Women's football

I heard part of that interesting programme. Some years ago I listened to a programme that detailed the history of women in football, can't remember what it was called but I do remember that that there was a concerted effort by the FA in the 1920s to ban women players from their grounds.

Seems women's football had quite a following and well-attended matches until the ban:

Football

What happened was women were playing football in Victorian times - Dick Kerr’s Ladies and the renowned Nettie Honeyball were all pioneers, even travelling to play abroad. Then the WW1 broke out and all the young men went off to battle. There was no men’s football and crowds flocked to watch ladies football teams which were a real success.

When the war finished and men’s football recommenced the FA pulled the plug on women’s football. No men’s team were permitted to allow them to play on their pitches. Women were effectively frozen out until the 70’s when they came under the auspices of the newly formed Women’s Football Association. Finance wise the WFA suffered and women’s football came back under the control of the FA. Gradually since then women’s football has risen in prominence as people came to realise yes women could play football and were skilful and worth watching. Now there are professional women’s teams but the money they get paid nowhere near matches what the top men are paid. There is still a way to go.