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ARSENAL: Ladies help to develop women's game

/noticias.info/ By Matt Fortune

Women’s football is on the up and up.

The game has grown steadily in recent years, but the last 12 months has seen its appeal explode. It is, to a certain extent, down to Arsenal Ladies and some of its individuals.

The 2007 FA Women’s Cup Final attracted 25,000 fans, a record that was surpassed this May. Those games, both ending in 4-1 victories for the Gunners, book-ended the fifth FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The tournament was a rip-roaring success with an average gate of 36,155. Nine Gunners went with England to China and, despite exiting in the Quarter-Finals, the Three Lions’ exploits were lauded.

Back on home soil, Arsenal remained dominant, but their power, results-wise at least, appeared to be waning. Everton snatched the League Cup away from Emirates with a 1-0 win over Vic Akers’ side in late February, and five weeks later the Toffees halted Arsenal’s 51-match winning streak with a 0-0 draw. In a roundabout way, it has helped the game progress.

“The profile of the game took steps forward after the FA Cup Final last year,” Ladies midfielder Ciara Grant told Arsenal.com. “We went up again this year. That shows that women’s football is big and we do have the supporters. The only pity is that we cannot get them to all of our League games.

“The competitiveness of the League, if that can keep getting stronger, will help. There’s a group of three or four top sides which means that there are several exciting close games. We only finished five points clear at the top this season and you could see the gap narrowing.

“We played Everton three times and won, drew and lost one each. They were our main rivals but there are also teams like Leeds who have a young, talented squad. So there are tough games. It is important that the League keeps getting more even.”

Team-mate, and England star, Kelly Smith concurs: “We need the women’s game to have more big teams. We encourage that. Everton beat us in the League Cup Final, which was a disappointing, but it is a good thing to see another team pick up a trophy.”

Smith is one of the outstanding talents of the women’s game. The athletic forward spent several years plying her trade in America earning recognition across the globe.

“The game has developed a lot since I started playing. The World Cup did a lot of good. It bought a lot of attention over here.

“When we came back I couldn’t believe that amount of people that had watched, and wanted to talk about our experiences out there. I was getting recognised more in the streets and supermarkets. That is good overall for the game.“

Smith seized on her, and women football’s, growing reputation with an appearance on prime-time television.

“Jonathan Ross was a good little experience for me,” she explained. “He actually asked for me to go on. When I spoke to him he told me that he had seen one of the games and decided it would be good to get on and talk about Arsenal, England and football in general.

“I was just pleased to sit alongside Take That in the green room! Seriously though, it was prime time TV on a Friday and that hits a lot of audiences. Hopefully people saw it and enjoyed it.”

It wasn’t the only occasion when Arsenal and their star players appeared on the box.

“I wasn’t here when Alan Carr came for a Comic Relief special,” said Grant. “But I saw the clip and spoke to the girls and it all sounded like a lot of fun. It is all publicity for the women’s game at the end of the day.

“Any publicity we can get is all good. And when he [Carr] came down I am sure he enjoyed himself.”

The evidence suggest that Carr is among a growing band of women’s football enthusiasts. notas_de_prensa_archivo