Tag Archives: Football

How to raise the profile of women’s sport

Posted by Terence Davidson in Football and tagged with , , , ,
One of the iconic images in women's football, Brandi Chastain wins the first women's World Cup

One of the iconic images in women’s football, Brandi Chastain wins the first women’s World Cup

After reading a recent article about the lack of women’s sport coverage I started to think how the profile of women’s sport could be improved. There have been several admirable suggestions from noble sporting bodies about how this might be achieved, but I can’t help but think that tighter shorts can only do so much to promote gender equality. In this post I will use football as an example as it is the most popular sport in the world, so realistically should be the easiest to grow. But there’s no reason my suggestions cannot be applied to other sports.

The popularity of women’s football has fluctuated over the last century. In the early 1900s crowds of as much as 50,000 people turned up to watch women’s domestic football in England before the FA decided to ban women from using their grounds in 1921, a ban that lasted 50 years. The recent World Cup in Germany saw crowds of 70,000 turn up to watch the host nation, and women’s football at the Olympics saw healthy crowds. Yet attempts to establish professional leagues consistently fail around the world. Arsenal Ladies, who dominate the English game only train twice a week.

The problem facing most sports is that the product produced by men will be superior to the product produced by women due to physiology. Men are able to go faster, higher, and stronger. But marketing plays a huge role in the popularity of sports. The English Premier League is arguably the most watched league in the world due to it’s ability to market itself, as opposed to it having more entertaining matches than, for example, the Bundesliga. If FIFA genuinely want to increase the profile and popularity of the women’s game then I think they need to consider taking a leaf out of tennis’ book. The four major tennis tournaments (Wimbledon, the Australian, French, and US Opens) are held each year with men and women competing simultaneously. Men are better tennis players than women, but the disparity in viewing figures is far smaller than the disparity in viewing figures in other sports. Integrated or simultaneous tournaments give exposure to women’s sports that no amount of marketing can. Rather than the viewing public being required to seek something out that they wouldn’t usually watch, it is presented to them as part of something that they would be watching anyway. In the case of the World Cup this means the most watched sporting event in the world outside of the Olympics (where women’s sport, as well us other low profile sports, get a boost from an integrated event).  Continue reading →

Diving, Football, and the Laws of the Game

Posted by Terence Davidson in Football and tagged with , ,

I’ve written previously on the ethics of diving, this post is not so much about ethical issues as it is about the way the laws of football are enforced when it comes to penalising/rewarding diving. In fact this post arguably doesn’t have much place in an ethics blog. However as it is about how the most popular sport in the world can be improved and bring a greater happiness to all who watch and participate in it, whilst preserving the integrity of the sport I will shoehorn it in (also I’ve not posted anything in a long time, luckily for me nothing ethically contentious has happened in sport since my last post). In this post I will argue that contact with a defender shouldn’t prevent referees from punishing players for diving, I will then look at whether or not contact should that is often punished should be considered a foul when based on the Laws of the Game.

Diving is nothing new in the game, but what sparked my recent reflection on it was this incident between my beloved Wellington Phoenix and Adelaide United a few weeks ago (skip to 1:09 for the incident):

Continue reading →

Barton & Nietzsche

Posted by Terence Davidson in Football and tagged with , ,

What would Nietzsche have made of Twitter’s Joey Barton?

So much happened on the final day of the Premier League it’s hard to know where to start. As a Manchester United fan I could not help but be left with a hollow feeling and a new empathy for Bayern Munich fans. However, as I lay in bed last night thinking about the events that had just transpired there was one person who bought a smile to my face: Controvery’s  Joey Barton.

