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Lack of female players in football video games is an own goal

Originally published on by Dr Jonathan Ervice, School of Modern Languages and Cultures. Read the .

Football video games make it possible to take on the role of one’s heroes. But this is generally possible only if your football heroes are male. FIFA’s Women’s World Cup may  but women have until very recently remained absent from leading football video games.

It was recently announced that EA Sports’ FIFA 16 game . Football Manager, another popular football video game, does not yet feature women but there are plans to include women’s teams in future editions. But don’t let this seeming progression fool you into thinking that the scales are being balanced. This is far from the case.

The 12 women’s teams present in EA Sports’ FIFA 16 game will include Brazil, England, France and Australia. However, current world champions Japan and former winners Norway will be absent. It’s worth remembering that there were .

And Football Manager’s apparent plans fall behind even this. The game’s creator, Miles Jacobson, said  that women’s leagues will be included when there are ten of them globally with comparable average attendances to the English Championship.

This may sound progressive, but it isn’t. Football Manager is actually setting the bar quite high when it comes to including women’s teams. The Championship may be English football’s second tier but it attracts larger crowds than the top divisions in most European countries.

It’s not time to celebrate yet. Christian Bertrand / shutterstock.com

The creators of Football Manager would do well to take a closer look at attendances in top division men’s leagues. The average attendance in the US National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) last year was . This means that the NWSL attracts bigger crowds than the majority of .

Football Manager’s creators argue that it is  to include women’s leagues, but how commercially viable are certain men’s leagues that are included? What about the second tier of Icelandic or Slovenian football? What about the third tier in Northern Ireland?

Including women’s teams in games such as Football Manager could make them more appealing to women. This very point has been made by gaming expert Mia Consalvo in a recent edited volume entitled . So: continuing to exclude women’s teams from Football Manager could actually be a commercial own goal.

When I manage my local team ¾«¶«´«Ã½ City in Football Manager, they play pre-season friendlies against teams such as Mynydd Llandygai and ¾«¶«´«Ã½. Mynydd Llandygai is a village side whose players include a former next door neighbour. ¾«¶«´«Ã½â€™s football team has previously included students I teach.

So I can currently manage a team in Football Manager in a match against my own students but I can’t manage teams featuring the world’s leading female players. Football Manager has the set bar very high when it comes to what women’s leagues need to achieve before becoming part of the game. Unless they move the goal posts, there’s likely to be a long wait before this changes.

Publication date: 1 June 2015