In 2024, women’s football has become a global phenomenon. Interest in the game grows year-on-year both in the UK and on a global basis. The last FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023 was the most attended in history, with a prize pool of $110million.
Women’s football in short is now big business. The sport has come an incredible way from being a mainly amateur pursuit at the turn of the millennium. But it hasn’t been plain sailing.
With that in mind, reflect upon some of the biggest controversies to date in women’s football. We have instead singled out three incidents that highlight the challenges women’s football has faced, both past and present.
It would be remiss to not mention a decision that set the women’s game back decades.
In the late 1910s, women’s football was booming. With men fighting away in the First World War, women were called upon to do factory jobs. Official workplace sports were encouraged to improve health and productivity.
Fast forward to Boxing Day 1920 and a remarkable crowd of 53,000 at Everton’s Goodison Park ground watch Dick Kerr Ladies play St Helen’s Ladies, with the popularity of the game continuing to strengthen after the war.
So how did the FA capitalise on this interest in the game? By subsequently effectively banning the sport, of course.
On 5 December 1921, the Football Association banned women from playing on FA-affiliated pitches. With no official place to play, the game effectively went into exile. The governing body at the time said “the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.”
Partially motivated by inaccurate theories which contended playing the sport threatened women’s health and morality, players were unable to build on their early progress.
It wasn’t until 1971 that the ban was finally lifted by the FA after the formation of the Women’s Football Association a few years before, a group formed after extra interest following the 1966 men’s World Cup. But for 50 years the game in England – the birthplace of association football – was put on hold.
While the men’s game had half a century of professional development, women weren’t officially able to play. It’s a decision that looks more scandalous with each passing year. An apology from the FA would belatedly follow in 2008, with the women’s game still making up the lost ground to this day.
The USA national team equal pay claim
While so many countries – including England – ignored or actively restricted women playing football, America led the way. The US were the first country to have a fully professional league, originally launched in 2001, and had a national team the envy of the world.
Their successful hosting of the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup (which they won in dramatic fashion) is seen by many as a ‘year zero’ for modern women’s football. Essentially, the USA’s approach to the game has paved the way for other countries, offering a blueprint on how women’s football should look.
In the 2010s their domination was on another level. The USA reached three World Cup finals – winning two. After winning in France in 2019 questions were raised over whether the women’s national team should be paid at least the same as their (far less successful) male counterparts.
A bid for equal pay from the USWNT followed, with 28 player filing against the US Soccer Federation (USSF) and seeking $66m (£52.8m) in damages under the Equal Pay Act.
The debate went on with the Federation offering the men’s and women’s sides identical contracts, initially rejected by the USWNT. However, in June 2022 an agreement between the two sides was finally reached.
The deal means that USA female players will receive $24m (£17.7m) and US Soccer has pledged equal pay for the men’s and women’s teams across all competitions, including the World Cup. Although eventually resolved, the episode effectively highlighted how – even in nations that are supposedly ‘doing women’s football right’ – the best players can still be hugely undervalued.
The equal pay resolution also came at a time when many in the American game were only just learning about a number of sexual harassment cases in the country’s domestic league, the NWSL. Another reminder that although the women’s game has moved at pace on the other side of the Atlantic, there is still much work to do.
The Luis Rubiales case
This story of this notorious incident has been well scrutinised and even over a year after it first took place, it still feels surreal.
Spain had just beaten the Lionesses 1-0 to become World Champions for the first time ever. They were worthy winners, not just in the final but the whole tournament. That should have been the entire story.
Instead, it was overshadowed by the actions of Luis Rubiales. The President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation kissing Jenni Hermoso during the medal ceremony, and as the world watched on witnessing his entirely inappropriate behaviour.
Rather than accept his wrongdoing and resign immediately, in the following days Rubiales made a bizarre speech doubling down on his behaviour at the final – which also included a not so subtle crotch grab in the authorities’ box.
The only positive to take from the episode was the widespread condemnation of Rubiales behaviour from all corners of the globe.
The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called Rubiales’ behaviour unacceptable and said there “was still a long way for equality.” 81 Spanish players signed a statement saying they wouldn’t play for the national team until their was change in leadership, while 21 teams from across the country called for Rubiales to resign.
Rubiales finally fell on his sword on September 10, giving a strange interview to Piers Morgan (who else) in which he confirmed his resignation not only as president, but also from his role at UEFA.
FIFA later announced Rubiales was banned from football-related activities for three years, while he later had his house raided as part of a corruption investigation.
