Why women’s football deserves a place in Football Manager 2014

by Chappers  15/07/2013 | 8:21 0 Posted in Best Stuff, Hype n News, Opinion 

Messi or Marta?

Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Iniesta, Rooney,… Top players, role models, heroes. Probably the reason why games such as Football Manager are a big success. To actually be the manager of these great players, to live the dream of actually coach them and to manage some of the world’s greatest teams. But who has heard of Marta, Prinz, Hamm, Smith,…? Alan Smith, you mean? No, Kelly Smith! Why is it that there is so little interest in the gaming industry for women’s football? Or is it only following the poor general interest in women’s football in real life?

I guess you can call it evolution. In lots of sports, female athletes had to struggle in getting more attention, more tv coverage and better prize money. In the individual sports – athletics, swimming, tennis – some kind of equality was reached. In team sports this equality is still far gone, with the exception of an Olympic survival every four years. And in the most typical ‘male sport’ of all times, we can still talk about a taboo. Not that women’s football is non-existing. Far from it. But let’s say that 90% of the male spectators don’t even want to discuss the topic: ‘Yes to football, women and cars. But please don’t mix them all together.’ But let’s violate the taboo for once and think about the surplus value of women’s football in gaming.

Boosting interest

Game developers react that there is no demand for women’s football. This is logical, because people don’t know the female players or leagues. You can talk about a vicious circle. Why not boosting attention for women’s football by including it in games? You get an extra dimension to the game, not by adding a brand new feature or a new country league, but by opening the game to both genders. This will open a window for new opportunities. Both male and female gamers get into contact with female players and can become more interested. More viewers to women’s football on television, more spectators to the stadiums, more income, more sponsors,…

Improving the game

Yes, I know, adding a women’s football database will not directly improve the Football Manager game. But there is a kind of attribution to the game of soccer. A few decades ago, I had to agree with critics that said women’s football was lacking in speed, technical ability and tactics. These last 20 years, the world of women’s football changed. More and more girls find the way to the football fields. A count by FIFA in 2006 indicated that 270 million persons were playing football and 26 million of them are women, that’s nearly 10 %. This percentage will only increase in the future. Let’s put it like this: if those percentages in 2006 were turned around, women’s football would look a whole lot better than the men’s game. And as some say on the internet: ‘the dribbling moves of new star Neymar look a lot like those of female superstar Marta’.

Popular teams

Even if the female players are not that famous, the teams they play for are. Also in women’s football, you will encounter teams such as Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona, Olympique Lyon, PSG, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Anderlecht. And yes, also my favorite team OH Leuven is playing in the Belgian-Dutch BeNe League. If you are a true fan of these top teams, why not try them out in a women’s football game or database? Ok, the number of spectators will be lower, wages will be lower, some player abilities will be less, but that’s again a new challenge.

Beauty of the game

We can even mention an extra factor of purity: women’s football is not yet dominated by money as much as the world of their male counterparts. Here we can still talk about passion and the beauty of the game. Lots of players play five, ten, fifteen years in the same club. Something we don’t see too often anymore in the men’s game. Foreign female players are mostly ‘attracted’ by clubs because they have a surplus value, not because the club thinks the player can be worth two or three times as much next season. So, ‘attraction’ above buying and selling… Has a nice ring to it, wouldn’t you say?

Sexier game

Game developers may argue that the mainly male audience are not interested in the female players. Are they sure of this? Strangely enough I saw the question for women’s football databases pop up several time these last few years. Why? Active football players, guys whose girlfriend plays football at a local team (yes, you can count me to this group) or perhaps gamers that like to play with female teams because… it’s sexier. Do you like to be the tennis coach of Sharapova? Of course, you do. So why not coaching female football players like Alex Morgan, Louisa Necib, Selina Wagner, Hope Solo, Rachel Unitt or Lotta Schelin? If you don’t know them, just google them. I rest my case. Or not yet…

Small efforts

At least, not before asking the main question: ‘Why not?’ My all-time-favorite game FM doesn’t require big changes. An extra database can be easily created with some ‘local scouts’ that know the local women’s football leagues. Another requirement: female pictures and names for generating new players. But that’s mainly it. Let’s give women’s football the attention it deserves, also in gaming. Let’s give gamers a choice between coaching Messi or Marta.

Tom Schelfhout

Flemish FM fan