Volume III Special Issue III March 2023

Name of Author : Akil Murali

Title of the paper : Rewriting Masculine Representation: Effects of Female Visibility in Association Football

Abstract: Association Football, or football also soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Federation Internationale de Football Association FIFA, the international governing body of the sport has 211 members, which is more than the 193 member states that comprises the United Nations. Modern football originated in England in the nineteenth century. The oldest football tournament for men, the FA Cup was first played in 1872. The first womens match took place twenty years later, in 1892. The socio – political conditions prevailing in the late nineteenth century and early decades of the twentieth century led to the womens game attaining great popularity. In 1921, a match between two womens team had attracted an attendance of 53,000. The same year, the Football Association, the governing body in England, threatened by this popularity, banned womens game from being played on any Association Members pitches. The stated reason for the ban was that the womens game was distasteful. Though womens football continued to exist, the ban was a major blow to a sport that increasingly gaining public attention. This ban continued for fifty years, till it was lifted in 1971. The situation was not different in many other countries like Brazil and Germany among others, where different political regimes and football associations run by men had deemed it necessary to ban womens football. The latter half of the twentieth century saw a gradual increase in visibility of, and thereby participation in womens football. Even though tournaments, including internationals, were organised by various bodies like the FFIGC, an Italian womens football federation, the first FIFA – recognised World Cup for women was held only in 1991, in China. Since then, the World Cup has been held every four years and the womens game has continued its growth into the twenty first century.

Keywords : Masculine, Football federation and Female Visibility

DOI :

Page Number : 135-138