On my way to work this morning I saw a sticker in the back wondow of a car that said 'My daughter plays rugby' in bold, pink letters.
At first I thought, well that's a bit of an odd think to have advertised in your car.
But when I thought about it more I realised, actually it's not.

A couple days ago Brian Phillips, purveyor of Run of Play, tweeted the following:

Netflix's top category for me is "Dark Dramas Featuring a Strong Female Lead." Improbably, this is not a list of Beckham documentaries.

My initial reaction was, that's funny, because Phillip's writing is nothing like that first sentence.

The other week, my university's Chancellor sent out a message encouraging people to respect each other's differences - be they cultural,political, religious, academic, etc. It's the kind of thing administrators generate to look likethey are doing the right thing. It's also the kind of thing that makes 'doing theright thing' look easy.

As we read one editorial after another expressing outrage at Penn State's failure to respond to complaints regarding Sandusky, and try to wrap our minds around the consequences of this "scandal," we should step back and remember that U.S. universities have a long history of failing victims of sexual assault.

Riyas Komu, from exhibit "Safe to Fight" (Azad Art Gallery, Tehran, 2010)Fear of ACL injury has replaced fear of intimacy as my number one issue. Plenty of people come back from an ACL tear and still play in leagues and pick-up games. But plenty also leave the sport forever.
If I turn a cold eye on my fear, I see that I am less afraid of never playing soccer than I am of the rehabilitation that it would take to go from a torn ACL to playing again.

By Alan Duffy

Sunderland's combative midfielder Lee Cattermole has apparently cultivated something of a persecution complex judging by his latest comments.

The 23-year-old hardman, who has picked up only 47 bookings and five red cards since 2005/06 in domestic football said: "I feel like they (referees) are out there for me at the minute.

Mansfield Town have a new CEO, a 29-year-old who has a politics degree and has previously worked for some big fashion brands. Succeeding Steve Barker, the previous CEO, who has now moved on to a new role with Stags chairman John Radford's company, the new appointee is keen to start working with local businesses, increase gates, work with the fans you know, the usual stuff.

So, this morning I wanted to read "tout sur les Bleues," in preparation for this much anticipated match against Germany.
I was so absorbed in the football, it took me a few minutes before I noticed the leg action on the right and left margins. This appears to be part of a publicity for the team - "the legs know how evade one's marker.

Watching the France-Canada game of the Women's World Cup yesterday, I was exhilarated by the playing of the French side. Their dominance in the game was a surprise to many, and to me, and also a little ghostly: suddenly, I was watching the sort of flowing, graceful, entertaining French football which for the past years had existed mainly in my imagination.

Here's, the FFF-produced video for the French women's national team:
Yikes. I mean, parts of it are cute, I guess. But not so much the parts where individual members of the team lip sync.
Members of the national team also posed nude in 2009, for an FFF campaign with the lovely slogan, "Do we have to show up like this, in order for you to come see us play?

As many readers of this blog will know, some German women who play competitive football posed for Playboy. These are not members of the national team, but they are women who play high level football in the country.
March Presentation of 2011 WWC kitTitus Chalk from When Saturday Comes does a nice job with this story.

As the fanfare surrounding the launch of a new uniform for the US Men's National Team died down, Nike quietly released the new uniform for the US Women's National Team - Is this the outfit the women will wear to Germany as they fight for the 2011 World Cup championship?
A USWNT shirt can always be distinguished from the USMNT shirt by the two stars that the women's shirt prominently displays over the USSF badge - one star for each World Cup trophy they've won (1991, 1999).

With Blackpool having exceeded all expectations in their debut Premier League season, their colourful manager Ian Holloway is many neutrals' choice for Premier League Manager of the Year. A confident Holloway is believed to be preparing an absolutely tortuous speech: riddled with zany turns of phrase, clunking West Country references and an extended metaphor involving two pints of cider and a cornish pasty.

I'm really excited by In the Game. This film by the producers of Hoop Dreams looks the realities of the highest levels of professional women's sports and the daily grind of girls fighting for access to training and facilities at especially urban high schools. From a leader in the WNBA, "Our biggest challenge is media coverage.

This has nothing to do with soccer. I wrote this rant last weekend and posted on my facebook page. Some readers asked that I post it here. I'll be back to soccer stories as soon as I put the manuscript I'm finishing in the mail!
Anne Hathaway's performance as an Oscars co-host was heroic.

By Ollie Irish

"Some of my best friends are black women..."

Richard Keys' modus operandi: Casual. Smart casual, casual sexism and – to complete the set – casual racism.

It seems someone at Sky is really out to harpoon Keys' career (or what's left of it), after audio of him calling former Ipswich and Nottm Forest striker David Johnson a 'choc jocko' (Johnson is black and was courted by the Scottish FA for a time).

LONDON, England — The soccer broadcasters who left the British TV station Sky Sports after they were caught making sexist remarks have been hired by a sports radio show. Richard Keys and Andy Gray will work a three-hour show every weekday for the London-based show TalkSport. Keys says "this is the start of something new [.

English commercial radio station talkSport have brought a great coup, after signing former SkySports TV presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray.

Gray was sacked by SkySports after a major sexism scandal hit the headlines recently,while Keys who was also involved in the row refused to continue at the station without his partner in crime.

A remarkably annoying piece on the New Statesman blog titled 'How on earth can lefties like football?' by Helen Lewis Hasteley:
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't believing in equality a key part of being a leftie? So how on earth does anyone square this with supporting football -- a game in which women are nothing more than baubles, gay people apparently don't exist and money is thrown about in a way that would make Gordon Gekko blush?

