Sian Massey and Women in Football

Women in football are not that prevalent but they are increasing in number. There have been the anecdotes of female officials in South America who have posed for titillating shoots and who have lost their jobs. But now in the English league we have people like Sian Massey and more and more female officials in spotrs around the world.

We all have heard of Sian Massey. We have also heard of the Andy Gray sexism controversy. The good news is that there is a strong resistence to a ‘laddish’ culture in a sport that can be defined by so much more. The praise heaped on Gary Neville shows that the fans are not happy with the institution, further underlined the reaction to the Andy Gray and Richard Keyes ugly episode. Though perhaps this is not true across the board on every issue as people in football argue that players and football clubs are ready to accept openly gay footballers but the fans are not. The coming out of a recently retired gay American footballer showed support coming from inside and outside the game.

The truth is that footballers, as the media and some politicians would have you believe, are not Luddites dead-set against progress and while there were a few obligatory pieces of praise for Sian Massey in the early days of her career, she is now seen as just another official.

Though uneccesary pieces like this still do appear, where the public decide to do a ‘Susan Boyle’ and relentlessy support and patronize a proffessipnal doing a  job. Andy Gray, as mush as I do not like him, can play the pantomine villian. Boo and indeed Hiss.

In conclusion, society and footall are as good and as as bad as each other in modern thinking and we must be careful of indulging the patromizing brigade and disowning completekt those who so obviously are in the wrong, such as Andy Gray. But, for the record, I do think she is a brilliant official.

Today is International’s Women’s Day and here is an opportunity to refresh your memories about those pre-historic dinosaurs, those relics of the Cold War: