Come along to support us and find out if we understand the offside rule!

WHEN I first heard about the comments made by Andy Gray and Richard Keys, my initial reaction was not one of shock or anger.

To be honest I was really disappointed and slightly embarrassed – disappointed because I seriously thought women in sport were now judged by their ability to officiate, play or coach, and embarrassed because it reminded me of the 1980s when I was at school and dare not admit that I liked playing football!

"Banter" or not, unfortunately those type of comments that are allegedly "heard regularly in dressing rooms up and down the country" mean people who have influential roles in sport still have in-built prejudices.

Particularly when it comes to women in sport and, in particular, football.

I guess we at least have Gabby Logan flying the flag for women when it comes to TV sports presenters.

On a more positive note, I am really pleased that it has got the country talking about the real issues around equality in sport – mutual respect, opportunities for women and the added pressure for women to perform above and beyond the norm to get a small amount of much-needed publicity.

Over the past five years, I have attended many local sports awards events.

I must admit the male to female representation of presenters, sporting celebrities, nominees and winners was way below what it should be.

I believe this is partly due to ignorance and partly due to a lack of recognition and respect for women in sport.

I am currently the director of football for Nottingham Forest Ladies Football Club, and have been involved with the club for 20 years as a player, coach and manager.

Unbeknown to many, we play in the National Division of the Women's Premier League, and we manage to operate on an annual budget of �40,000 to �50,000 – a week's wages for most men playing in the Premier League.

Unfortunately this season we are some way short of that as the hard slog of finding sponsorship is again proving to be our Achilles' heel.

Nottingham Forest Ladies will cease to exist by the end of the month if we do not find �10,000 to get us to the end of the season.

That is purely operational costs, as all our players and staff are volunteers.

So if you are on our side – or want to come and find out if we understand the offside rule – make the effort to come and watch a game before you judge us.

And yes – we have still got a sense of humour!

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/32715/f/503354/s/128339a1/l/0L0Sthisisnottingham0O0Cnews0CCome0Esupport0Eunderstand0Eoffside0Erule0Carticle0E31864910Edetail0Carticle0Bhtml/story01.htm

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