Girl’s Sport vs. Boy’s Sport — A Post from DBOS

  
I play for a girl’s football team in London. On my team last year the boys and girls played together and we would play against all boy teams. It was fine together, but the referee had a different view. I would be dressed in the same kit on the pitch with the ball, and the ref would come up to me and say, “Are you playing?” or “Are you a girl?” “YES, last time I checked!” We had training two times a week, and we played the matches on nice, big, grassy pitches. We had at least two FA-qualified coaches at our practices (plus an extra coach) and at our games.
This year I play for a girl’s team. We only train once a week. We barely have one coach at training and we do a lot less training than when I played with the boy’s team. We didn’t have a coach at our games until a couple of weeks ago, so one of the other girl’s dads has been our coach. We play in a girl’s league against other girl teams. Our pitches are about half the size of the pitches we played on with the boys. And our pitches are really muddy almost all of the time, and the goals sometimes fall over on the goalies.  
I really love my team and my coaches. And I am happy that there is a league that we can play in. But why are our pitches so much smaller, and muddier than the boys? We have as much stamina as they do. If our games are called off, no one knows about it until we get there. That never happened when I was in the “boy’s” league. There are also more possibilities for boys to play in academies and really become good players. I know there are a few academies for girls, but not very many. We want to train really hard and win our games (and we do!), but I can’t help feeling that boy’s get more attention and are taken more seriously in sports.
I also notice the same thing happening in toy stores. Why don’t stores just have a kid’s toy section instead of a girl’s section and a boy’s section?  
Guys, we aren’t in the Victorian Era!!  
I heard the new head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, wants to raise awareness about girl’s football. I hope this happens soon!
Deputy Beast of Sport