In 2024, women’s football has become a global phenomenon. Interest in the game grows year-on-year both in the UK and on a global basis. The last FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023 was the most attended in history, with a prize pool of $110million.
Women’s football in short is now big business. The sport has come an incredible way from being a mainly amateur pursuit at the turn of the millennium. But it hasn’t been plain sailing.
With that in mind, reflect upon some of the biggest controversies to date in women’s football. We have instead singled out three incidents that highlight the challenges women’s football has faced, both past and present. Biggest controversies: The FA ban women’s football - for half a century It would be remiss to not mention a decision that set the women’s game back decades.
In the late 1910s, women’s football was booming. With men fighting away in the First World War, women were called upon to do factory jobs. Official workplace sports were encouraged to improve health and productivity.
Fast forward to Boxing Day 1920 and a remarkable crowd of 53,000 at Everton's Goodison Park ground watch Dick Kerr Ladies play St Helen’s Ladies, with the popularity of the game continuing to strengthen after the war. So how did the FA capitalise on this interest in the game? By subsequently effectively banning the sport, of course. On 5 December 1921, the Football Association banned women from playing on FA-affiliated pitches.
With no official place to.
