WSL sky sports news

[fanzone]

When did women's football start taking up majority of the football allocated time slots?

[gandhisflipflop]

when sky sports became a pandering organisation.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

When they started trying to treat it equally.

[MT03ALG]

When it became extremely important and vital to be seen to be fair to all, whether good or bad, small or large, etc. etc.

[claptrappers_union]

I was watching the other day and the the presenter suddenly announced that there was some breaking news - the Breaking News caption came up and everything went yellow and the presenter told us that there was "some breaking news coming out of Chelsea in regards to to this weekends fixture with Man City" (or whoever). It was delivered in a tone of 'stop what you're doing and listen - this is important' type of statement. Then he went on to confirm that the match was postponed.

I'm thinking it was because of another Covid outbreak, or even worse... someones died... but it turned out was because of the weather and then it was the WSL teams - not the mens team... and I was thinking, who cares?

[aclaretinstevenage]

I know there are a few things more irrelevant than women's "football" it's just I'm struggling to think of any just now!!

[bobinho]

Sick of all this women’s “elite” sports being rammed down our throats. Barely watchable it really is, but they really are stretching the boundaries by having breaking news stories and talking about it like it’s important to us.

[Jeffbfc]

Sick of all this women’s “elite” sports being rammed down our throats. Barely watchable it really is, but they really are stretching the boundaries by having breaking news stories and talking about it like it’s important to us.

Absolutely spot on, tried to watch one of the last tournaments but after 5 minutes it was off.
Sorry but not for me.

[Dazzler]

I refuse to watch any women's football and also, I do not click onto any report on the BBC Sport website, or any site for that matter.

[Devils_Advocate]

I refuse to watch any women's football and also, I do not click onto any report on the BBC Sport website, or any site for that matter.

[Wellsy1882]

I refuse to watch any women's football and also, I do not click onto any report on the BBC Sport website, or any site for that matter.

Snap
Its crap

[houseboy]

The BBC app has women’s football listed before everything bar the PL. Why do they think anyone really cares that much. The level is way below even National League.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

I've yet to see any of you have a rant when they dare to talk about other sports on Sky Sports...


It's almost, just almost, like you don't want womens football to gain in popularity and would rather it stayed in the doldrums.....

[Dazzler]

The BBC app has women’s football listed before everything bar the PL. Why do they think anyone really cares that much. The level is way below even National League.

For me, It's way below Sunday league standard.

[BurnleyFC]

They have gone a bit overboard with the coverage.

Perhaps Sky are worried about losing/diluting their Premier League rights and are trying to push the Women’s Super League as the next big thing instead. After all, there are almost as many women in the UK as there are men, so there probably is a market for it - just not at the inflated prices that they currently charge.

[Rileybobs]

Surely there’s enough time on a 24 hour sports news channel to cover women’s football without it upsetting people? I’ve seen them report on pub games like darts for example. I think I even saw them show cycling once - I see people commute every morning so don’t need to watch them do it in my leisure time.

Best to just accept that the channel is there to cater to a range of tastes and if you don’t like it you have the choice to not watch it.

[houseboy]

For me, It's way below Sunday league standard.

Actually nearly said that but thought better of it.

[houseboy]

I've yet to see any of you have a rant when they dare to talk about other sports on Sky Sports...


It's almost, just almost, like you don't want womens football to gain in popularity and would rather it stayed in the doldrums.....

In my case I’m not too bothered but placing women’s football above the Championship is overkill to say the least. I’m sure some people love it but exactly how many I don’t know.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

In my case I’m not too bothered but placing women’s football above the Championship is overkill to say the least. I’m sure some people love it but exactly how many I don’t know.

They've been promoting other leagues above the championship for ages, Inc Scottish football.

That's never been an issue though, just when it's womens football

[houseboy]

They've been promoting other leagues above the championship for ages, Inc Scottish football.

That's never been an issue though, just when it's womens football

I’m talking about BBC app. Take a look. Scottish comes after League 2.

[claptrappers_union]

The only way grow the sport is to give it credible coverage. At the moment though, I don’t care for it. That said, I don’t care for darts, cricket, rugby or UFC

I think women's football needs to be its whole entire entity though. Like, what if the men’s team goes bust? What happens to the women’s team?

Can the women’s club operate by itself like a lower league club has to do?

Everything wrong with the men’s game is just filtering down to the women’s version, but while there is lots of the success of the men’s game too, the women’s game has done nothing to deserve the progression - they are just riding on the coat tails of rich Premier League Clubs.

