Fara Williams: We need to stop comparing men's and women's football
- Williams wants there to be separation between the men's and women's game in order to decrease social media backlash
- Former England and Chelsea midfielder spoke to 90min about online negativity
- Most capped England player is partnering with Google to promote Pitchside Positivity
By Emily Keogh
After a 20-year playing career saw Fara Williams pick up a record-breaking 177 caps for England, it's no surprise that many regard her to be one of the greatest footballers the country has ever produced.
Two-time WSL winner Williams has now successfully transitioned from player to pundit, at a time when the women's game has grown exponentially in the wake of England's success at Euro 2022.
Jill Scott, Beth Mead, Mary Earps and many more are now household names, though the overwhelming growth of women's football has been tempered by a fatalistic social media backlash that has plagued the men's game for decades.
Chelsea and England forward Lauren James was the subject of horrific online abuse following an incident with Arsenal's Lia Walti, leading to concerns over her mental health, and there have been many other instances of players being targeted.
FIFPro's social media report from the 2023 Women's World Cup found that one in five players were the victim of targeted discriminatory, abusive or threatening messaging - and were 29% more likely to face such abuse then their male counterparts during the 2022 Men's World Cup.
"We need to remember sports people are humans," Williams said, speaking on the most recent episode of 90minTalks. "They have their own on-goings away from the professional environment of football that they have to deal with on a day to day basis.
"Rarely did you ever see a women's football team on the back of a newspaper, winning a European Championship or getting to a World Cup final. Rarely in the past have you ever seen women sell out Wembley, sell out the Emirates, all of these sell out crowds that they're getting and breaking records.
"They're more in the limelight and for many years the sport has been dominated by the men and you're going to have people that don't like it and they're going to air their view about it and that's what's happening."
Williams told 90min she can scroll past the plethora of online comments she receives - both negative and positive - after transitioning into a pundit when her footballing career ended in 2021. She doesn't read into the comments and trusts in the feedback she receives from those closest to her above all else. Yet much of the adverse reaction towards the women's game online stems from a misogynistic background.
"There's a lot of negativity around women in men's football and how well the women are doing we, still get the comments that women can't play football and the problem with [women's] football is that we're always going to be compared to the men and until we stop as athletes comparing ourselves to the men because we can't compare to the men.
"If we can come away from comparing our game to their game then I think it might help [with social media backlash]."
Reflecting on the similarities between the games, the tactics and technical ability are the same, but there is a stark contrast between where they're at and how far behind women's football is. Comparing men's and women's football only holds the game back and contributes to a significant amount of online hate directed at women's football.
"I think it's really difficult because it gets compared to the men," she said. "We're probably the only sport that gets compared to the men's game.
"I don't ever see female boxers get compared to male boxers. I don't see it with the women's rugby. It's just football for some reason, it seems to be heavily dominated by men's supporters.
"We need to stop comparing the two for sure because otherwise it will always be negative about the women's game. But I just think if the more we compare the two sports, the harder it will be to grow our own sport."
Williams is partnering with Google Pixel to promote Pitchside Positivity, a feature on the Google Pixel 8 phone that can remove unwanted audio from the background of videos, making it easier for parents and coaches to share grassroots football videos without the undesired background noise from opposing team supporters.
"There's obviously loads of different campaigns in trying to come away from negative comments whether it be audio on the sideline, whether it be negative through social media. There's loads of people trying to make changes there and I think we'll progressively start to see it."
To be in with a chance of winning a Google Pixel 8 for each member of your team and parents, email google-pixel-8@googlegroups.com with your club details.