If you’ve not yet seen the incident let me set the scene. QPR, staring down the barrel of relegation, are holding Man City (who essentially need victory to win their first title in 44 years) to a 1-1 draw. There are 35minutes to go in the match when  Pantomime-Villainy’s Joey Barton, appears to elbow Carlos Tevez in the face off the ball. After a a long consultation with his linesman, referee Mike Dean says “Dean you later,” and  sends Barton off. Then this happens:

The Tate Modern’s Joey Barton fighting the good fight (click for GIF)

A-History-of-Assault-and-Battery’s Joey Barton then explained his actions on Twitter, stating that “The head was never gone at any stage, once I’d been sent off, one of our players suggested I should try to take 1 of theirs with me…” maybe it’s just my love of controversy but I thought this was a reasonable, maybe even noble explanation for his latest sojourn into violence. But  it is the reaction to Barton on Twitter that has inspired this post. Barton’s tweeting has been well publicised, particularly his quoting of Nietzsche. No sooner had he kneed Sergio Aguero in the arse than people were throwing  Nietzsche quotes back in his face. Which got me wondering; what would Nietzsche have made of the actions of Her-Majesty’s-Prison’s  Joey Barton?

Continue reading →

An Ethical Analysis of Diving

Posted by Terence Davidson in Football and tagged with , , ,

Didier Drogba: The pin-up boy for moral decency?

Let me start with an admission. I bloody love Gary Neville. He is a Mancunian Prince. Despite playing up front in my first ever football game I wore the number 2 shirt, just like Gary Neville (admittedly this is because I was a fat little fucker who didn’t fit into the coveted number 7 jersey of my hero Eric Cantona, but I still loved and continue to love G-Nev). He was a great player, ever reliable, but he is an even better pundit. Indeed, it is this glorious piece of analysis on diving that has inspired today’s post.

Diving is regularly denounced as the scourge of modern football. For a long time it was [delusionally] seen as the domain of shady foreigners who would cynically cheat their way to victory. It’s practice is now widespread, and if not encouraged at least acknowledged in dressing rooms as a necessary part of the game. Is it morally bad though? That is what I aim to find out. I will do so by throwing down the gauntlet arguably the two most renowned theories of morality: Utilitarianism, and Kantianism.  Continue reading →

Why Referees Are Clearly Utilitarians.

Posted by Terence Davidson in Football and tagged with , , , ,

This was not awarded a goal, it would have given Spurs their first win at Old Trafford since 1989

It’s often difficult discern the ethical theory a person subscribes to just by viewing their actions. After all people often do things that they know are wrong. However, I think there is one group who it easy to see are such committed Utilitarians they would make Peter Singer proud. This group? Referees.

First of all, for those of you who aren’t so philosophically inclined it is only right for me to outline what exactly Utilitarianism is. Utilitarianism is the view that in any given situation the correct action is the one that maximises utility. Or to put it simply, you should always act in a way that maximises happiness. Peter Singer, for example, argues that we should give up all our income (apart from what is required for us to live on) to charity, as the good that comes from saving the life of a starving child in Africa outweighs that good that comes from buying a denim shirt with ironic aztec print. Continue reading →

Who does a football club belong to?

Posted by Terence Davidson in Football and tagged with , ,

A few weeks ago an Italian Serie A match between Genoa and Siena was called to a halt early in the second half when a group of hardcore supporters (commonly known as Ultras) of Genoa, displeased with their teams performance, started throwing fireworks onto the pitch. This isn’t terribly uncommon in Italy or in other leagues around the world, but what came next is.The Genoa Ultras refused to let their team leave the pitch until they had taken off their shirts and handed them over. They claimed that the players were not fit to wear the shirt. Eventually all but one of the players, some of whom were in tears, took off their shirts and handed them to the leader of the Ultras group (the player who refused, Giuseppe Sculli, is the grandson of a Mafia Don so probably had less to fear than the other players).

Genoa Captain, Marco Rossi, prepares to hand back the shirts of his players to the Ultras

Whilst the Ultras were widely condemned as thugs, using violence to hold football to ransom, I was intrigued by the reasoning behind their actions. They felt that they had every right to demand the players’ shirts due to the fact that, whilst players, managers, and owners all come and go with increasing regularity, the fans of a club are its only constant. They see themselves as the custodians of the club, the only thing that remains unchanged, and thus they have the right to make such demands of the players. Continue reading →