BBC Learnings · Section 10

Women's football World Cup

Hello, this is 6 Minute English and I'm Catherine. And I'm Sam. Now, Sam, have you been watching the World Cup?

Level: C1 · 70 sentences

Transcript

1. Hello, this is 6 Minute English and I'm Catherine.
2. And I'm Sam. Now, Sam, have you been watching the World Cup?
3. Cricket or football? Because they're both being played at the moment.
4. They are now. I'm talking about football, the Women's World Cup.
5. In that case, yes, I have.
6. Good. I've really enjoyed it and it's been great that finally we can watch the matches live on TV and that there's been so much interest in the media.
7. We'll be finding out a little bit more about the history of women's football in England in today's programme.
8. But first, Sam, a question for you.
9. When was the first official Women's Football World Cup?
10. Was it A, 1970, B, 1988 or C, 1991?
11. What do you think, Sam?
12. Well, I think I can get this through mathematics rather than knowledge.
13. So I'm not going to say it right now, but I'll tell you later.
14. OK, well, I'll tell you the answer later in the programme.
15. Now, Gemma Clarke is a writer on women's football in England and she spoke recently on the BBC Women's Hour programme.
16. Here, she describes the reaction throughout the years to women's football.
17. Has it been easy for the women's game in England?
18. Women's football has really been a struggle to play, to play, have any kind of agency and and to be taken seriously as as athletes that can be seen throughout history i think every moment that that women's football has had you know there's been a kind of a backlash afterwards or a kind of attempt to keep women back and and to dampen enthusiasm for the sport so it's not been easy has it no she said it's been a struggle which means it's been difficult to make any progress and she also mentioned that there was no agency in the women's game.
19. To have agency means you have control over your own situation.
20. You can make the decisions you want to make.
21. So, she's saying that the women's game didn't really have control over its own future.
22. Every time they had some success, there was a backlash.
23. There was a negative reaction to their success.
24. That's right. And she goes on to say that people tried to dampen enthusiasm for the sport.
25. They tried to make it difficult to see and enjoy it.
26. So, who tried to dampen enthusiasm and how did they do it?
27. Well, during and after the First World War, women's football became really popular with crowds of up to 50,000 watching games.
28. It may have been popular with the crowds, but it wasn't so popular with the men who ran the game, the English Football Association.
29. Here's Gemma Clarke again. The Men's Football Association were panicked by seeing women doing so well, and they banned all women from playing football on association grounds, and that lasted for about 50 years.
30. It was a very concerted effort to keep women's football at amateur status and ensure that there weren't crowds watching them play.
31. So the men were really worried by the success of the women's game.
32. They thought it might take money and supporters away from the men's game.
33. So they banned women from playing on their pitches.
34. This means that they no longer allowed them to use the pitches anymore.
35. This effectively killed the professional women's game as up to then they'd been using the same facilities as the men.
36. This, she says, was a concerted effort to restrict women's football.
37. When you make a concerted effort to do something, it means that you try really hard to do it.
38. I'm pleased to say that the ban on women using football association pitches was eventually lifted, although only comparatively recently...
39. Right, before we review today's vocabulary, let's have the answer to today's question.
40. So I asked you, Sam, when was the first official Women's World Cup?
41. Was it A, 1970, B, 1988 or C, 1991?
42. And you said, Sam, you were going to work this out with maths.
43. So come on then. I know, I did.
44. So I know the World Cup is held every four years.
45. It's 2019 now, so the answer must be an odd year.
46. Bear with me. Which makes it 1991.
47. Am I right, Catherine? Right.
48. Well, we'll see if that mathematical approach is any better than actually just knowing the answer.
49. The first World Cup for women was actually held...
50. Oh, come on, hurry up.
51. Let me in my misery.
52. 1970. Oh, I can't believe I got that wrong.
53. But it wasn't an official tournament.
54. The first official Women's World Cup was indeed 1991.
55. Hey, you see. Your maths works.
56. So well done Sam and everybody else who got that right.
57. Now, before we get to extra time and penalties, let's recap today's vocabulary.
58. A struggle is how you can describe something that is very difficult to achieve, something you have to fight for.
59. To have agency means being able to act independently and have control over your own choices.
60. A backlash is a strong negative reaction to something.
61. If you try to dampen enthusiasm for something...
62. you try to make people less interested in it.
63. Banning something means using certain powers to stop something from happening.
64. And finally, making a concerted effort means trying really hard.
65. Well, the final whistle has blown for us today.
66. We'll see you again soon and don't forget to look out for more from the BBC Learning English team online, on social media and on our app.
67. Bye for now! Bye! Thank you so much for watching this video.
68. I hope you enjoyed it.
69. We have many more exciting videos to help you improve your English.
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