Pitch Invasion

Jennifer Doyle finds herself mulling over the way the word “profligacy” was used in FIFA’s summary of Nigeria’s last Olympic soccer game.

Jennifer Doyle reviews the first day’s action from the Olympic women’s soccer tournament, and finds some fluid play and shaggy haircuts.

Jennifer Doyle looks at how the ingrained sexism in sports medicine is damaging to women’s football.

Love, gender and football. Jennifer Doyle wonders why men can’t talk to women about football, and why it’s perhaps only a woman who can draw footballers as human beings.

Lily Parr was the first woman inducted to the National Football Museum Hall of Fame. Renown for her athleticism and skill, she was a celebrity in the late teens and twenties, and was directly impacted by the 1921 FA ban that barred women from FA pitches and forbid FA members from refereeing or working as linesmen during women’s games. Jennifer Doyle asks if the FA have really apologized for this.

If you are lucky enough to visit White Hart Lane on match day, you might hear the Tottenham fans chant “Glory, Glory Tottenham Hotspur” to the tune of the song popularly known as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Jennifer Doyle looks at the oft-forgotten origins of this stirring tune in 19th century America.