Paul Rouse: Even 100 years on, ban on women's soccer a lingering stain on modern world

When it comes to the playing of women’s sport in Ireland, it is a simple fact that what happened in England was largely replicated in Ireland.

ACT OF DEFIANCE: The French goalkeeper making a save during a women’s international between the Preston Ladies Football Club (representing England) and France in May 1925. Four years earlier, the FA voiced their ‘strong opinion that the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged’. The reaction of the press at the time suggests broad support for the FA’s stance.  Picture: Getty Images

One hundred years ago this month, the Football Association (FA) banned the playing of women’s soccer matches on pitches that were owned by clubs affiliated to the FA.

The de facto impact of that ban was to destroy the potential for the growth of organised women’s soccer in England for most of the remainder of the 20th century.