The challenge faced by women in soccer still isn’t solved, and developments only began popping up within the bast 50 years or so. So much of the history of women’s soccer is lost, either because of the ban on it in certain countries, or out of federation greed who were scared interest from male games would be taken away. So many obstacles still stand in the way of women’s leagues and wanting to achieve true equality with men’s leagues, and in the readings for this week, we see how these icons fought for their place on the world stage of soccer.
With so little interest from Soccer Federations and Confederations regarding women’s games, the consistency of men’s tournaments shows that the resources are there to support all aspects of the sport, yet the ones in power still sit in the mindset that soccer is supposed to be “masculine” and opportunities given to women’s teams just isn’t worth the effort. In regards to effort, the blatant sexism and racism is much more profound and looked over on women’s teams. With so many Federations picking a coach who isn’t really qualified, it gives way to the coach perhaps using his position of power to make his players vulnerable, ruining their reputation and ruining the future of the team once scandals like that went public. Funding is so misallocated , and even if a team had performed exceptionally well in a season, the Confederations would still hang the threat of budget cuts over the players heads.
Despite ALL of this and more, so many star players over the last few decades have risen through these tribulations, and have worked their way into a position to fight for what women’s teams have wanted since their inception right along with the men’s teams. With the lack of attention women’s teams face, the united action they take not only unites them better as a team, but connects them as people fighting for their equal place in the sport of soccer.
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