The Football Association’s 1993 takeover of women’s football – A Hobson’s Choice.

Abstract

In 1993 the Women's Football Association (WFA), the organisation which had run women's football in England for 24 years, ceded control of the sport to the Football Association (FA). This has often been represented as a progressive move for women's football, but the research presented here–grounded in oral history interviews and an analysis of relevant archival documents–disputes this interpretation. The WFA administration was undoubtedly weak and divided, and was unable to cope with the dramatic growth of women's football which occurred in the late 1980s, while WFA members did want more FA recognition of and support for women's football–but not at the expense of an independently-functioning WFA. It was the FA who chose to pursue a total takeover, ignoring the opposition expressed by WFA members in the years between 1990 and 1993. Finally, an examination of the years post-1993 demonstrates that the FA's move came at the detriment of women's football continuing to have a significant voice in governance: the under-representation of women within football governance in the UK needs to be seen as one legacy of the 1993 takeover. Overall, the takeover should be seen as a moment of disempowerment for women's football.