So the Sunday Times had a poll. ‘Should women footballers be paid the same as men?’

Oohhhh, that’s controversial. But in fact it ain’t. Not at all. Nothing to do with sexism, equality or anything else; its just economics. The boys’ game is funded by tv rights. For which the tv companies pay, literally, billions. And until the gels can generate the same viewing numbers, equal pay just isn’t going to happen. Not that people don’t watch women play football, its just that the numbers are minuscule compared to the men’s game. At the moment.

A more valid question for the Times to pose might be: ‘should male footballers be paid such ridiculous sums of money?’ When Eden Hazard will earn £400k a week after his move to Madrid this summer. When the ‘average’ footy fan earns £24,000 a year and the lowliest of premiership bench-warmers earns at least 3 times that amount every week. Obscene and revolting but its simply a reflection of the ridiculous amount of money floating round the beautiful game.

So perhaps the Women’s World Cup, being played right now in France, will change that, will convert the viewing, football-obsessed public to the wonders of ladies on a footy pitch.

Thus, I sat down and watched some, not all, of the England vs Scotland match yesterday. Just in the interests of… football. Of the ‘level playing field’ in every sense. And because there was no ‘proper’ football on at that time. And by ‘proper’ I mean… errrr… I mean non-gender specific, lgbt-inclusive, non-discriminatory… errrr… man’s football. But I’m on a learning curve.

And the football was good, it must be said. The passing accurate, the control neat and tidy and I really loved seeing 22 pony-tails bouncing over the pitch. But it didn’t engage me. I didn’t get excited about it. Which may be just me, which may be a prejudice so deep that I’m unaware. It may be because certain players are exciting to watch but you kind’a need to know who they are, and I didn’t. Because one swinging pony-tail looks much the same as the next. The game was less physical, which is to be expected with less testosterone around the place and seemed generally slower.

I didn’t love it. But that’s not a sexist thing. Because I love beach volleyball played by (particularly Brazilian) women, can watch that for ages. In fact have to be dragged screaming from the tv. And I approve of women in general, you’ll be relieved to hear. But much as it would be inappropriate to have a male ‘best tits’ competition, unless it was for the over-40s, obviously, I think football, currently, must remain a universal, inclusive, non-sexist, free-from-prejudice-on-grounds-of-gender-race-or-religion game. For men.

Now I’m going to run very far, very fast.

Happy Monday

A xxxx