Football has not featured much in the long history of female emancipation. The right to kick a ball has, it must be said, rarely been seen as an emblematic issue. Nevertheless, at a time when notions of equality have become ubiquitous, the male chauvinist manoeuvrings of some football league clubs is mindboggling.
The tale of the teenage finalists in the England under-14s Girls’ National Cup suggests that league football clubs are infected with a petty prejudice against female players that verges on the neanderthal. The girls at Toynbee Sports College in Hampshire and Bridgnorth Endowed School in Shropshire are talented and enthusiastic players of the national game. They have been waiting since May to play the deciding match in the championship — because no major club will provide them a ground on which to play.
The excuses are risible: a waterlogged pitch, a pop concert and concerns about health and safety that strangely do not seem to have applied to the equivalent match for teenage boys. The true subtext may be that groundsmen who are precious about their beloved turf — and reluctant even to allow Premiership players to set foot on it — are determined not to let a bunch of girls mess up the pitch.
How much damage can a small group of females do? This is clearly not the issue. The boys’ under-14 final was decided without fuss in May. So far, 35 clubs have been approached. All have ducked out. But they should not be allowed to shirk their responsibilities to give a sporting chance to school- children; these clubs are now officially given a yellow card. Play the game of life the way it is meant to be played.