Has the time finally come for women's football?
Could this be the year when women's football finally breaks through to the mainstream?
The Game
It’s 6AM this Saturday morning in our little cottage a couple of hours outside of Stockholm, and I’m childishly excited.
For one thing a brilliant carpenter friend came yesterday and did in a day what would take me a month to do, so it’s now looking more like a cottage and less like a building site.
But the excitement comes not from plasterboard and paint. It comes from the knowledge that I’ll be boarding a train in a few hours to take me to Gothenburg for the UEFA Women’s Champions League final.
A few years ago I asked Pia Sundhage, a former player and current coach of Brazil, if the 2019 World Cup was going to be a breakthrough for the women’s game.
She sighed and told me that she’d seen so many breakthroughs in her many decades in the game that she had lost count, but it feels like after this season, the sisters are here to stay.
I make a point of not making comparisons between the men’s and women’s games - the players, the teams, the tournaments. It’s just not worth it. Women’s football is a different sport, repressed for so long, that it is deeply unfair to make any comparison whatsoever.
That said, Chelsea and Barcelona are two of the biggest clubs in the world and they have invested heavily in their women’s teams, and I haven’t looked forward to a final this much since Barca took on AC Milan in 1994
In the past couple of days I’ve spoken to two Norwegians, one from either side.
The interview with Guro Reiten is already out there, the one with Caroline Graham Hansen is out later today.
The game takes place on Sunday evening and I’d strongly suggest you take a look. This could be the best game of the season form any genre.
The Narrative
One of the things I will write more about in the coming weeks is how the world is not actually white.
For my generation growing up, white people were at the heart of everything, from cowboy movies to music. We grew up thinking that all the world was white, and seen from that perspective. We held the power, we were the good guys, and everyone else was just in the supporting cast.
Dismantling this is proving to be very difficult for many, and in this lies the snarled and tangled roots of white supremacy.
The Splinter In Your Neighbours Eye
It’s funny to see politicians and commentators (especially in the Irish debate around housing or the Swedish discourse about law and order) accusing their opponents of being ideologically driven, as if they themselves are somehow neutral.
By far the worst offenders are the free-market fundamentalists whose ideas have been tried - and have mostly failed, at least form a social perspective - for the best part of four decades now.
But point that out and you’re ideologically-driven, which they, of course, could never be.
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
Wednesday 0900, at the Philadelphia Church in Stockholm, I have my most important appointment of the year - the first dose of my COVID-19 vaccine.
We’re a long way from safe globally, but I’m hoping that getting vaccinated will open up my world just a little bit more, not least when it comes to getting out of the country and covering events.
The Podcast
… this week is a conversation with David O’Leary, who spent four years living in Qatar while working in the construction industry. He gives a fascinating perspective that is at odds with much of the current commentary, and it’s worth listening to for that alone. We talked about safety, democracy and getting drunk and watching football, among other things.
The Garden
… won’t tidy itself. My back is not up to it, but there’s a few things to be done before I get on this train later this afternoon. Have a great week, wherever you may be in the world.