Just been catching up on Gabby Logan's BBC doc 'Sexism in Football?', a diverting titbit totally ruined by use of Eva Cassidy's ubiquitous and winsome version of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' in the closing minutes. Urgh!
It's really interesting seeing what sort of women are about behind the scenes in football, from the journos (my favourite is The Guardian's Marina Hyde, not interviewed, who wrote brilliantly about the last World Cup) to the executives on the boards of UEFA and the FA. And shocking to hear some of the stories, often from the uncomfortably recent past, about women being taunted or excluded. Funny how it can still be difficult for some of the more neanderthalic chaps to see ladies doing important things in football, you know, what with them not having bollocks and having never played the game professionally. What, just like all you pie-gobbling belly-wobblers, who must imagine yourselves galloping onto the pitch tossing your expensively-coiffed manes, doing that Peter Crouch wonder-goal with your eyes closed and your hands tied behind your backs game after game? And, as ex-WWFC manager Lawrie Sanchez (not looking quite as dashing as I remember and then some: I was wearing sky blue-tinted goggles in 2001) said, there are plenty of professional managers, Wenger et al, who have never played football professionally. So there. It strikes me that as the audience - both through the turnstiles and at home on the sofa - becomes more womanly, it makes sense that ladies are visible in the working world of football world. And anyway, Gabby is by far and away the best MOTD presenter going: I'd take her over Smug Gary and Cardigan Colin any time (though I would then miss Colin drawling 'Hwerlves' for the hapless bottom-feeders of the Prem most Sunday nights...).
'What's wrong with being sexy?' As Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnell innocently protested upon shock at the original Smell The Glove album cover, I think I should start a new campaign to help redress the balance: for More Sexiness in Football. Not of the female kind, obviously - thank goodness Wycombe have dissolved their ghastly cheerleader halftime show. Shudder. And not Ruud Gullit's kind either. My campaign will have a five-point agenda:
1) A return to buttock-skimmingly short shorts, eg of the '80s variety:
2) More rockabilly haircuts and uber-stylish, anti-high street photoshoots in magazines that you can only buy in the ICA:
3) Goal celebrations that turn into full-on snogs and quite possibly heavy petting:
4) Footballers being seen doing more stuff like this:
5) Less of this (FYI, this is NOT sexy and NEVER will be):
The campaign starts here! I expect to be fronting a serious documentary for the Beeb VERY soon.
It's really interesting seeing what sort of women are about behind the scenes in football, from the journos (my favourite is The Guardian's Marina Hyde, not interviewed, who wrote brilliantly about the last World Cup) to the executives on the boards of UEFA and the FA. And shocking to hear some of the stories, often from the uncomfortably recent past, about women being taunted or excluded. Funny how it can still be difficult for some of the more neanderthalic chaps to see ladies doing important things in football, you know, what with them not having bollocks and having never played the game professionally. What, just like all you pie-gobbling belly-wobblers, who must imagine yourselves galloping onto the pitch tossing your expensively-coiffed manes, doing that Peter Crouch wonder-goal with your eyes closed and your hands tied behind your backs game after game? And, as ex-WWFC manager Lawrie Sanchez (not looking quite as dashing as I remember and then some: I was wearing sky blue-tinted goggles in 2001) said, there are plenty of professional managers, Wenger et al, who have never played football professionally. So there. It strikes me that as the audience - both through the turnstiles and at home on the sofa - becomes more womanly, it makes sense that ladies are visible in the working world of football world. And anyway, Gabby is by far and away the best MOTD presenter going: I'd take her over Smug Gary and Cardigan Colin any time (though I would then miss Colin drawling 'Hwerlves' for the hapless bottom-feeders of the Prem most Sunday nights...).
'What's wrong with being sexy?' As Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnell innocently protested upon shock at the original Smell The Glove album cover, I think I should start a new campaign to help redress the balance: for More Sexiness in Football. Not of the female kind, obviously - thank goodness Wycombe have dissolved their ghastly cheerleader halftime show. Shudder. And not Ruud Gullit's kind either. My campaign will have a five-point agenda:
1) A return to buttock-skimmingly short shorts, eg of the '80s variety:
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