Football and Her

I absolutely love football. I love watching football on TV with my dad. I love training with my team. I love arguing with my best friends over which team deserved to win. I love watching the highlights of old games in my spare time. I love watching reels about my favorite players. I love talking football with fellow fans. I love keeping up with the sport. 

I'm incredibly fortunate to have an incredible team of girls that I train with every day back at uni. We uplift each other, inspire each other to be better, and we take every game very seriously. However, the attitude that I see toward women's football on campus, is really not the same at home or elsewhere really. Whilst everyone on campus regards the women's football team with respect, the attitude toward women's football in other places differs. I've seen boys post Tate reels that say that no woman can truly 'like' football, and if she says she does so, it's because she wants male attention ??? (I saw this months ago and I'm still appalled/disgusted). I've had boys make me list players from my favorite team to prove to them that I actually like the sport (this was in 7th grade but it still counts). I've heard women themselves say that football is a sport for men. Instances like this have angered not just the feminist, but the person in me, because what sort of utterly backward mentality do people need to have to even think such absurd thoughts? And the nerve to think them out loud? Ew. 

Last sem, I wrote a paper about the extent to which the attitude towards women's football has evolved in India and whether this change has been significant or not. I thought it would be cool to give y'all a brief conclusion of my findings and interesting facts that I came across over the course of my research. 

1. There are three factors that primarily affect the growth of a sport in India. These are the funding allocated towards the sport, the prevalence and quality of training facilities and the opportunities to compete locally and internationally. 

2. Judging the extent to which these factors have been leveraged to bring about positive change in women's football in India, the evolution of attitude towards the same can also be deduced. 

3. Funding - Women footballers in India were denied basic sponsorships, let alone deals with high-end brands (like Nike and Adidas) and were unable to even purchase quintessential gear (like studs and shin guards) to play, as of 2003. The lack of funding was extremely damaging. However, between 2022 and 2023 there was a 28% rise in funding allocated towards women's football in India. While this does indicate some sort of positive growth, this doesn't take away from the fact that the funding that women receive for football in India is only 48% of that of the men, thus depicting a striking gap between the two and pressing discrimination that still prevails in our nation. 

4. Training - While in the 1920s women themselves repudiated the idea of football training due to internalizing a negative attitude towards the sport, 2023 has seen a range of academies (like RFC academy) pull through and host training and living facilities for women from all across India. While this change also shows a change in attitude, it mustn't deceive because India can still do better. There have been several cases of big groups (like TATA Football Academy) promising to initiate women's training camps but failing to execute these plans. 

5. Opportunity to compete - There has been a significant change in this factor. The most dramatic thing that happened in football in the 1920s was the FA ban on women's football which negatively impeded women's football in India as well. However, in 2023, the Indian women's football team played international matches, the SAFF, and other tournaments as well. While this does suggest growth in a positive direction, the nitty-gritty of the IWL is quite controversial. For starters, only 30 out of 66 matches were televised in 2023 (keep in mind, on a network that isn't even very accessible). Additionally, the quality of the organization was the epitome of chaos and mediocrity. There clearly needs to be a lot more attention diverted toward the IWL for smooth successful operations. 

6. The conclusion of my paper was that whilst there have certainly been changes in each of the three key factors that affect women's football in India, these changes haven't been significant in absolute terms or in relative terms (compared to men's football in India and women's football globally). India has a long way to go in terms of an attitude change towards women's football. 

Those were my key findings. This paper means a lot a lot a lot a lot to me because of the following reasons. 

1. I love football, as mentioned before.

2. As a woman who has faced discrimination for liking and playing the sport, this paper is personal. 

3. It's important to educate people about such things - because these things boil down to basically...equality 

4. I hope this paper put things into perspective for some and educated others (especially that one guy who had the nerve to post that reel) 

5. I got to interview someone who I'd been following for quite some time (I basically worship her) and it was a GREAT deal to me. 

If you got through ALL of this, thank you. It means a lot to me:) 

{I'm so excited to get back to training next week!}

xoxo

aishu

19-01-2024