Abstract
In the introduction, Pope and Pfister discuss the rationale for the book. They argue there is a need to address the dearth of research on female fans and that new publications on female football players are necessary because of the recent rises in the numbers of girls and women involved in the sport. Pope and Pfister argue that one of the strengths of the book is its coverage of women’s experiences both as players and fans in a range of European countries. The chapter also overviews the structure of the book, which is organized into two parts: Part I is dedicated to women’s football and female players and Part II explores women’s experiences as fans and a summary of each of the texts in the book is included.
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Notes
- 1.
The numbers of girls and women participating in football are still significantly lower than the numbers of boys and men. For example, the 2006 FIFA survey estimated that there were 26 million female participants in comparison to 239 million male participants (Kunz 2007). More recently, in 2014 FIFA estimated that there were 30 million girls and women playing football worldwide (FIFA 2014). Thus, despite the numbers of female participants being lower than the numbers of male participants, there are still a high number of females playing football and the numbers of female participants have been steadily increasing over time. In Europe , a recent UEFA report shows that football is the number one team sport for girls and women in 20 of its 55 member associations (UEFA 2017). The number of registered female players in UEFA’s members associations is currently 1.27 million (Masson 2016).
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Pope, S., Pfister, G. (2018). Introduction. In: Pfister, G., Pope, S. (eds) Female Football Players and Fans. Football Research in an Enlarged Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59025-1_1
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