It's been too long. Nearly eleven months actually. Since I came on here. I've been watching football, loads of it. But I've just not had the time, nor strong enough inclination, to jot down my thoughts here. A part of that will be down to having twin babies to look after and work commitments. Anyway let's stop with the excuses, I'm here now!
And what has dragged me from my slumber? West Ham? All English European Finals, one of them in middle of Asia, with players absent for political reasons? The (successful) UEFA Nations League? Nope! It's the Women's World Cup.
I, like many others, tuned in yesterday to watch England convincingly beat Cameroon. Unlike many others I also sat up until almost 11pm watching France edge out the Brazilians (I should probably say "Braaaaaasiwians"). I'm fully on board with Women's Football and really enjoy it, my next blog post was actually going to be at the end of the tournament on that subject, this may still come...
What's brought me here is the above mentioned England game, and the reaction to it that doesn't quite sit well with me.
I'm going to make the assumption that if you're reading this, you saw the game. I have loads to get through, so haven't got time to run through extended highlights, not even in the slack way that they do it on Match of The Day.
So at the end of the game the England Manager Phil Neville ("superstar with more medals than Steve Gerrard" my Evetonian sympathies there) came out and slammed his opponents for their conduct throughout the game; and there's been plenty of condemnation directed to the Cameroon ladies, as well as ridicule, within the press and on social media.
Now here comes the first of many caveats, I watched the game. Cameroon were no Saints. Before anything controversial had happened they'd spat at and elbowed some of the England players. And the challenge in front of the dugout on full-time was extremely dangerous and petulant. And deserved a straight red card. I sense that by this point the referee just wanted to end the game.
Here's the thing though (2nd caveat, it doesn't excuse any of the above, in my eyes all of those misdemeanours should be retrospectively punished) let's give the reaction throughout by the Cameroon players and subsequent reaction in the media some context.
Flip the game on its head for a second. I'm going to forget that I'm English for a second. And would ask Phil Neville and anyone reading this who is English to forget that they are. Imagine you are one of the Cameroon players playing for their nation in a World Cup.
Now let's think firstly about how Women's Football is treated in the UK (and much of the Western World), it has been long derided, under-invested in and is only really beginning to bear the fruits of a smattering of interest that's it's been shown in the past few years. I've watched the last 3 Women's World Cups, the game is developing rapidly, it's almost unrecognisably faster than it was four years ago. But it still faces many hurdles. And that's in the UK! I can't imagine that Cameroon is a more progressive nation in terms of gender equality etc, so I'd imagine the struggle to be a professional or semi-professional footballer in Cameroon is a difficult one.
Once you've gotten past all of that, imagine being good and lucky enough to represent your national team at a World Cup. Bear in mind the many great players that have never played in a World Cup, or only played in one, due to injury, loss of form or just playing for a nation that isn't strong enough to be guaranteed a spot every four years. For example Alan Shearer, the Premier League's all-time record goalscorer and allround 90s "Goal Machine" only ever graced one, scoring just two goals if memory serves me correctly. That's right, a lot can happen in four years.
So you've battled against the odds to become a professional/semi-professional woman's footballer. You're good enough to play for your national team, and your national team are good enough to make the World Cup. Then you have to negotiate the group stage. Unless you play for one of the top few nations, that in itself is going to be a struggle to get through, in the case of Cameroon it was. Your odessy has taken you into a Last 16 showdown with England, "Inventors of the game", "The Home of Football", quite possibly one of the biggest games of your career.
Now you know you aren't as good as England, you're going to have to be defensively disciplined and you're probably a bit nervous. First ten minutes pass without incident then you, or one of your teammates, miscontrol a ball into the box. Not to worry, the keeper will sweep that up...
Oh the referee has given that as a deliberate backpass! On the edge of your six yard box. It was so obviously not intentional, hence the keeper picked it up, but now you've been punished with an almost certain goal. I can hear loads of you saying that was a backpass, but I'm sorry it wasn't. No way. And I would have been fuming had Cameroon been given that. It just wasn't deliberate.
Needless to say England take the lead, and all of the plans you've been working on for the last few days are out of the window.
You compose yourself and try and get to Half Time just one down, threatening on the break occasionally. Then the second England goes in.
Now let me make it clear. The second goal was legitimate, it wasn't offside and Cameroon should have defended a lot better in thar situation. But what baffles me about the whole thing was the decision to show a replay (without the lines that the audience at home saw) on the big screen in the stadium. I've been going to watch professional football matches for 30 years now (29 and a half actually, QPR v Coventry 26/12/89) and have had a season ticket a West Ham for the last 15. One thing I can confirm for a fact is that no contraversial decisions are ever shown on the big screen in the stadium, largely for fear of inciting a riot. Why are we doing this at the Women's World Cup? The call was marginal enough to spend a few minutes watching it over and over, WITH LINES ON THE SCREEN, on TV before the VAR crew could make a decision. So FIFA then decided to show it to the emotionally charged players on the field?!?
Like I said it was a legitimate goal and I can't defend some of the conduct of the Cameroon players, but I can see why they might have been a bit miffed, especially considering the nature of the first goal they conceded on top of the magnitude of the game and the journey they will have been on to get there.
There was talk of the Cameroon players calling racism at half time. I doubt very much that any of the decisions made by the referee, right or wrong, were racially motivated. I could sit here and ridicule the Cameroon players as I've seen others do, but I'm not a young black woman from Cameroon, who's made it as a professional footballer against all the odds. I'm a black man from the United Kingdom, I have some experience of racism, probably more experience than say the average person in the UK. But I still can't put myself in their shoes. I haven't seen, and heard, and felt what they have. So it doesn't sit right with me when others who have probably been fortunate enough not to experience what I have, let alone what some of those ladies may have ridicule their response. Sorry, it just doesn't.
Let's move on from that, I feel like what is normally quite a jovial blog has taken a more darker, more serious turn. So the second half kicks off and right at beginning Cameroon appear to pull it back to 2-1... Nope! Our friend VAR is back, once again after a minute or so of replays the Cameroon strike is (correctly) chalked off. Unfortunately the nature of VAR and football means that we are going to see plenty more of these moments if we are to continue with the farce that is video refereeing. And the feeling of having the elation of pulling a goal back in the most important game of your career snatched away, will almost certainly come with negative reprocussions. But you know what makes the situation even worse...? SHOWING IT ON THE BIG SCREEN AGAIN! Because we haven't learned from the incident twenty or so minutes ago.
Again, the decision was legitimate, it wasn't a goal. England were deservedly 2-0 up. But bearing in mind all that had gone before, all that I've talked about, the fact that some of the crowd, who I doubt were predominantly from Abidjan, began to boo and whilstle at the officials; I can see why the Cameroon players may have reacted the way they did.
The rest of the game was a bit of a damp squib, with England scoring a well worked, and deserved, third. And that inexcusable horror tackle in an English player in the last minute which could have done some serious damage.
And then comes the condemnation, "They're a disgrace to Women's Football", "They didn't even understand the rules" etc etc. The sort of holier than thou condemnation that as alighned to calling diving, "A thing foreigners do", villifying Diego Maradona's handball while at the same time ignoring the 45+ minutes worth of merciless hacking that he'd endured.
Two wrongs don't make a right in any instance so I don't think the Cameroon players were justified in their actions. But I refuse to look at them out of context and certainly won't act as if my own countrymen (and women) would never be capable of any skullduggerous behavior. And I'm definitely left feeling a little 'uncomfortable' when it is implied some of their actions were born from a lack of understanding a game that they will have fought hard to reach the pinnacle of.
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