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| Premier League Chief Richard Scudamore |
I recently posted about my enquiry to the FA over the North East (specifically the Tees Valley area) potentially hosting a women's international match and/or the FA Women's Cup final. It has emerged that the FA are interested in bidding to host the 2019 World Cup. Which of England's fine stadiums will host matches and will the final be played at Wembley? How will venues be selected? There is no doubt that England does have some great stadiums and some equally great towns and cities.
As a proud Brit and a passionate football fan, I would love for England to host more international competitions. As any true Brit, I am pessimistic about our chances. Women's football is the third biggest participation team sport in Britain, coming behind only the men's game and men's cricket. Given it's popularity and comparatively greater success, it is massively under funded and under valued. How can a country with such little respect for a sport and it's participants host that sport's biggest competition?
It is true that huge strides have been made in the women's game and it has never been so well supported and received as much media coverage as it is now, but there is still such a long way to go. There have been a number of positive stories about the women's game and women in football recently but, there has also been some damaging stories too. Helena Costa is the highest placed female coach in the men's game since her appointment as head coach at French Ligue 2 side Clermont Foot and there was a story in a local paper about a teenage girl playing for a school boy's team last week. These are great positives but, Richard Scudamore's leaked sexist emails to and from his pals is a massive negative for England and the FA. I'm not going claim that Scudamore's former PA should not have brought his real attitude towards women to light, but the timing for England is about as bad as it gets. If I was a part of FIFA's Executive Committee, this scandal would all but rule England out of hosting any FIFA competition for the next few years and certainly put them out of the running for the 2019 World Cup.
On the other side of things, given recent bad press, the World Cup could be precisely what this country needs to push the women's game on. With FIFA preferring the World Cup host to also host the previous year's Under 20 World Cup and the decision to be made in early 2015, is it just a little too soon after a scandal like this has broken?
A major shake up of the FA is definitely needed and Greg Dyke must take action against Scudamore for his conduct or take a hard look at his own position. England is in no fit state to host such a prestigious tournament when the FA Chairman refuses to take action against the Premier League Chief Executive for sexist gross misconduct. If Scudamore was in my job and this came out, he'd be signing on now. Scudamore's comments are
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| FARE Executive Director Piara Powar |
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| FIFA's Moya Dodd |
With the Richard Scudamore scandal recently coming to light and the survey finding two thirds of women working in football have witnessed sexism, why should FIFA grant the World Cup to England?
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