To me, it’s like Non-League club playing rent free under the branding of a Premier League club, but with nothing to really gain from it other than publicity

Also, will a Burton Albion (for example) women’s team ever make it to WSL or will the WSL always just be a alternate to the men’s big six and a few randomers like Birmingham City and Reading chucked in like it is at the moment?

It doesn’t feel like it’s truly competitive...

Also, they should promote the whole pyramid to give it proper coverage, who am I supposed to support? At least with Rugby I can pick a team that has no impact on my football preferences. Manchester City v Chelsea in the WSL means absolutely nothing to me. At least if I’m watching a League Two match as a neutral I can tediously pick a side based on a former Burnley connection or something.

[Burnleyareback2]

I don’t understand why there can’t be different platforms for it, BBC Mens football and womens for example on social media. Instead I am being force fed a sport that I’m not interested in.

[Tall Paul]

I don’t understand why there can’t be different platforms for it, BBC Mens football and womens for example on social media. Instead I am being force fed a sport that I’m not interested in.

How are you being force fed women's football?

I have no interest in it and can't say that I've noticed it getting loads of coverage. It's quite easy to ignore the coverage that it does get, just as I ignore the likes of Strictly and Dancing on Ice.

There must be a market for it.

[Devils_Advocate]

How are you being force fed women's football?

His mummy tells him its a choo choo train and before you know it he's watching Womens football

[Burnleyareback2]

How are you being force fed women's football?

I have no interest in it and can't say that I've noticed it getting loads of coverage. It's quite easy to ignore the coverage that it does get, just as I ignore the likes of Strictly and Dancing on Ice.

There must be a market for it.

Hi Paul, many people mention it above. Sky sports breaking news. Twitter feeds from the BBC. I don’t subscribe to golf so I don’t hear anything about it. Media assumes because I like men’s football that I need to hear about women’s. It’s a very different sport.

[Burnleyareback2]

His mummy tells him its a choo choo train and before you know it he's watching Womens football

Nice clean bib for you tonight, good work!

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Hi Paul, many people mention it above. Sky sports breaking news. Twitter feeds from the BBC. I don’t subscribe to golf so I don’t hear anything about it. Media assumes because I like men’s football that I need to hear about women’s. It’s a very different sport.

You can mute/block words on Twitter, so that's sorted for you.

As for SSN, how much of it do you actually watch?

It's feckin boring most of the time, how people can sit there with it on for an evening I'll never know.
Match day its worth looking at, but aside from when Jeff and the gang are on at the weekends, it's still odd if it's on all the time.

[aggi]

I can understand the issue here. SSN is so chock-a-block with important stories that there's no real way they have time to cover something like women's football.

[gandhisflipflop]

Match day its worth looking at, but aside from when Jeff and the gang are on at the weekends, it's still odd if it's on all the time.

Yeah, and they even ballsed that up this year with their forced equality bullsh*t.

Edit - I would have preffered Bianca Westwood on the panel if they did want to mix it up a bit as she had been on there years anyway and the studio would have been a natural progression.

[JohnMac]

There is a place for women presenters, expert analysis and women's football but please stop trying to imply their relevance when talking about competitions played by men.

Edit
To clarify, it's not their opinion or analysis, it's the implication that playing for Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City Women's teams has relevance to the men's game.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

There is a place for women presenters, expert analysis and women's football but please stop trying to imply their relevance when talking about competitions played by men.

So can we flip that and apply it to men talking about women's sports?

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Yeah, and they even ballsed that up this year with their forced equality bullsh*t.

Edit - I would have preffered Bianca Westwood on the panel if they did want to mix it up a bit as she had been on there years anyway and the studio would have been a natural progression.

I cannot effing stand that woman, that voice just goes right through me..

Forced equality in what way?

They've changed the line up that's all.

[claret2018]

Angry old men upset by change shocker

[JohnMac]

So can we flip that and apply it to men talking about women's sports?

Absolutely, what do men know about women!

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Absolutely, what do men know about women!

So we are agreed then?

SSN should have shows dedicated to womens football, presented by and analysis given exclusively by women?

All we need to do now is make the FA executive body more inclusive and stick a woman in charge and the explosions of outrage by men will be epic.

[Billy Balfour]

What an embarrassing thread. I'm sure some of you on here live in a 1950s alternate reality. Also half the population is female - this most really **** some of you off.

[BigChaCha]

there are almost as many women in the UK as there are men, so there probably is a market for it

I very much doubt it...I can't think of one woman out of the many I know personally who like football or the slightest bit interested in it! In fact, you could say the same for sports in general. I'd go further and say hobbies or pastimes. My wife thinks it's bizarre that I'm into gaming, The same for all of her mates... They wouldn't dream of spending time as I do, playing online games, messing with my drones, watching sports or especially going to games. Of course, some women like sport but men and women are very different in so many ways, which is a good thing.

