In roar of Lionesses who give patronising male critics the boot

IT seems like only yesterday that women's football was viewed as a niche hobby on a par with morris dancing and openly mocked.

- BRIAN READE

Days when male ex-players argued it was an insult to call the women's game "football" because their legs were too weak to kick the ball hard enough and they pulled out of tackles in case they snapped a fingernail.

In 2004, FIFA President Sepp Blatter suggested the women's game might be more popular if the "pretty ladies" wore tighter shorts to promote "a more female aesthetic". And in 2011, racing driver Nico Rosberg claimed that being a spectator at the women's World Cup was like watching the Paralympics.

So, let's call it progress that women have at least managed to elevate their game from being vilified to patronised. And boy are they still patronised.

Over the past two weeks broadcaster Adam Boulton asked if the World Cup was "just a kind of random kickaround, and Australian TV commentator David Basheer claimed a tackle by Matilda Katrina Gorry proved that "certainly motherhood hasn't blunted her competitive instincts".