As Chelsea Women and Arsenal Women go head-to-head for the Women’s FA Cup trophy today, it important to know how far the women’s game has come.
100 years ago, the English FA decided it was bad that tens of thousands of people went to the stadium and watched women’s football. They said they should ban women’s football from their pitches altogether because its popularity was threatening the men’s game.
That ban didn’t stop women’s football in England altogether, but it was a hammer blow. It suffocated the game, made it far less likely to flourish, and prevented women from viewing football as a viable career.
53,000 people came out and watched Dick, Kerr Ladies at Goodison Park in 1920, a record attendance that was not broken for 98 years. That massive attendance was becoming regular in women’s football before the FA decided to ban women from pitches.
Imagine what would have become of women’s football in England and around the world if that early growth was capitalized on and not stunted?
Below is the pictorial representation shared by COPA90.