The bad female football player: women's football in Sweden

Abstract

According to many Swedish football experts, journalists and others, women's football players at an elite level are not even close to male football players as regards ball technique and game perception. To all appearances, there are similar views in many other countries where women's football has been established. This article aims to examine the accuracy of this opinion, that is, is it correct that Swedish women's football players at an elite level often fail to perform when ball technique and game perception are put to the test. The article analyses how often the Swedish national team's players failed in their ‘actions’ in the Women's World Cups of 2003 and 2007. ‘Actions’ refer to passes, ball receptions, dribbles, final shots and fixed situations. The men's national team's performance has correspondingly been analysed in the men's World Cups of 2002 and 2006. The matches were analysed by means of video. Analysis of almost 10,000 actions shows that there are differences, but that these are relatively small and do not explain the very heavy and categorical criticism that is usually levelled against women's football. The criticism is essentially due to the masculine coding of football and to female intrusion being perceived as a feminist provocation that hence has to be counteracted.

Acknowledgements

The research has been carried out with financial support from Umeå University, Sweden and Swedish National Center for Research in Sports.

Notes

1. Hong and Mangan, Soccer, Women, Sexual Liberation.

2. Ibid.

3. Malm, ‘Damer kan inte spela fotboll’.

4. 3.8 million Swedish television viewers watched the game (of a total of ∼ 9 million Swedes).

5. Sandler, ‘För stort mediautrymme’.

6. Fundberg, Kom igen, gubbar!

7. See, for example, von der Lippe, ‘Kvinnelige fotballspillere har ikke baller’.

8. Larsson, ‘Sörenstam utmanar tankar om rättvisa’.

9. Hjelm, Amasoner på planen.

10. Olofsson, Har kvinnorna en sportslig chans?, 180.

11. Apelmo, ‘Från det att jag var liten har det alltid varit boll’, 7.

12. I disregard here mental and social competence, which also affect football players' performance.

13. Grundkurs för fotbollstränare, 15.

14. Ibid., 8.

15. Jansson and Rohweder, ‘Kompass – med notation’.

16. Ibid.

17. Instruktionsbok i fotboll, 29–30.

18. The analysis work would be even more time‐consuming and it is also more difficult to analyse this on video, as the collective interplay is even more important than in the attacking play and most often this is not entirely discernible in a television broadcast.

19. Haavind, ‘Förändringar i förhållandet mellan kvinnor och män’.

20. It may have to do with league matches (in many parts of Sweden, participation in good and even divisions involves long and relatively expensive journeys) and with the number of match stewards (the three‐referee system, which is safer than the one‐referee system, is, for example, more common in many youth cups for boys aged 15–17 years, while girls of the same age often have to do with one referee).