On football's misogyny problem
Plus normal service with Census data, house price index and retail sales data
If there's one thing Football is really great at, it's taking what ought to be a really positive moment and souring it in every way possible.
So, as the Women's World Cup came to a close, when we should have been looking back on a tournament where the quality of football has never been higher, where the world's best players lived up to their potential, and where viewership records were broken despite being outside of the easiest timezones for key markets…that's when men loomed into view.
First, we have Fifa President Gianni Infantino, who in the build up to the final said women need to “convince us men” of the change that’s needed and open doors and a load of other nonsense. England full-back Lucy Bronze then refused to shake his hand at the medal ceremony after the final, which may or may not have been related.
Then, during the same bloody medal ceremony, we had the President of the Spanish FA Luis Rubiales choosing that moment to kiss Spain’s all-time top goal scorer Jenni Hermoso full on the the lips. As far as I’m aware, he’s never kissed men’s top scorer David Villa on the lips. The English equivalent would be Prince William planting one on Harry Kane.
This to cap off a tournament where despite the high quality, there remains this weird undercurrent of opinion that women’s football is somehow so poor that the top international teams couldn’t compete with non-league men’s sides.
How anyone could look at the goals Sam Kerr of Australia and Ella Toone of England scored in the semi-final and think that, I don’t know. These are professional athletes, lads, they cover 10km a game. Chloe Kelly hit the ball harder for her penalty against Nigeria than any strike a man managed in the Premier League last season.
Let’s go to VAR…via Stephen Collins in the Guardian.
And so, we come to Mason Greenwood.
People can make up their own minds on the case - there’s plenty of evidence in the public domain for those of a strong constitution. What I will say that nearly 70% of rape victims drop out of their cases due to delays, the trauma required to relive the experience in court, and the devastatingly low conviction rate - which is under 1% across England and Wales. So, it is not as simple as the case going away means the problem has gone away.
As someone who communicates for a living, and leaving aside the case itself, my view is the way Manchester United have handled the situation is abysmal.
A couple of weeks ago, as England were preparing for their quarter-final, it was leaked that Manchester United were considering reintegrating Greenwood into the squad, and the club then said it had delayed an announcement because it was waiting for the club’s Lionesses (keeper Mary Earps, United captain Katie Zelem and No. 10 Ella Toone) to return so they could be consulted.
Jesus Christ, guys, they were trying to win a World Cup.
Isn’t that enough of a task without being asked to be the moral arbiter in the case of a man who gets paid in a week what you earn in a year?
I think we can guess how Mary Earps responded to that.
In situations like this, what you want from Manchester United is a clear, principled position, and decisive action.
Instead, it’s clear they wanted to see what they could get away with. They posited and positioned to gauge what the response would be if they tried to bring him back. Then they decided if it was worth it, making a few excuses on the delay (including using the Lionesses for that), to see whether it died down a bit.
If the club were playing better, would their morals have been stronger? If they weren’t in such dire need of a goalscorer, would their principles have been clearer? If they weren't limited in spending due to the club being up for sale, would they have been quicker to show him the door?
Greenwood has scored 35 goals in 129 appearances for United, a goal every four games or so. That will have factored in, as will his value in the transfer market as they seek to get a return on him as an asset.
You could almost see the cogs turning in each statement and comment released over the last week or so, and the attempt to create space in the final statement from club CEO Richard Arnold. “Concern for the alleged victim”, “duty of care” towards the player, “provoked strong opinions”, “desire to minimise the impact of the investigation on our men's and women's teams, as well as our Lionesses”.
They concluded he didn't do what he'd been accused of, based on evidence that won't be shared with the public…and yet he should leave the club anyway.
It's a non-apology apology, a statement which tells us we're wrong to be upset but they're going to do what we've unreasonably asked anyway. The equation didn't add up.
Ultimately, I can’t shake the sense that if he was a 1 in 2 goalscorer, instead of a 1 in 4 one, he’d be back in the team.
So, that's the big football story in the week an English national team played in a World Cup Final.
Football may have accidentally stumbled on the family-friendly version of its product it has been desperate for for years - friends of mine talk a out taking their young children to women's games, as a more welcoming, less threatening environment than a men's game. And it's not a niche commercial interest either, 12 million watched the final, more than watched the Wimbledon Final. (Ed - the Men's final) Only the coronation has had more viewers this year.
But for now, it seems like football's a simple game, 22 people kick a ball around for 90 minutes and in the end the men always win.
If you enjoy me writing about this stuff, why not subscribe to , where I write about non-politics and policy…this week you can join me on a nice walk around the North Tyneside coast from Cullercoats to North Shields.
Retail Sales
The latest national retail sales figures were out at the end of last week, and both retail sales value (-1.0%) and volume (-1.2%) were down in July compared to June.
Value is still up on last year, and way up (16.4%) on February 2020, but volume has started to fall fairly consistently. It’s down -1.8% since February 2020, but July 23 was down -3.2% on July 22.
I’m keeping an eye on this, despite it not being regional figures, because it tells us a lot about the impact of inflation and the broader state of the economy.
Thus far, despite rising prices, people have maintained the volume of consumption - trying to dig their heels in and hold their ground.
That’s possible for a while, you spend down savings, you use credit cards and overdrafts, you haven’t felt the full hit of interest rate rises yet because your mortgage fixed rate hasn’t expired…but, eventually you run out of road.
That worries me, because with government spending falling, business investment low, consumer demand is probably what’s been keeping economic growth bumping along. The Bank of England seems set on more interest rate rises, even as inflation falls and growth staggers along (0.2% in April to June)…it just feels to me that a recession is still on the cards.
Approximated Social Grade
The Census keeps on giving. This week, it’s some data on approximated social grade. If you aren’t familiar with social grades, it’s the breakdown of people’s averaged behavioural and spending habits by…
AB - higher professional, managerial etc
C1 - supervisory, clerical, and junior managerial, plus full-time students
C2 - skilled manual
DE - semi-skilled, unskilled manual or unemployed
It’s a bit broad, and a bit blunt, and a bit marketing-y, but it gives you an idea.
You can take a look at the proportions of each grade at a local authority level at the link above - which tells you plenty.
I’ll give you some broad figures here:
The North East had the lowest proportion of AB grade in England, 18.3%, compared to 23.3% across England and Wales
The North East also had the highest proportion of DE grade, 27.3%, compared to 22.6% across the country
Middlesbrough has the third highest proportion of DE grade in England - 35.6%
House Price Index
The North East continues to have the fastest growth in house prices, up 4.7% in the 12 months to June 2023.
It also continues to have the lowest house prices overall, with an average of £161,034.
What I've been enjoying this week
This tweet, about the BBC’s 1987 election coverage:
This post from
, marking six months in business congratulations!
What’s coming up in the next week or so?
Data on NEETs tomorrow
GCSE results tomorrow
Data on household overcrowding and under-occupancy on Friday
Working with me
September is starting to look pretty busy, so speak now if you have anything you might need my support with. Otherwise, let’s talk about October.
I do things like:
translate your big research or academic paper into a useful policy briefing
help you take your big pile of data and tell stories with it
interview people and turn it into really nice written content
help you with messaging and placing what you do in a broader policy context
You can find out more about me on my website.
You can email me on worroom@substack.com or arlen@arlenpettitt.co.uk
I’m @arlenpettitt on Twitter, and you’ll find me on LinkedIn.