I would like to say that I’m astonished that someone can still feel this way in the year 2006 but then I would be lying as I know there are people out there that despise the involvement of women in the game, however, I am astonished that someone has actually come out publicly and admitted it.

Mike Newell is quoted as saying “What was the lineswoman doing here? She shouldn’t be here. I know that sounds sexist but I am sexist so I am not going to be anything other than that. We have a problem in this country with political correctness - bringing women into the game is not the way to improve refereeing and officialdom”.

I don’t think I am alone here when I am genuinely amazed and afronted by this statement. I won’t call for his head, his job or a public apology as I think Mr Newell is to be pitied and an apology would only be for the sake of it. This prejudice has no place in the modern game but it has raised serious questions regarding opinions of womens involvement in the sport.

Ron “Chopper” Harris had come out in support of Newell’s statement asking “how is a woman, who has never made a crunching tackle or been on the receiving end of one, to know what is fair and what is not?” Now I’m taking it that Ron has never actually watched a ladies football match for if he had he would know that this is simply not the case. In fact the women’s game is a harder arena than the Premiership these days with players going to ground under the slightest of touches. During the current season one team mate of mine has suffered a broken nose and broken wrist, both injuries coming from crunching tackles.

The views expressed by these men are uninformed and outdated and hopefully condemned by the general masses who support the beautiful game. Maybe I’m out on a limb here but aren’t people to be judged on merit and not sex? Its not like the men refereeing the game always get it right but whats important is that when then get it wrong its not because they are a man but because they are simply not good at their job - why is it different with women?

Mike Newell needs to take a serious look at his belief system and wake up to the fact that its not the 1950’s and women actually do love the game of football. Women officiating at football matches, next thing we know they’ll be letting them be Prime Minister for goodness sake!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 10:15 am and is filed under General Football Articles. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.