FIFA: Women's football is not very developed in India. Do you feel it is possible to change that situation?
SP: Women's football has already managed to grow in countries where cultural, religious or political factors might have made that appear unlikely. As a result, there's no reason why it can't work in India. For example, a film such as 'Bend it like Beckham', in which Parminder Nagra, an actress with Indian roots, put in such a brilliant performance, could act as a spark for women's football in the country. It's just a question of opening the door. I said in 1995 that the future of football was women's football and I don't think I was mistaken. The epidemic could well reach India!
1. Let me start with the question - it's very problematic. India's national program has been a mess. But women's football some regions (half the NT comes from Manipur) is very "developed." See #2.
2. "Women's football has already managed to grow in countries where cultural, religious or political factors might have made that appear unlikely. As a result, there's no reason why it can't work in India."
Blatter seems to have confused India with Afganistan. What does he mean by this? Perhaps he means England and its national FA which banned the women's game for 50 years.
Seriously, this suggests that there are "factors" in India that make the development of women's football seem "unlikely." It would be generous to say this is ill informed. It's colonialist/racist/imperialist bullshit. Women play soccer in India. They have since the 19th C. Like the US, soccer in India isn't so much a "man's game" - girls play it in schools, and the sport has had its moments of popular success (in the 1970s & 80s).The WPS should be so lucky as to get the numbers that have turned out for some of the country's regional derbys.
3. "For example, a film such as 'Bend it like Beckham', in which Parminder Nagra, an actress with Indian roots, put in such a brilliant performance, could act as a spark for women's football in the country."
This is again ridiculous, on quite a few levels. The president of FIFA should know something more about women's football than the storyline of this film.
This statement assumes that women in India - no matter where they live or what background they have - will automatically identify with this story of a daughter of a Punjabi Sikh immigrant family in London. I can't even begin to map the problematic assumptions here - the collapse of all people of "Indian background" as one, and the assumption that everyone's story - and relationship to tradition is the same.
Nagra was great, but we actually don't see any real football in the movie - at least nothing that makes anyone convinced they are watching footage of a top female player. I'm sorry, but that movie, as much as I loved it, didn't make me want to play soccer. Goal, a shitty film in so many ways, is much better at making you want to kick a ball around.
I suspect he has never seen the movie. It's a lazy and stupid statement.
4. "It's just a question of opening the door. I said in 1995 that the future of football was women's football and I don't think I was mistaken. The epidemic could well reach India!"
I would say FIFA is better at closing the door than opening it. Blatter is a moron, and women's football is popular in India already. Girls all over the world grow up with a ball at their feet. The real question is why more countries don't have strong national programs. The fact that he refers to women's football as an "epidemic" says it all. FIFA actually controls that epidemic by recommending that FAs taking development funds spend 15% of the money on women. Last I looked, that was 35% shy of equity.
Anyone who ends a quote with a sentence is usually a moron...
ReplyDeleteI really like your blog, but I think you malign FIFA's idiot secgen unfairly, re his second point. Having not long ago moved back to the USA from the Middle East, I know that Blatter is very much aware of national women's teams in a number of Islamic countries, where it's an unheard-of departure and a truly heartwarming development. Some of the players have great moves and technique and are rapidly developing game vision.
ReplyDeleteHi Jim - Yes: But if India is Islamic, it is also Hindu, Catholic, Sikh, Buddhist and more - plus, globally, codes of conduct regarding gender segregation and participation in sport vary widely - whether we be talking about Asia, the Middle East, or Europe. (They vary in fact within India itself) FIFA's chief representative should know this, and in speaking of a big initiative in India, he should have an awareness of India's interesting history regarding women's football - it isn't all that obscure, if a girl like me can gain access to it.
ReplyDelete(I will always be put off by men saying "the future of football is feminine" or however that line goes: it belies a long history of patriarchal intervention and suppression of women's participation in football.)
A big stumbling block to women's football - and indeed all women's sport - in India is the fact that we don't, to my knowledge, have any legislation akin to Title IX. Spending on sport in general is pitiful in most schools, and much much worse for girls.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteI am an Indian and also one of those who has abhorred Blatter's stupid quotes over the years.
But while I follow a little of Indian football I haven't really heard of any accomplishments by the women's team. Could you tell me which specifically you were referring to in your comment "Like the US, soccer in India isn't so much a "man's game" - girls play it in schools, and the sport has had its moments of popular success (in the 1970s & 80s)"
Hi,
ReplyDeleteYes - I was in India in December and interviewed Yolanda de Souza, a NT player of the late 1970s and early 1980s who was involved with Goan women's football throughout that period. There are a few newspaper articles from within India during the period which you can find with internet searches that confirm that the regional leagues in especially Goa, Kerala, and Kolkata were strong especially for that time period. If you just talk to Indian women today a surprising number will talk about playing football in school or with their Dads, brothers as girls. Of course, this various according to region as does most things.
Manipur and Sikkim are two regions, for example, where football itself is strong, and where women's football seems to enjoy a good organizational structure.
The book Goalless has a chapter on Indian women's soccer - that work was published in an article in Soccer and Society a couple of years back. That was written by Boria Mazumdar and Kausik Bandyopadhyay.
I would love to know more about women's football in India & hope I get to go back & do some more research and talk with the women involved with the sport at the regional level.