The bad female football player: women's football in Sweden

Abstract

According to many Swedish football experts, journalists and others, women's football players at an elite level are not even close to male football players as regards ball technique and game perception. To all appearances, there are similar views in many other countries where women's football has been established. This article aims to examine the accuracy of this opinion, that is, is it correct that Swedish women's football players at an elite level often fail to perform when ball technique and game perception are put to the test. The article analyses how often the Swedish national team's players failed in their ‘actions’ in the Women's World Cups of 2003 and 2007. ‘Actions’ refer to passes, ball receptions, dribbles, final shots and fixed situations. The men's national team's performance has correspondingly been analysed in the men's World Cups of 2002 and 2006. The matches were analysed by means of video. Analysis of almost 10,000 actions shows that there are differences, but that these are relatively small and do not explain the very heavy and categorical criticism that is usually levelled against women's football. The criticism is essentially due to the masculine coding of football and to female intrusion being perceived as a feminist provocation that hence has to be counteracted.