The FA women's super league : framing developments in elite women's football SEQUERRA, Ruth Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/17163/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/17163/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. Sheffield Hallam University Learning and IT Services Collegiate Learning Centre Collegiate Crescent Campus Sheffield S102BP The FA Women's Super League - Framing developments in elite women's football Ruth Sequerra A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2014 ABSTRACT In 2009, the Football Association (FA), the national governing body of football in England, announced its plan to introduce the country's first semi-professional women's elite league. Launched in 2010 as the FA Women's Super League (FA WSL), its introduction provided both an opportunity to research whether this evidenced a change of position for the women's elite game within footballing narratives and also to examine the place of the FA within these. This study adopted a critical sociological feminist approach to deconstruct the assumptions, values and practices that frame the female game and the introduction of the FA WSL, while providing new insights into the role of the sport's governing organisation in defining elite women's football. Through observations at matches and interviews with people working within the women's game, an examination of the development and introduction of the FA WSL was undertaken, with valuable early insights provided into the first three years of the new League. The study identified that the introduction of the FA WSL was impacted upon by the complex, closed and gendered nature of the FA's organisational structure. The new League adhered to traditional societal concepts of hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity and liberal approaches to gender equality. The study also found that the new elite women's structures required the clubs who gained entry into the FA WSL to adhere to commercialised, spectacularised and commodified values which dominate the men's game and neo liberal societal narratives. The increased inclusion of females into elite football structures did not profoundly disrupt traditional discourses or provide evidence of a fundamental challenge to gender inequality in the game. Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank all those people who gave their time to talk to me as part of this study. Their enthusiasm for and dedication to the women's game was obvious throughout the interviews. The games ability to survive in the face of numerous obstacles is testament to the commitment of them and others like them within the game. Also, my thanks go to Dr Donna Woodhouse and Dr Beth Fielding Lloyd at Sheffield Hallam University who have expertly guided me through the process, providing constant support, advice and suggestions. They, along with the others within the Sport Studies department have helped me to develop my ability to question things that are taken for granted. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgements Table of Contents i List of Tables iii List of Figures iv List of Appendices v Chapter One: Introduction 1 1.1 Elite women's football in England 1 1.2 Context and Aim of the Thesis 2 1.3 Structure of the thesis 5 Chapter Two: A brief history of women's football in England 10 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 The 1800s 11 2.3 Commercialism 13 2.4 World War One 14 2.5 The 1921 Ban 15 2.6 The Women's Football Association 17 2.7 Women's football administered by The FA 19 2.8 Pressure for reform 20 Chapter Three: Review of literature relating to football governance in 23 England 3.1 The FA and elite football 23 3.2 Approaches to addressing gender inequalities 29 Chapter Four: Review of literature relating to gendered discourses in 34 sport 4.1 Sport and gender 34 4.2 Research into women's football 39 4.3 Gender in sport organisations 44 Chapter Five: Methodology 50 5.1 Ontology and epistemology 50 5.2 Theoretical underpinnings 54 5.3 Locating myself within the research 60 i 5.4 Methods 65 5.4.1 Observations 65 5.4.2 Interviews 68 5.4.3 Participants 71 5.4.4 Analysis 74 5.5 Ethics 76 Chapter Six: Analysis - The FA structures and elite women's football 81 in England 6.1 The existing FA elite league structure 81 6.2 The FA as an organisation 86 6.3 The FA and gender 101 Chapter Seven: Analysis - The FA WSL - A new way forward for elite 111 women's football 7.1 Framing changes to the women's elite game 111 7.2 Reasons for change in the elite league structure 116 7.3 The chosen model 122 7.4 Taking responsibility 129 Chapter Eight: Analysis - The FA WSL - Developing a new identity for 137 elite women's football 8.1 The FA's vision for the FA WSL 137 8.2 Envisioning the target market 143 8.3 The FA WSL as spectacle 150 8.4 The FA WSL as carnival 153 8.5 Evaluating the vision 163 Chapter Nine: Analysis - The FA WSL - Meeting the FA's aims 167 9.1 The impact on players 167 9.2 The impact on clubs and facilities 175 9.3 The Impact on media coverage 183 9.4 The impact on the women’s football pyramid 193 Chapter Ten: Conclusion 198 References 204 Appendices 267 ii LIST OF TABLES Chapter Five Table 1 Matches Attended 66 Table 2 Research Participants 73 LIST OF FIGURES Chapter Six Figure 1 The FA Council Members 2012 -2013 90 Figure 2 The FA Council Committees 91 Figure 3 The FA Board Committee's 93 Figure 4 The FA Board Members 95 Figure 5 The FA Group Management Board 96 iv LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A Interview guide 267 Appendix B Successful ethics application 268 Appendix C Participant information sheet 284 Appendix D Informed consent form 286 Appendix E Club Development Plan Checklist 287 V CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Elite women's football in England Participation in women's football has grown in recent years (Ratna 2010, Cox and Pringle 2012). The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), football's international governing body, identified that from 1971 to 2010 the number of national representative teams increased from 3 to 141, while the number of games played by them rose from 2 to 512 (Fahmy 2011). The organisation's last global survey, The Big Count in 2006, estimated that there were 26 million registered female players worldwide, an increase of 54% since 2000 (FIFA 2007a). In England, the Football Association (FA), English football's national governing body, identified in 2008 that in the 15 years it had been responsible for female football the number of affiliated players had increased from 10,400 to over 150,000 (FA 2008a). In the same report the FA also highlighted that the 2008 Sport England’s Active People survey estimated that 260,000 women and 1.1 million girls played football in England. The FA (2008b) issued a strategy document in 2008 entitled 'The FA's Vision 2008-12: A World Class Organisation with a Winning Mentality', in which the England women's coach, Hope Powell, declared: in the past ten years women’s football has become the number one female participation sport, with a structure to bring the best players through, from grassroots clubs to Centres of Excellence and national teams. The FA is devoting more and more resource into the women’s ' game and now the challenge is to take it to the next level (p18) The organisations vision for the development of the women's game 'Women and Girls Football Strategy 2008-12: Championing Growth and Excellence' (FA 2008a), however, highlighted problems within the game's elite structures. The strategy outlined that the current "FA Women’s Premier League (FA WPL) lacks quality and competitiveness, which is detrimental to the development of the elite players" (p19). The FA warned that "without the intervention of a highly competitive domestic league, it will be difficult to take the profile of the game to a mainstream audience" (p37). The document proposed the creation of a new summer league, "structured to deliver high quality, competitive matches and to produce a more commercially attractive product" (p19). The elite competitive 1 level of the game was, therefore, central to the FA's plan to develop women's football further. The first national women's league, comprising 24 clubs, was inaugurated in 1991 by the Women's Football Association (WFA), which administered the game at the time (FA 2014a). In 1994, the league was renamed to the FA WPL to reflect the fact it had come under the control of the FA. However, although developments have taken place since the 1990s, especially within grassroots and international women's football, concerns have been raised about the structure and progress of elite football in England (Woodhouse and Williams 1999, House of Commons 2006a). Consequently, in 2009 Ian Watmore, the Chief Executive of the FA, announced the launch of the new FA Women's Super League (FA WSL).