Our Man in the Grandstand

As I sat watching the Team GB Olympics football team, I marvelled at the 70,000 plus crowd. The skill and quality on show was excellent. And of course I was cheered by a great England victory.

If you’re confused, that’s because I am not talking about that insipid brand of football turned out by GB’s Beckham-less men’s team but the eternally hopeful ladies team.

Yes, women’s football was centre stage at the Olympics. The ladies launched the Games with Team GB against New Zealand at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium and have been a joy to watch.

Having caught much of the Women’s Under 17 2010 World Cup in Trinidad, and then the real thing last July as the senior women locked horns, I am a growing fan of the women’s game.

Engaging and skilful, it’s been quite a revelation.

Like many I had my dalliance with the sport when Mia Hamm was in her pomp for the USA. One of the most technically gifted footballers I’ve ever seen, she was hard not to watch and marvel at her skills.

Since she retired in 2004 with some 275 international matches under her belt. I lost interest until having my attention caught by more recent quality efforts.

You see, the Olympic Games has also bought into focus some very personal failings. I now realise the problems I’ve had with the women’s game are all mine.

Having been brought up on a rapid-paced diet of English football, I typically come to football games expecting an unbelievable level of power and pace.

Translate that to the women’s game and I suppose it means, I wanted the women’s game to resemble, no, in fact, be the men’s game.

I came to this horribly chauvinistic reality when listening to my sister outline her hopes and dreams for women’s football in the Caribbean at a FIFA Com-Unity Seminar in Saint Lucia recently.

As the executive director of Sacred Sports Foundation in Saint Lucia, Nova is a woman and it’s usually me as chairman that gets to talk sport.

She is a passionate advocate for women’s sport and the seminar provided her with an opportunity to touch on a sport she has been force-fed since birth.

Just hearing her talk about the very different perspective women bring to the game was enlightening.

Women’s sport is often shaped, not just by the desire to play the game but the social needs of the day. Be it fitness or fun, women’s sport is an increasingly essential part of a healthy lifestyle.

But it was her focus on "changing the gender order" which really resonated. That’s really what we are talking about when we focus on growing a female sport like women’s football in a very male dominated arena.

"Empowering women and women’s sport requires systematic and sustained priority attention in all strategy, policy and technical areas," she said.

"It requires women to take control of the women’s game. In our context, it requires that the contributions, priorities and needs of women are not just considered but given priority."

For women’s football to become the hugely powerful change agent she envisages, it requires much to change.

The most critical thing, in her view, was the organisation and approach to the sport.

Women’s football is not, and never will be, a mirror of the local men’s game. She doesn’t want it to be and it should not be considered as such.

The needs of young women, be they physical, emotional or technical are very, very different from that of young men and MUST be addressed as such.

It all sounds so simple, but in truth it’s a huge shift. Women running women’s football!

Grassroots programmes for our young women engaging sceptical parents, guardians & carers.

The urgent need for more and greater training of women to coach young girls is critical to mentor our young female footballers. It goes without saying that organisation, planning and delivery is critical.

For women’s football to grow in the way we would all like, organisation and finance is the key. And committees run by women and focused on women and young girls are essential.

What is wrong with the idea of empowering women to change the face of women’s football?

There clearly is a need for a greater level of autonomy.

Put simply, give the ladies the tools to do the job and allow them to do it.

About Delroy Alexander

Delroy Alexander is the chairman of the Sacred Sports Foundation, a not for profit charity based in the St. Lucia. He is a seasoned sports administrator and is a former Chicago Tribune senior investigative business reporter and a Pulitzer Prize nominee journalist.

Founded by former Lincoln City and Macclesfield Town manager Keith Alexander, the Sacred Sports Foundation uses sport to working with disadvantaged Caribbean youth.

As well as having partnered with the St. Lucia Football Association, the Foundation has signed a three-year agreement with Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) and secured important grants from UNESCO and the Australian Government among others.

In 2013, the Foundation will host a major conference, Sport in Black & White, focusing on actively looking for and implementing game changing solutions.