Only one of the league's top five stumbled mid-week, with Manchester City being drawn at St. Andrew's, though Tuesday and Wednesday's matches were overshadowed slightly by Wednesday's news, when the best right back in Premier League history announced his retirement. Because the sometimes controversial way Gary Neville went about his business, many will overlook him being a maintain for England and the standard on the right during the young history of the Premier League.

Charlotte Jackson came to prominence as a Setanta Sports presenter in 2007 before her big move to Sky Sportsin 2009. She had the honour of presenting the 2009 FIFA World Player of the Year awards in Zurich also. Charlotte was also dragged into the infamous Andy Gray sexism row which seen Gray sacked.

The Asia cup is reaching its climax, Liverpool have finally won two games in a row, Inter stumble, as do Dortmund. But the big news in the UK is all about 'Can women understand the offside rule?' sexism rears its ugly head. Check out languagecaster.com's review section to read in more detail about some of these stories.

The Asia cup is reaching its climax, Liverpool have finally won two games in a row, Inter stumble, as do Dortmund. But the big news in the UK is all about 'Can women understand the offside rule?' sexism rears its ugly head. Check out languagecaster.com's review section to read in more detail about some of these stories.

They Think It's All Over... reacts to the Keys and Gray Sexism/Refereeing saga.

They Think It's All Over... reacts to the Keys and Gray Sexism/Refereeing saga.

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The AFR House was rocking once again, although this time around we couldn't manage to get any of our female writers to join in on the pod. But regardless, we're not raging sexists, so we still managed to have intelligent conversations on the most pressing topics in the beautiful game.

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Good and bad news from the Asia Cup in Qatar, while in the UK a storm over sexist remarks by TV a pundit and anchor. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Good and bad news from the Asia Cup in Qatar, while in the UK a storm over sexist remarks by TV a pundit and anchor. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast.

The Professor returns with a long diatribe on sexism in soccer and the sorts of problems it causes. Compare and contrast with Bill Archer's podcast on being caustic and coming down off that high once you meet people. One of the Professor's main questions is about the caustic nature of comments one receives, how they're objectifying, of a sexual nature, demeaning, etc.

One is a former football commentator, who loves the sexist banter , the other is a 'pub-landlord' who's job is to give sexist banter...and it just so happens that they look a like...

I bet your bored of Andy Grey themed new at the moment and for that I apologise.

So the "story" of sexism in football culture finally "broke." We have ample footage of Sky Sports commentators Richard Keys and Andy Gray indulging in sexist "banter." From their recent remarks about Sian Massey, to jokes about "smashing it", and a video of the two of them breaking out into giggles (on camera) while reporting on the 1998 women's FA Cup final, we have a veritable archive of evidence demonstrating that sexism animates the way they think, talk and behave.

So the "story" of sexism in football culture finally "broke." We have ample footage of Sky Sports commentators Richard Keys and Andy Gray indulging in sexist "banter." From their recent remarks about Sian Massey, to jokes about "smashing it", and a video of the two of them breaking out into giggles (on camera) while reporting on the 1998 women's FA Cup final, we have a veritable archive of evidence demonstrating that sexism animates the way they think, talk and behave.

An atmosphere of ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,' isn't an atmosphere of change or tolerance. Unseen, unheard, unsaid but still there and right or wrong, where will it go?
Former Sky Sports football analyst Andy Gray may sit (unemployed) and wonder why exactly he has lost his job.

I was going to ask the missus what she thought about the Sky Sports sexism row – but I didn't want to distract her from the ironing.
A decidedly sexist opening gambit, but one that I am confident will not see me barred from Dexy's Den.
The reason being, this is a joke based on an old stereotyped image of a women's role in family life and conjured up specifically for this post.

The best thing about National Holidays falling midweek, is that they make the whole week seem really short. And allows one to stay up and watch midweek games well into the wee hours of the morning without worries of being late for anything. Thank you, Constitution of India.

News broke today that Andy Gray has been sacked from Sky Sports with immediate effect. It is believed that his sexist comments are to blame for his demise...

Dole queue the likely destination for Andy

The long serving Sky Sports presenter and co-comentator, who has also featured on many of the EA Fifa Football games, was repremanded by Sky for his comments regarding Sian Massey's ability to be a linesman in Liverpool's match against Wolves.

First of all, let me say that it is extremely frustrating to search for news on Philly's MLS team when the State of the Union address is coming up. Good luck tomorrow, Ed.

Sexism

It appears Andy Gray made a second set of disgusting remarks about female linesman Sian Massey.

This one's not too hard to sort out. Andy Gray and Richard Keys had a conversation into hot mics about how women, particularly a female lineswoman, really don't get the game:

They concurred that female officials "don't know the offside rule", with Keys adding: "I can guarantee you there'll be a big one today.

The observant amongst you may have noticed that a female human being by the name of Sian Massey ran the line during Saturday's Premier League tie between Wolves and Liverpool which, in these enlightened times, is about as controversial denouncing the evils of asbestos.

That said, it seems oafish Sky Sports presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray (who have previous when it comes to casual sexism) haven't quite come to terms with the fairer sex polluting the highways and byways of their beloved game.

I'm sure you have heard on the back pages today that, Andy Gray and Richard Keys have been accused of sexism. Here is the audio of the incident (Ignore the pointless intro)

Well done bellends!...Now for some statements via the BBC:

An FA statement said it had made "real strides in encouraging both male and female match officials to enter the game at every level, and will continue to offer every encouragement to all officials within the football family to progress to the highest levels possible".