The Kick Project

Pic: latestonsports.com This week, with the Women's World Cup reaching the pointy end, some insights into women and football, and sport in general.* And, finally, a comment on the Palestine v Israel dispute at the latest FIFA Congress. Sport and Women Girls Tackle Stereotypes (And Each Other) in US Football League How FIFA Discriminates Against the Women's World Cup (possibly for the better...) Is Women in Sport a Feminist Issue? Pic: Zimbio.com Women's Star May Have Violent Past Female EPL Club Owner Shows Men How its Done Culture Must Change for Women's Game Prejudice Still Exists Norway's Team Takes a Shot at Detractors....By Laughing at Them Power of Sport This Young Girl Collapses Every Race, But She Keeps Racing Comment: On May 29, The FIFA Congress saw the culmination in the campaign by the Palestinian Football Federation to give the Israeli federation the red card, by kicking them out of FIFA on charges of player discrim...

An interesting stat to come out of the women's World Cup, currently underway in Germany, is that possession is not a guarantee to winning. While the Barca-ball-hogging style has become something many leading men's teams will be seeking to emulate in the coming northern seasons, let's not forget that winning football tactics are those that fit the team they are supposed to organise. To me Barca's style is quite simple: basically pass the ball incessently to draw defences out of shape and then give it to Messi to wreak havoc in the gaps. But not everyone has a Messi. Good to see the women's game has the courage to devise its own shapes and structures to suit the women's game and the players of each team. One of the reasons I like watching it and one of the reasons I believe women should be allowed access to the men's professional game.

With the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup soon to get underway in Germany, it's a good time to take a look at how integrated the world game really is. While much has been done in areas of racial equality and in getting poorer kids involved in the game, the great divide between men and women players remains. This is puzzling as soccer is a game that in theory could be played by both sexes, equally, in mixed teams. However, its not so surprising given the misogynistic attitudes of high-up administrators, from Sepp Blatter down (including many top players, media and supporters), cultural obstacles to women playing sport in general and the more physical nature of the modern professional men's game. But, as anyone who has seen top level women's football, the decrease in overt physicality and speed is more than compensated by the greater flow and by the diminished presence of win-at-costs attitude. The bravado and macho cuture of the men's game is shown up as empty p...