One suspects that there are those whose favourite sporting indulgence is to launch little social media grenades before standing back to admire their handiwork.
A million impressions! 700,000 likes! Once the currency of the geeky in-your-folks’-basement-keyboard-warrior, it has become a more mainstream means of satisfaction to a certain demographic.
It would be remiss, though, to suggest the age group appeals to those who are barely of legal age to drink.
Last week Roger Mitchell, the former SPL chief – the one who recommended that the league knock back a Sky Sports broadcasting deal in 2002 – detonated one of those social media bombs with a tweet about women’s football that promptly blew up.
As England internationalist Lucy Bronze suggested that 99.9% of women’s players will have to work when they finish playing rather than live off their earnings, Mitchell was very keen to offer his thoughts.
‘The entitlement of women’s football is totally off the scale,’ he wrote. ‘They arrived yesterday. They have no real audience. And yet…World class male players of the 80s didn’t get “for life” wages. Stars in the 60s needed a testimonial to maybe buy a pub and work another 35 years.’
The point that Bronze was making, and entirely lost here, was that the position of women’s football is a million miles off of its male equivalent.
Her observation was simply this; it is unlikely that any current player in the England team will have any financial worries when the time comes to hang up their boots.
Indeed, there will be bang-average Championship and League One players in England who need never dirty their hands when they finish playing.
This is not entitlement to discuss this. This is a question and not exclusive to sport, stained deep within the culture of our time, about creating genuine pathways to equality.
If no-one talks about it and puzzles over how to offer means of correcting it, how can it ever change?
Pointing out the differentials is not entitlement. And the reason why women’s football ‘arrived yesterday?’ Well, that’s an easy one. It was banned. It was not allowed.
Growth was prohibited when the game was shut down with no oxygen to move and morph the way the men’s game did. Historically the women’s game attracted significant numbers at times before facilities were removed.
It is impossible to know how things would have played out had those decisions by the old gatekeepers not been taken.
But these are the new gatekeepers of the women’s game. The ones who have an opinion – and there is nothing quite so entrenched as a middle-aged man with an opinion – who has decided that the world must hear it.
As Mitchell’s tweet attracted significant traction – surprise, surprise – the patronising rhetoric which followed offered some wry amusement.
“There is a very large portion of the fan base of the male game who has deep resentment for how the female game has been 'forced' upon them.
“I’d pay attention to that.”
Quite what we are all paying deep attention to is an interesting question.
Who is forcing the women’s game on anyone? Watch if you will, turn off if you will. Go to a game or consider it not for you. Both choices are fine.
But it is here and it has a right to be here. It also has a right to wish to grow and market itself properly and attract commercial entities which will facilitate that.
It has a right for players and chief execs and coaches to ask the questions about how it becomes more professional and how it attracts a bigger audience.
AND ANOTHER THING
Brian Graham has made it clear that he would be keen to be considered for the Scotland job following the exit of Pedro Martinez Losa.
Graham currently juggles the duel demands of Partick Thistle striker for Kris Doolan’s side along with managing the women’s side. Twice he took them into the top six while also taking the to the League Cup final last year.
By his own admission, the ceiling has been reached with the women’s team given the current lack of resources available.
Erin Cuthbert suggested some months ago that tapping into some traditional Scottish qualities would enhance the national team and it is interesting to see if a homegrown route is pursued for this reason.
Leanne Ross should also fancy that she should be in the running for the role. Having assisted Martinez Losa she knows the landscape of the national team while her own body of work would speak for itself.
Glasgow City are currently leading the charge for this season’s title having had to regroup and rebuild this summer.
Both candidates would offer something to Scotland – although both would also need to get a move on with their pro-license.
AND FINALLY
The SWPL is on a break for a couple of weeks to allow players to recharge.
If the game is to grow and develop then a break makes absolute sense. It doesn’t help to have players who are mentally and physically fatigued – many of whom juggle working commitments with their football – working through a hectic schedule.
The men’s game will miss its break this year as it accommodates the growing demands of international and domestic football and there is no question that it has an impact on performance levels.
The women’s game will be all the better for a brief break.
