There may be too much football on TV, but women cannot be accused of congesting airwaves
There have been very few things that I have been coerced into in my 22 years of life. Perhaps I was too compliant as a child – my parents may beg to differ – but my biggest grievances would probably have to be sitting GCSE maths and travelling on Northern Rail.
No one has ever, oddly enough, forced me to watch women’s football. I did not realise until Sunday, on the second day of the Football Association’s inaugural Women’s Football Weekend, that this meant that I was, in fact, one of the lucky ones. I had not recognised my own privilege, and I discovered it via a dedicated helpline, Twitter, for those who had, as one put it, had women’s football “rammed down their throat”. Or, more accurately, were not watching, and felt compelled to announce this, given that the unspoken rule of not watching women’s football is that you must tell everyone, very loudly, that you do not watch women’s football. You are only interested insofar as Women's Football Weekend allows you to share your disinterest with us. This is how this goes.
The reason that no one has ever kidnapped you and forced you to watch women’s football is, most likely, because it would require a great deal of effort. There is, for example, no television deal covering the Women’s League Cup other than that BT Sport will show the final. Until the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League, Uefa give broadcasting rights to competing clubs. It is up to each club to decide whether, and how, they show those matches.
I hereby present – slowly, for those at the back – the conditions for watching Atlético Madrid Women v Manchester City Women in the Champions League via City TV, Manchester City’s in-house streaming service. You will need either a Roku TV (no, me neither), LG or Sony Smart TV, Apple TV Fourth Generation or newer but not on a laptop or mobile or desktop, or an Amazon Firestick that meets the above conditions. It took me in the region of two hours, which encompassed endless contact with various people at Manchester City, to work this out last month. You do not need me to point out that two hours is a long time in any kidnapping trail.
You will not be strapped to a chair, Clockwork Orange-style, eyes wrenched open with matchsticks, Mozart blaring in the background, and forced to watch clips of Steph Houghton and Toni Duggan without considerable expense and planning and spare time on the part of your kidnapper first. By the time they had located a stream of the Women’s Champions League, in those murky corners of the internet teeming with viruses, they might as well have dug out a video of Jonathan Woodgate’s debut at Real Madrid and have done with it.
Which is not to say that television coverage of women’s football is not more widespread than it was five years ago – it is, of course. There are overseas rights deals – in Australia, Central America and Scandinavia – and between them, the BBC and BT Sport show 30 WSL games per season.
But for context, the men’s Premier League currently has 18 overseas broadcast deals in Europe alone, covering 26 countries. Sky show 128 live Premier League games a year and BT 52. On top of that, Sky show 148 Football League matches. Even factoring in that the FA Player, the Football Association’s dedicated online streaming service, will show in the region of 150 live WSL games this season, there is no contest.
It is curious that the same people bemoaning that there is too much football on television – that Friday and Saturday night football are steps too far, the final seizing of the game from the travelling fans by TV's powerbrokers, are the same ones bemoaning that women's football is stealing their TV time during the international break. There is a surfeit of live, televised football matches – but none of that is linked to the women’s game.
There is enough football to go around, enough TV time to go around and no one – wait for it – is forcing you to watch any of it.
