Spain women’s national football team became the fifth person to win world Cup, along with the US, which already has four, Germany, with two, and Norway and Japan, also with one. These are, without a doubt, days of celebration for football fans. But somehow the celebration has nothing to do with what we saw in 2010, when the men’s team won the same title.
In fact, there are also many disputes, both because of the very unfortunate kiss of the President of the Spanish Football Federation with one of the players, and because of the fans, who, even recognizing the merits of the players, insist that they They are not at the level of men. They argue that this is the reason why women’s football has fewer fans and therefore not much celebration. But are they right? Is it true that the level is lower?
If that were the case, they would have reasons. After all, effort and investment for the preparation of youth academies for female football players is much lower. Girls do not have the same opportunities to advance in the sport as boys and therefore may come of age with a lower quality of play. But it is not. At least, that’s what the studies conducted on this matter say. Women’s game may be different from men’s, but not worse. Therefore, the reasons why there are fewer players in this sport are mostly different.
Women’s football is a quality sport.
In the same year, the results of a study conducted by the Swedish company speedeo and shared Telegraphon the occasion of the Women’s World Cup.
In it, a team of statisticians analyzed available data on recent major football championships, both men’s and women’s, in order to identify differences in their games.
Thus, they saw that there are three main factors that distinguish women’s football from men’s. First, women more risky with passes. At the last European Women’s Championship, the average pass length was 3.7 meters, and at the Men’s World Cup, it was about 2.5 meters.
On the other hand, they not only make longer passes, but also reduce ownership time individual. They interact more with their teammates, increasing risk, which averaged 23% in women’s football and 21% in men’s football. But if there is one thing that markedly distinguishes female soccer players from their male counterparts, it is what they do. much fewer errors. On average, the authors of this study found 27.7 fouls in men’s football matches compared to 20.1 in women’s. It makes games longer when women play because They don’t spend that much time on the ground.
Most Exciting Matches
The same Swedish study found that women’s football matches could be rated as more exciting. Not only because of the longer and riskier game, with more passes and fewer fouls. Also because they have 30% less chance of a draw.
Good players despite the circumstances
We have already seen that women’s football quality sports. That matches are exciting and players take risks not out of unconsciousness, but because they can.
But it cannot be denied that they are much less prepared than men, and there is clearly a reason for this. gender bias. In 2022, a study was conducted with football players from Europe, the USA and South America. A total of 170 male and female players were required to complete an online survey with questions aimed at assessing their performance. True, there were few people and it would be interesting to reproduce it with a large number of participants. However, they found startling data.
First, women received less weekly strength and conditioning workouts. An average of 1.6 sessions, compared to 2.3 for men.
They also saw that in women’s football less heavy lifting something that has been seen as very useful for later performance while playing.
In addition, women’s football coaches used to less experience than those who trained men. All this leads to the fact that women are less prepared for strength training.
This is a big hurdle, but not the first one that women have to go through. But the fact is that since they are girls, access to football is much more difficult for them. In a study published in England in 2022, there is a clear difference in this regard. But not only in England, since declarations people aged 20 to 30 from different countries, including Spain, who report that girls had more obstacles to playing football than boys when they were young.
Goals in women’s football
In the same year, a group of researchers led by Carlos Gomez Gonzalezfrom the University of Zurich, conducted a study aimed at identifying gender biases in the perception of football in society.
For this they showed 613 membersmen and women, a series of images of goals scored in the men’s and women’s world cups.
Half of the participants watched the videos as they are. Meanwhile the other half was shown blurredso that they could not distinguish the one who scored the goal. For example, they saw that in the non-blurred videos, the performance score was significantly higher when the goal was scored by a man. On the other hand, there was no difference in blurry images.
This indicates that when it is said that women’s football has fewer fans due to lower quality games, there is a clear gender bias that is mainly social in origin. And it is that, despite the presence difficulty accessing football When they’re young, with less experienced coaches, poor preparation, and even the pain of enduring kisses they didn’t give permission for, footballers are great athletes. Risky in games, good companions and legal. If that’s not an excuse to watch women’s football and celebrate Spain’s victory, maybe we should rub our teeth into the man. Because there you can see a bit of masculinity peeking out.
Source: Hiper Textual
