I wasn’t going to write this today, but sometimes you get angry, and it has to come out somewhere, so here it is.

The Football World Cup Final has just happened, and the Lionesses, despite a valiant fight, were outclassed on the day by victorious Spain. That is almost a footnote in all of this.

Am I sad they didn’t win? Of course I am. The victory though, is for women’s sport. When have you ever seen a women’s sporting event gain such momentum and prime time TV coverage? I haven’t cared this much about a game (in any sport) as long as I can remember, it’s made me really emotional. It wasn’t until I started to think about why that was, that I started to get angry.

I used to quite enjoy football. (The mens game). Back when you could get excited about home town boys coming up through their youth sides and then playing with heart for the main squad and it meant everything. For a while now I’ve been totally turned off by petulant teenage millionaire histrionics on pitch, and impropriety off pitch, whether it’s drunk driving or rape allegations. Fan tribalism, homophobic chanting, chanting about Hillsborough or other wholly distasteful violent stuff in the stands. It’s just ugh on a major level.

Yet, what is this? Ladies football, skill, passion, entertainment, inclusivity. It has single-handedly made me interested in the game again, where I couldn’t have given a monkeys about the Mens World Cup.

I’ve been listening to white van men phoning in to talk radio all week, spouting off about how it’s not proper entertainment, and that it doesn’t deserve the same spotlight as Men’s sport (don’t get me started on salaries for crying out loud – playing for your country while also holding down a part time job to support yourself).

Then you hear about Mary Earps, FIFA goalkeeper of the year and just awarded the Golden Gloves in the World Cup. Her pivotal penalty save kept England’s hopes alive this afternoon. And yet, Nike decided not to have her replica kit available for sale, despite the rest of the team’s kit being readily available to buy. Can you imagine not being able to buy a replica shirt of any member of the mens national football team? Never mind the best goalkeeper in the world? No I think not.

In fact there is a petition you can sign here Mary Earps petition to push Nike to reconsider.

Women’s football, used to be massive though. In WW I when all the able bodied men were on the front line, women took to the factories to cover their jobs and football teams began to spring up everywhere, garnering crowds of over 50,000 people a match, and turning the top flight teams into household names. Until of course FIFA decided that football was “unsuitable” for women, and banned it in 1921. A ban, which wasn’t lifted until 1971 I might add.

Now here I am reading the comments on the Lionesses Instagram, 99% of which are so so proud, and it’s interspersed with the usual knobheads. “It’s the first and last ladies game I’ll ever watch”. Another page I follow which I’m usually fond of has decided to go with how angry all the lesbians are now that England has lost. Of course, because only lesbians would watch ladies football – silly old me.

It goes back to women needing to be 50% better than the closest man to get the recognition they deserve. To be able to silence all these fragile male creatures that aren’t comfortable enough in their own skins to watch ladies football. What would the lads down the pub say eh fellas?

I thought we’d come a long way with gender equality, and then I really did start to question why it had made me so emotional. I just wanted the noise to dim a little and for these women to be recognised for their great achievement, because for once there would have been nothing for the white van men to be able to say. Despite making it to the final, more than the men have managed since 1966, the fact they came second has still proven enough of a failing to give people (that are so brave that they don’t have their face as their profile picture), the audacity to have a little go.

I thought about how we just accept that 90% of prime time sport is male dominated. Football, rugby, cricket, Formula1, the Tour de France, Moto GP – all of it. How is this OK, and how can we feel like equality is a thing when this remains as it is?

Try thinking of the first sports personality that comes in to your head? What gender are they?

And there it is folks. This is why it means more. To get to the top of your profession, without the funding, the sponsorship, the recognition, the salary, or even having your own replica kit. It must be like swimming through treacle.

For every little girl that has watched today’s game and thought, yes I can!

What did Emmeline Pankhurst once say, something about rebellion wasn’t it?

Rant over.

V xx