For anyone truly interested in the history of the women’s participation in ‘the beautiful game’ of Association Football, this book is a MUST READ. From the first game played at Crouch End with a crowd of 10,000 paying spectators (p vii Introduction) up to 2022, the book is full of interesting accounts and anecdotes With copious stories of players, photographs and memorabilia, this is a book you will want to refer to again and again.
My main field of interest is the First World War and, although I knew quite a bit about women’s football games played to raise funds for the soldiers during the conflict, Chapter 2, entitled “Banned”, goes into that era in depth. Included is the aftermath of the ban following the success of women’s football during WW1, on the playing of women’s matches on their grounds which was decreed by the Football Association on 5th December 1921.
My interest in women’s sport started a few years ago, when my husband and I were volunteer programme presenters at a community radio station in Lancashire. As my husband is a sports journalist and writer, we felt very lucky to be invited to attend the England Women’s Football match against Malta in October 2009 at Bloomfield Road stadium in Blackpool. That was the opening match of the qualifying matches for the 2011 Women’s World Cup.
We asked a friend of ours, a former media sports photographer with a national daily newspaper, if he was going to attend but he said “Oh no – it’s only women!”. Those words stung me and when, a few years later helping out at a women’s ice hockey game, I heard the same phrase, I was inspired to write the lyrics for a song about it. Southport-based singer /songwriting duo put music to my lyrics and interpreted it for me:
https://soundcloud.com/user-713468389/the-girls-radio-edit
In October 2009, we did a live telephone interview with Fara Williams on our radio show on 103.2 Preston FM the Tuesday afternoon in the run up to the game and we then attended the media day at the hotel when the team arrived in Blackpool on the Thursday.
We were the ONLY media that turned up! So we got all the allotted interview time and had a long chat with England manager at that time, Hope Powell, and Sue Smith, who was - at the time - the most capped England women’s player.
In the afternoon, we were able to go and watch the team's outdoor training session.
After the game itself on the Sunday, we saw Hope Powell and Fara Williams at the press conference and there were a few other media people there for that.
Having been researching the First World War since 2012 for a series of commemorative exhibitions, I knew about the success of women’s football teams who played charity matches in aid of war work during the conflict. They were so popular and successful that the English Football Association banned the palying of football matches by women’s teams on their grounds until the 1970s.
‘The Beautiful Game’ is a nickname for association football. It was popularised by Brazilian footballer Pelé, although the exact origin of the phrase is disputed. Stuart Hall, an English football commentator, used it as far back as 1958. Hall admired Peter Doherty when he went to see Manchester City play at Maine Road and used the term "The Beautiful Game" to describe Doherty's style of play.
Association football, known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players each, who use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposing team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular-framed goal defended by the opposing team. Traditionally, the game is played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes.
The games are officiated by a referee, who has "full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match to which he has been appointed" (Law 5), and whose decisions are final. The referee is assisted by two assistant referees. In many high-level games there is also a fourth official who assists the referee and may replace another official should the need arise.
The Football Association (known by its abbreviation The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur and professional game in its territory.
For further information about this and other Pen & Sword publications, please see their website https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/
Lucy London, April 2023
