BBC Learnings · Section 10

Women's football World Cup

Now Sam, have you been watching the World Cup? Cricket or football?

Level: B1 · 113 sentences

Transcript

  1. Now Sam, have you been watching the World Cup?
  2. Cricket or football?
  3. Because they're both being played at the moment.
  4. They are now.
  5. I'm talking about football, the Women's World Cup.
  6. In that case, yes, I have.
  7. I've really enjoyed it and it's been great that finally
  8. we can watch the matches live on TV
  9. and that there's been so much interest in the media.
  10. We'll be finding out a little bit more about the history
  11. of women's football in England in today's programme.
  12. But first, Sam, a question for you.
  13. When was the first official Women's Football World Cup?
  14. Was it a 1970, b 1988 or c 1991?
  15. What do you think, Sam? Well,
  16. I think I can get this through mathematics rather than knowledge,
  17. so I'm not going to say it
  18. right now, but I'll tell you later.
  19. OK, well, I'll tell you the answer later in the programme.
  20. Now, Gemma Clarke is a writer on women's football
  21. in England and she spoke recently
  22. on the BBC Women's Hour programme.
  23. Here she describes the reaction throughout the years to women's football.
  24. Has it been easy for the women's game in England?
  25. Women's football has really been a struggle to play,
  26. to... have any kind of agency
  27. and and to be taken seriously as as athletes
  28. that can be seen throughout history i think
  29. every moment that that women's football has had you
  30. know there's been a kind of a backlash afterwards
  31. or a kind of attempt to keep women back
  32. and and to dampen enthusiasm for the sport
  33. so it's not been easy has it
  34. no she said it's been a struggle
  35. which means it's been difficult to make
  36. any progress and she also mentioned
  37. that there was no agency in the women's game.
  38. To have agency means you have control over your own situation.
  39. You can make the decisions you want to make.
  40. So, she's saying that the women's game didn't really
  41. have control over its own future.
  42. Every time they had some success, there was a backlash.
  43. There was a negative reaction to their success.
  44. That's right and she goes on to say
  45. that people tried to dampen enthusiasm for the sport.
  46. They tried to make it difficult to see and enjoy it.
  47. So, who tried to dampen enthusiasm
  48. and how did they do it?
  49. Well, during and after the First World War,
  50. women's football became really popular with crowds
  51. of up to 50,000 watching games.
  52. It may have been popular with the crowds,
  53. but it wasn't so popular with the men
  54. who ran the game, the English Football Association.
  55. Here's Gemma Clark again.
  56. The Men's Football Association were panicked
  57. by seeing women doing so well
  58. and they banned all women from playing football
  59. on association grounds and that lasted for about 50 years.
  60. It was a very concerted effort
  61. to keep women's football at amateur status
  62. and ensure that there weren't crowds watching them play.
  63. So the men were really worried
  64. by the success of the women's game.
  65. They thought it might take money
  66. and supporters away from the men's game.
  67. So they banned women from playing on their pitches.
  68. This means that they no longer allowed
  69. them to use the pitches anymore.
  70. This effectively killed the professional women's game
  71. as up to then they'd been using
  72. the same facilities as the men.
  73. This, she says, was a concerted effort to restrict women's football.
  74. When you make a concerted effort to do something,
  75. it means that you try really hard to do it.
  76. I'm pleased to say that the ban
  77. on women using Football Association pitches was eventually lifted,
  78. although only comparatively recently in 1971.
  79. Right, before we review today's vocabulary,
  80. let's have the answer to today's question.
  81. So, I asked you,
  82. Sam, when was the first official Women's World Cup?
  83. Was it a 1970, b 1988 or c 1991?
  84. And you said, Sam, you were going
  85. to work this out with maths.
  86. So, come on then.
  87. I know, I did. So, I
  88. know the World Cup is held every four years.
  89. It's 2019 now, so the answer must be an odd year,
  90. bear with me, which makes it 1991.
  91. Am I right, Catherine?
  92. Right, well, we'll see if that mathematical approach
  93. is any better than actually just knowing the answer.
  94. The first World Cup for women was actually held in...
  95. Oh, come on, hurry up.
  96. Let me under my riser. 1970. Oh,
  97. I can't believe I got that wrong.
  98. But it wasn't an official tournament.
  99. The first official Women's World Cup was indeed 1991.
  100. Hey, you see. Your maths works.
  101. So well done, Sam, and everybody else who got that right.
  102. Now, before we get to extra time
  103. and penalties, let's recap today's vocabulary.
  104. A struggle is how you can describe something
  105. that is very difficult to achieve,
  106. something you have to fight for.
  107. To have agency means being able to act independently
  108. and have control over your own choices.
  109. A backlash is a strong negative reaction to something.
  110. If you try to dampen enthusiasm for something,
  111. you try to make people less interested in it.
  112. Banning something means using certain powers to stop something from happening.
  113. And finally, making a concerted effort means trying really hard.