Female Football

My first teaching job was in an Inner-London primary school, with all that that entails. Confiscating drugs from 5 year olds, students who were physically, emotionally, and/or sexually abused - the full works.

I had a class of 29 seven year olds, of which 27 lived with one parent or less. There were 19 different first languages spoken. A real education!

Keen to do anything i could for such disadvantaged kids, i offered to set up a female football team. After all, as my CV proudly boasts, I am a qualified Football Association of Wales coach. Although there hadn´t been a girls team at the school, there were plenty of nearby schools who did. Thus, after 5 weeks of training, i organised a “Friendly” match with a nearby school.

Don´t ask me what causes it, but London kids are big – even at 10 and 11. My goalkeeper was a huge large breasted Nigerian girl, who i´d mistaken for a fellow teaching colleague when i saw her putting a cup into the staffroom sink on my first day at the school. She´d have been served in any and every London pub.

Friendly – it was not. Never have i seen such violence in any sporting arena. My team were pummeled quite literally into the ground.

At half time, we were losing 8 – 2 and my big burly goalkeeper was in floods of tears. My half-time team-talk involved me begging and pleading to her to take the field for the second half. It was a dismal afternoon, and did little to boost their self-esteem.

I share this anecdote following the indefinite ban on US soccer player Elizabeth Lambert who plays soccer for a New Mexican college. Footage of her atrocious misdemeanours on the football field have been shown both on ESPN and BBC World. Indeed, her violence even provoked a Facebook campaign. Interestingly, her coach described her as “a quality student athlete”.

Check her out on youtube by clicking here.