If Sky keep trying to box-tick and force-feed women's sport and especially football, it will just turn off the main subscribers of Sky Sports, which is men!

[JohnMac]

So we are agreed then?

SSN should have shows dedicated to womens football, presented by and analysis given exclusively by women?

All we need to do now is make the FA executive body more inclusive and stick a woman in charge and the explosions of outrage by men will be epic.

Nope, you are missing my point. Sky/BT have some excellent presenters but a woman talking about her appearance in the Women's Cup Final is being pushed as her knowing all about the pressure of a Men's equivalent.

Cricket, Football, Rugby, it doesn't matter. Playing in front of a few thousand screaming schoolkids is not relevant.

I have a friend who played for Wales Rugby in the Six Nations and World Cup and she agrees. That'll do for me.

[boyyanno]

I honestly think that Women's football would benefit from becoming more separated from the men's game. At the moment it feels like they are trying to push the two together but in reality it's a completely different sport.

I could list a whole host of changes that I think would improve it, smaller goals for example, maybe even a reduced size pitch. I have no real issue with the coverage it gets but when it keeps getting lumped in with the men's stuff then people are only ever going to compare the two. I suspect the real reason it's not separated more is because it would struggle to stand on it's own two feet.

I do know a lot of women who like football, but they watch the men's game and not the women's.

[Danieljwaterhouse]

Angry old men upset by change shocker

Exactly this.

Women’s sport is light years behind men’s. That’s not women’s fault, it’s the fault of sport, and of a stagnant society as a whole.

There’s no chance there will be a positive debate here, it’s too polarising at the moment.

I will say, if I was the sports governing body, I would be putting every WSL game on before the men’s games. Let fans choose to attend early and cheer on their team. Hopefully you’ll encourage a long term progressively diverse fan base for the club.

It increases overheads granted, you will offset this slightly with food/beverage sales but to me it’s worth the investment. I’d have a market in the car parks for the intermission between games, move the ticket barriers to the entrance of of the carpark so once you’re in your ticketed.

Fans are tribal, it’s one of the cornerstones of football. We support the badge not the person. The club not the individual.

I’d be as happy the women’s team dominating as I would the men’s! I got the same buzz about a youngster coming through as I did hearing about a free goal scoring Payton smashing them in for the women’s team (yes I know she’s moved on).

[NottsClaret]

All the usual fragile male egos on display, but interesting post from claptrappers.

Everything wrong with the men’s game is just filtering down to the women’s version, but while there is lots of the success of the men’s game too, the women’s game has done nothing to deserve the progression - they are just riding on the coat tails of rich Premier League Clubs.

I've wondered about this. Women's football is really positive, the number of girls playing now is huge and growing every year. As a grassroots sport, it's undoubtedly thriving and I think that's where its strength lies. But there does seem an effort at the top to attach it to the men's game for the funding and exposure that brings.

So longstanding clubs like Donny Belles and Durham get pushed to the side as inevitably the top division fills up with 'big club' spin-offs from the men's game. I suppose it gets the media interested then, and maybe more publicity simply from the names. But it's a shame if that becomes the sole focus when there's such a strong network of amateur and junior clubs doing great work but now effectively frozen out of any route to the top.

[Danieljwaterhouse]

I very much doubt it...I can't think of one woman out of the many I know personally who like football or the slightest bit interested in it! In fact, you could say the same for sports in general. I'd go further and say hobbies or pastimes. My wife thinks it's bizarre that I'm into gaming, The same for all of her mates... They wouldn't dream of spending time as I do, playing online games, messing with my drones, watching sports or especially going to games. Of course, some women like sport but men and women are very different in so many ways, which is a good thing.

If Sky keep trying to box-tick and force-feed women's sport and especially football, it will just turn off the main subscribers of Sky Sports, which is men!

I guess you pay for your own sky subscription, your partner doesn’t contribute a penny? Your daughter/niece doesn’t have the right to watch role models, or to aspire to a high level of sport for herself because she doesn’t pay the bills?

If my daughter or sons turn out to be better than me at their chosen sport, if she plays for her national side, then I will applaud her as much as my parents did so for me, or I would do for my sons.

Sport is unitive, it shouldn’t be divisive.

Your attitudes are akin to race wars of yester year. ‘It’s fine, and I’m all for it, as long as it’s not in my city, town, neighbourhood or doorstep.’.

