Equal Opportunities Commission,
Overseas House,
Quay Street,
Manchester. M3 3HN.
15th July, 1990.
Dear Sir, or, indeed, Madam,
Sexism at the Football Association
Now here's a thing: just over a week ago, I wrote to the Football Association (FA) to congratulate the England squad on their recent good show in the World Cup finals and to put forward my suggestions for a replacement for their manager, MrBobby Robson.
I received a very speedy reply from their Head of External Affairs, thanking me for my letter and assuring me (and I quote): "You can rely on the Football Association to take into account all of the possibilities [for manager] and to appoint eventually the man that it considers best suited for the job" (emphasis mine).
From this, I infer that no women were considered for the job (which rather makes a mockery of the claim that all possibilities would be considered - an impossible feat anyway) - this strikes me as blatant sexism in its purest form.
The FA could claim that the use of the word "man" was a slip of the typewriter, but I doubt that's very likely - their Head of External Affairs is clearly an educated man well at home with the English language (note the way he cleverly avoids splitting his infinitive in the quote given above).
It occurs to me that it would do the England lads no harm at all to have a girl in charge for a change (although I openly admit that there was none on my list of suggestions to the FA). If the recent Channel 4 series, The Manageress is anything to go by, a lady boss could bring a whole new philosophy to the game - not to say a bit of much-needed glamour, if they picked the right lass that is. Unfortunately, I hear from tonight's news that MrGraham Taylor has been picked for the job (the Old Boys' Network at work yet again!), so we'll have to wait for that.
Is there nothing your lot can do about this? I'm all for equality for ladies and all that and would dearly love to see soccer lose some of its macho image.
Yours sincerely,