Seán Ó Fithcheallaigh

Okay, so I will start by saying I do not follow football (or soccer if you prefer), but I have been watching the opening game of the women’s Olympic football games (and I will set aside the fact that the first match of the Olympics is before the actual opening ceremony ….really, didn’t someone just take a look at a calendar?) and as I have watched …or half watched to be more accurate, there is something I don’t understand; why isn’t football a mixed sex sport?

Football is not a physical game, and by physical I mean it is largely a non contact game, as opposed to hurley, American football or rugby for example. So, with that in mind, and the fact that women can of course reach the same levels of physical fitness, can have the same stamina than man (I would actually argue women could have more stamina, but that will be put to one side too), and they can reach the same technical level as any man, I would have to ask the question, why isn’t football a mixed sex sport?

Yet this is never a subject I have heard discussed. But maybe that is because I don’t follow football. Is the issue ever discussed?

I would argue the same for, say F1. Why is there no female F1 drivers? And really, if you are reading this and you are making a comment about women being bad drivers, please, close my blog down and never darken its door again. I mean that, go on, go!

So, is sport largely sexiest? I don’t think it is overtly sexiest, I mean, I do not think, for example, football wants to keep women in their own leagues etc., but I think it is fair to say that sport, in general, is not very progressive.

Any thoughts? Comments?