[aggi]

Nope, you are missing my point. Sky/BT have some excellent presenters but a woman talking about her appearance in the Women's Cup Final is being pushed as her knowing all about the pressure of a Men's equivalent.

Cricket, Football, Rugby, it doesn't matter. Playing in front of a few thousand screaming schoolkids is not relevant.

I have a friend who played for Wales Rugby in the Six Nations and World Cup and she agrees. That'll do for me.

So, as there have been quite a few women's international matches at Wembley with crowds of 80,000+ does that make those players better qualified to comment on the pressure than the majority of male players who won't have played in front of such a big crowd? Is there a league table of highest attendance per player so we can see whose opinion is more "knowledgeable"?

[Tall Paul]

If Sky keep trying to box-tick and force-feed women's sport and especially football, it will just turn off the main subscribers of Sky Sports, which is men!

Don't you think Sky's marketing departments will have done their research and have a good idea exactly how their market will be affected?

[enduroclaret]

“Monkey Tennis”

[TheFamilyCat]

I very much doubt it...I can't think of one woman out of the many I know personally who like football or the slightest bit interested in it! In fact, you could say the same for sports in general. I'd go further and say hobbies or pastimes. My wife thinks it's bizarre that I'm into gaming, The same for all of her mates... They wouldn't dream of spending time as I do, playing online games, messing with my drones, watching sports or especially going to games. Of course, some women like sport but men and women are very different in so many ways, which is a good thing.

If Sky keep trying to box-tick and force-feed women's sport and especially football, it will just turn off the main subscribers of Sky Sports, which is men!

Do you think men will sacrifice watching live sports by cancelling their subscription because Sky are showing a women's game on a different day at a different time?

[JohnMac]

So, as there have been quite a few women's international matches at Wembley with crowds of 80,000+ does that make those players better qualified to comment on the pressure than the majority of male players who won't have played in front of such a big crowd? Is there a league table of highest attendance per player so we can see whose opinion is more "knowledgeable"?

There hasn't been quite a few Women's matches played at Wembley with crowds of 80.000+ though. In fact there hasn't been any.

Regardless of semantics, it's all about opinion and yours is different, fair enough.

[DCWat]

It’s a really interesting debate with so many angles.

If I’m being honest, all of the coverage and seeing it presented alongside men’s football across various media platforms, isn’t for me. I’d much rather see it given its own section, channel, page to be seen by those that choose to do so. I think it might actually help the game, in the long run.

That being said what difference is there to seeing coverage across these mediums of tennis, for example. I certainly don’t find it frustrating to see coverage of both men’s and women’s tennis together. It’s just normal.

Perhaps a part of the issues of us ‘stuck in the past’ or ‘not willing to accept change’ is the pace at which it has occurred and how much it is now being pushed.

The average attendance (just under 3k) for WSL sits between League Two (4.6k) and the National League (2.1k). Even in the US where I think it’s fair to say that women’s football has been successful for a lot of years, the average attendance is still only 7.3k).

The coverage is disproportionate for a much inferior product.

I get that they’re starting from a low base and it will take time to improve, just don’t force it upon people.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Nope, you are missing my point. Sky/BT have some excellent presenters but a woman talking about her appearance in the Women's Cup Final is being pushed as her knowing all about the pressure of a Men's equivalent.

Cricket, Football, Rugby, it doesn't matter. Playing in front of a few thousand screaming schoolkids is not relevant.

I have a friend who played for Wales Rugby in the Six Nations and World Cup and she agrees. That'll do for me.

So you don't care about women talking about sports which I'm guessing you don't really bother about, but you draw the line at football comparisons?
Pressure is pressure, whether it be in a final of one sport, or another or comparing the genders.

Yet I'd the female agrees with you, then that's fine.

OK then..

[GodIsADeeJay81]

I very much doubt it...I can't think of one woman out of the many I know personally who like football or the slightest bit interested in it! In fact, you could say the same for sports in general. I'd go further and say hobbies or pastimes. My wife thinks it's bizarre that I'm into gaming, The same for all of her mates... They wouldn't dream of spending time as I do, playing online games, messing with my drones, watching sports or especially going to games. Of course, some women like sport but men and women are very different in so many ways, which is a good thing.

If Sky keep trying to box-tick and force-feed women's sport and especially football, it will just turn off the main subscribers of Sky Sports, which is men!

You'd hate my old dear.

She games online, either PS4 or Xbox dependant on her mood.
She even got herself a minisnes so she could kick her husbands arse at Street fighter 2
She also follows footy and fully understands the rules.

Would probably draw the line at drones though.