A very subjective look into AWFC

In my career as a musician I have learn an infinity of lessons. Some of these have come through teachers and instructors, others have come from my peers, and I could go on and on. As you can imagine, it’s easy to think about things that we have all learned directly from people as it relates to what to do, how, why and when. But I know you agree with me, that sometimes the best and most important lessons come from what NOT to do. How NOT to behave, what NOT to say, when NOT to do it, etc.

Every time I think the men’s game is somewhat stable or scandal free, I am quickly and often reminded of how wrong I am. To be fair, it’s not that I ever think its stable… it’s that some time has passed between insane situations and today/yesterday had so many examples of these.

If you think that I am going to judge people and the men’s game please know that you are absolutely correct. So I’m gonna go over some of these ridiculous things that make me feel so damn proud of being a supporter of the women’s game and why I cherish it so much, because even with the game growing exponentially, violence and xenophobia have not come into play.

Brazil vs Argentina was an absolute mess. The violence between fans was atrocious. Just as bad was the violence between the Brazilian police and the Argentinean fans. Oh and De Paul completely play acted being “hit” on the face by an opponent (I wanna say it was Joelinton) and got him sent off. Horrible…

In another match, USMNT player Sergiño Dest made an absolute embarrassment of himself by getting sent off by being a petulant child in many ways. He kicked a ball to row Z and then blew kisses to the ref once he gave him a yellow card for said kick. After the kiss blowing absurdity, the ref sent him off and he then basically lost the plot…

Peru hosted my home nation of Venezuela and that was also a mess. Not only did the Peruvian authorities announce that they would check the immigration status of all Venezuelans at the stadium, but at the end of the match, the Venezuelan players were assaulted by police when they tried to gift their match worn shirts to the traveling fans. Oh, and also, on a TV show, the Peruvian hosts all but said that Venezuela shouldn’t win otherwise Venezuelan women would “cost too much.”

Not gonna dignify that rubbish with a comment.

So, as you can see there is plenty of this to go around, all over the place and you know what I’m gonna say… THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN IN THE WOMEN’S GAME. They just don’t. And not only are we “lucky” but we need to make sure that we, in a good way, become gate keepers and don’t allow any of this garbage seep into our beautiful game.

And let’s be clear… the violence and xenophobia are never the answer. I don’t care how much a player dives or pretends to be injured or whatever. No violence, racism or xenophobia are ever ok. They don’t deserve it in the way that women players don’t deserve it but there’s no way to separate toxic masculinity from toxic masculinity.

I’m proud to be a women’s football fan and my life has gotten better exponentially. And honestly I think I would be deeply hurt if I hear of any Arsenal player, or any female player, receiving horrible racist abuse or being assaulted by a police while representing their countries.

I refuse to think that it’s “only a matter of time.”

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