I have not written about the World Cup so far, as there’s so much excellent commentary out there and from a personal perspective, I don’t have much to add to what I said two years ago. If I have one observation, it’s that for a great World Cup (and this one surely has been entertaining), you don’t necessarily need the teams to be that great. I think it’s fair to say that big football countries have had better squads in the last 10-15 years (Germany and Spain most obviously, but also Argentina, France, Portugal, Uruguay, Brazil). Despite that, there’s been no shortage of amazing games and surprises, partly probably because of that more level playing field.

As always, the World Cup provides ample opportunity for being outraged. VAR, Neymar’s antics, Ronaldo’s antics, the position Messi is (was) played at, FIFA’s obsession with kit clashes, take your pick. I’ve been relatively relaxed about all of them, but finally did reach my boiling point, thanks to some good old gender stereotyping. There isn’t even that much of it these days, but a) I’m touchy about this topic and b) I just cannot believe this is still going on. There are STILL media outlets who produce cartoons about men doing nothing but watching football for a month and women nagging them about it (equally offensive to both sexes, I find). There are STILL articles for women about what to do when World Cup is going on (mostly shopping). And there are STILL men complaining about the voice of female football commentators (if there is a surer sign of lack of actual criticisms, I’m yet to see one)!

I am not interested in creating some absolute ranking. It may well be that there are more men who enjoy watching football than there are women. That’s not the point. As should be clear to every entity with any cognitive ability, women who enjoy watching football do exist. In significant numbers. Women who are knowledgeable about football also exist, shrill voices notwithstanding. As with everything else, whether a person enjoys football or knows anything about it, cannot be determined by this person’s gender. I cannot believe that this isn’t a truth universally acknowledged in 2018.

Football is not something I’ve played myself and my knowledge of it isn’t particularly deep. However, in our family, I have always been the one much more interested in the game and more informed as well. J would be the first to admit it and as he has no problems with self-confidence, I believe he secretly enjoys having a partner who beats him at football chatter (or any type of sports chatter, for that matter). I know women who play football, I know women who enjoy watching a good game to a ridiculous degree, I know women who can analyse tactics as skillfully as Heston Blumenthal can cook snail porridge. I also know men who are like that. Shockingly, I also know both men and women who think football is the silliest thing ever.

So can we please just stop making these tired jokes and rehashing old stereotypes? I honestly cannot think of anyone who would find it amusing these days (if you know people like that, I suggest never speaking to them again). Oh, and England has just won on penalties, so there goes another endless source of amusement…

Pictured: the ballerinas of Bolshoi watching the Russia-Spain game.