Dominguez to Zelaya, the Central American country’s men’s second division team. “The rules of the game and FIFA rules do not provide for any exceptions,” they noted.

Something similar happened to Stephanie Labbé, former PSG goalkeeper and Canadian Olympic champion. In 2018, the Canadian goalkeeper tried to move to the Calgary Foothills men’s team of the fourth American division. Although Labbe even played a friendly match (in which he kept a draw), The relevant authorities banned him from participating in the league.

What does science say?

However, science is optimistic about the future. According to several studies by Paul Bradley – a sports scientist at Liverpool John Moores University – reported by the BBC in an article on the topic, the form of female players is becoming similar to that of their male counterparts. “Given the huge changes in the professional nature of the women’s league in recent years, We expect some evolution of physical indicators,” Bradley dared to address the British media.

Paul Bradley isn’t the only academic to fantasize about mixed football. Federico Luzzi, professor of philosophy at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland), who also contributes to the BBC report, is more emphatic and describes FIFA’s gender segregation as “A football scandal that went unnoticed.”

“We need to see many more female footballers questioning the limits of the segregated football labor market. I think there will be a lot of change over the next 10 years (as of June 2019),” Jean Williams, professor of sport at the University of Wolverhampton, was quoted as saying. .