Women's football: Bucking the trend

There is a growing number of female footballers in Singapore, contrary to popular belief that football is purely a man's sport (image by VOXSPORTS).

Decades of football fans around the world will tell you that football is a sport dominated by men from the day the sport was created. However, times have changed in the recent, as more leagues and tournaments have been created for women who have the passion to become footballing stars. With the National Schools Games (NSG) A Division girls’ football tournament coming around it’s time to investigate what influences women have over the sport in recent years, especially in Singapore.

Many actually believe that women in Singapore do not have the same amount of passion that men have for the sport, which is rapidly turning out to be untrue. Women, in the recent offing, have increasingly shown their love for the sport by even wearing their favourite club’s jerseys out in public.

“I’ve always loved watching football but I didn’t think of it as a passion initially until I actually played the game and I realized how much I loved it,” said a jubilant Durga, a football player from Millennia Institute. 

A common misunderstanding in the local community is that parents are nowadays more strict with their daughters and have forbade them to take part in footballing activities. However, that is not the case. 

“My parents were initially worried about my safety, but they said if I’m really passionate about it, I should pursue it and they really left me to make the decision to play football,” mentioned Nabilah, a female footballer from Victoria Junior College.

Women's football in Singapore

A Facebook page known as “Women’s football in Singapore”, solely dedicated to local women’s football has been created and has been amassing likes from the local female footballing crowd. Information ranging from news updates of the different women’s leagues around the world to simple tips and tricks on the sport itself were posted on the Facebook page by these women. 

A prime example of football diversifying into the female side would be the National School Games itself. Consisting of the A and B division for the different age categories of girls, the organizers of the NSG have clearly shown their intent to support the growth of the sport among the female community as well. 

Millenia Institute player Durga also expressed her gratitude to the Singapore sports scene, mentioning that it has done very well in terms of extending the opportunities to these interested footballers by creating competitions such as the A division section for girls in the National School Games. 

However, footballer Genevieve from Victoria Junior College believed that there was room for improvement in terms of opportunities for women to truly break the stereotype that men own football. 

“I think more can be done in terms of publicity about these women’s leagues and women football matches as many people don’t really know that women play professionally as well.” 

Comparisons have also been made in terms of the amount of footballing activities that have been organized for men and the same level of effort has not been made for women. However, with the growing awareness and effort that is being made by the sporting scene in Singapore, one can imagine that the future for women’s footballing in Singapore is very bright indeed.

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