Women in FIFA 16: Life, Advice and Rants

In May, news came about of the FIFA president Sepp Blatter stepping down from his position following the fraud and money laundering scandal which resulted in arrests of FIFA officials and FIFA committee members. But what was also revealed during these troubled times for the football association is that 12 international women teams have been introduced to the highly successful game franchise FIFA 16. The trailer announcing the news was released on the EA Sports FIFA youtube channel on the 28th May 2015.

Until now only men's teams have featured on one of the most popular EA sports games, which was first released back in 1993. Sadly this long time over due revelation for women's football came with some backlash. There where plenty of comments and tweets signaling their outrage of the idea of expanding the beloved game to an increasingly significant area of the sport. Reading some of these tweets and comments made me surprisingly upset, thinking why am I crying over tweets not directed at me personally.

I was upset with these angry entitled teenage boys who were spewing misogynistic nonsense about the sport I have been apart of for 11 years of my life. They degraded women's football, considering it to be less than men's football. The common sexist, unfunny jokes such as:

Women's football has battled through so many prejudices and misconceptions to get the amount of acceptance it has achieved. Seeing these comments makes it seem that it is taking a step back but if the rest of the women's footballing community feels the same as myself, we will power on through. The Football Association in 1921 introduced a ban which disallowed women's football games from grounds which wasn't removed until July 1971. In 2004, former president Sepp Blatter suggested that women footballers should 'wear tighter shorts and low cut shirts...to create a more female aesthetic and attract more male fans.' All of these attempts to discredit and remove women's football has only increased it further, the England Women vs Germany Women friendly match at Wembley was watched by a record 45,000+ fans in the first female matched played at the famous ground. 

To believe that football is a 'mans game' is in itself, ignorant. Millions of girls and women lace up their boots and take part in the beautiful game, including myself and Round Up blogger Shannon. The over reaction to something that should of happened years ago is, in my opinion, pathetic as women's football should be recognised equally to mens. Comments saying 'why would they put women in FIFA 16 when 95% of players are boys? It makes no sense' are just incorrect. Since FIFA was launched in 1993 the number of registered female players has had a 54% increase from 2000, to a total of 4.1 million players. Just because there are less professional opportunities for women, doesn't mean we don't play football or FIFA.

So for some, women in FIFA 16 is affecting their masculinity which to be honest, isn't really a big part if they are whining about the inclusion. Many need to come out of the sexist stigma of football and realise that women are a ever growing part of the game. After years of success, lets celebrate another one because finally we are in the game!