The CBC’s Anjali Nayar sums up the feeling of many true believers of the women’s game. Arriving in Berlin days from the kick-off of the World Cup, her description of Germany differ from the reports that predict that we are on the verge of a major breakthrough for women’s football in Europe.
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Nayar needed have traveled across the Atlantic to make the observation. Whereas a year ago the streets of every major city in Canada were filled by cars displaying the flags of the occupant’s ancestry past (or, at the very least, a country they once visited). Now, the highways are once again flag free.My arrival at Berlin's Schönefeld airport was somewhat anticlimactic. After the circus-like start to last year's World Cup in South Africa, I was disappointed to find little hint that the biggest tournament of the fastest growing sport on the planet was less than a week away.Instead of nationalistic jerseys, flagged speedo-ed rear-view mirrors and building-sized depictions of the game's top players, I had to settle for lurid billboards advertising Lady Gaga's new album and tourist packages to Sardinia.
The observation Nayar makes has as much to do with the absurd reach of the men's World Cup as much as it has to do with any lack of interest in the women’s event. The Munich airport I arrived into on the eve of the 2010 UEFA Champions League final was equally football free. I was in the Tampa airport two days before a Super Bowl – same thing.
Outside of the Olympics there are few things that can compare to the hype of a World Cup. If you try and compare it to the women’s event, the latter is always going to come up short. Understanding that doesn’t make you an enemy of the women’s game. It makes you observant.
Yet – and this is not to pick on Nayar, who is a fine writer – there is often an inherent judgement from those that enjoy and follow the women’s game towards those that don’t. At best you’re misguided, at worst sexist, if you profess a love of Messi, but not not Marta.
Yesterday I asked my Twitter followers to give me an honest assessment of how much they cared about the Women’s World Cup. Although I had answers that both reflected a massive interest and no interest at all, the vast majority of the responses fell in between those extremes.
A typical response (from @DonJulioTO):
I intend to care, and hope to care. Time will tell whether I'm excited enough to ditch a couple hours of work or not though.
“I hope to care” is about as honest as I could hope for. For many, especially here in Canada, there is an understanding that the women have an opportunity to do something special. However, for a variety of reason that women’s football has little control of – a lack of media coverage, limited access and, yes, occasionally some good ‘ole boys misogynistic attitudes – many willing fans don’t have enough knowledge of the women’s game to develop the same type of passionate interest that they have in the men’s game.
It’s a self-perseverating problem -- the lack of information leads to less interest which leads to even less information.
Here at CSN we’re as guilty as the rest. Men’s coverage drives our numbers and we need to be cognizant of that.
For the true believers it’s a frustrating problem and one without easy answers. You can’t make people care. You can only hope that the sport grows incrementally until the point where it doesn’t matter what the detractors say.
Until that happens the best advice is to try not to care what others think. For fans of the women’s game this is your time to celebrate. And if more people care about the chase for Alexis Sanchez, so be it.