The Players podcast: England’s Fara Williams and Lucy Bronze on comparisons to men’s games

Comparisons between men’s and women’s football are unhelpful and reducing the size of the goals and pitches could be beneficial, says England midfielder Fara Williams.

The pair describe their journeys to the top, injury setbacks, recovering from health problems, their best moments in football and how it could be improved.

So how do they feel the women’s game is perceived and what changes could be made?

Smaller goals and smaller pitches?

Chelsea Women manager Emma Hayes has previously suggested that smaller goals and smaller pitches would benefit the women’s game and 37-year-old Reading midfielder Williams agreed.

She said: “I’m not saying we should massively change the size of goals and the pitch, but if it makes the game look faster or more skilful then I’m for that.

“If they were reduced by a small amount I don’t see it as a negative – it would make the game look faster. I’m not talking about nine-a-side pitches and it doesn’t have to be massively smaller.

“How many times have we been to a game and said ‘how big is the pitch today?’

“You look at Liverpool for example, the men, and [Trent] Alexander-Arnold and [Andy] Robertson are pinging it from right to left – if you can name full-backs in our game that are able to do that, it doesn’t happen that much.”

‘We always get compared to the men’

Both Williams and 29-year-old Manchester City full-back Bronze said they had seen huge changes in the women’s game during their careers, but one thing has stayed the same – “silly” and “frustrating” comparisons between them and male players.

“We always get compared to the men,” said Bronze. “People say I’m the best player in the world and they compare me to someone like Kevin de Bruyne, we’re both at Manchester City.

“But he’s had that technical and physical coaching from the age of five and I’ve had it for four or five years so of course the game will be in different places.

“It’s seen as being a predominantly male sport and that whole sexist thing comes into it and people want to knock women down.”

Williams, who describes on the podcast her fight against a kidney condition that affected her fitness for almost a year, added: “The men’s game has been established for years and it’s frustrating when you want to be seen as someone playing the same sport and equally good, but not compared to, because you can’t compare.

“If you put someone up against De Bruyne, that’s doing an injustice of how good you are as a female footballer.

“Some of the female players are unbelievable but they’re always judged against the men.”

Why is women’s football treated differently to other sports?

The pair, who have a combined total of 254 England caps, agreed that comparisons between the sexes were unfair – and not present in other sports.

“Athletics is not seen as a boys’ or girls’ sport, it’s equal,” said Bronze. “Tennis is the same, they get equal pay. In football there’s many people that are too precious about not wanting women to play.”

Williams added: “In the media they compare and it’s silly. You don’t compare a female heavyweight boxer to Anthony Joshua and you don’t compare the fastest 100m female sprinter with Usain Bolt, you just credit their quality and athleticism.

“I don’t know why, but female footballers get compared to the men.

“It’s our game, we need to stop comparing it to the men’s. Until we do that and make the game our own we’re always fighting a battle.”