A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in May 2018:

Our thanks to Mike P for this. Extracts:

The FA said the new version supported its objective to tackle barriers within the women’s game. [J4MB: What barriers would those be?]

The set includes 22 outfield players and six substitutes, each hand-moulded and painted with their own characteristics – and detailing that is clearly female…

Although the set is not available to buy, fans will have the opportunity to win one via FA social media channels.

Marzena Bogdanowicz, FA head of marketing for women’s football, said: ‘This new, all-female Subbuteo set is a reflection of the rapid growth that women’s football is seeing in the UK right now. [J4MB: Nonsense – because it’s not available to buy, it’s a reflection of how little interest there is in the women’s game.]

‘We aspire to greater equality all the way from board games to boardrooms, and every day we are striving to transform the future of the women’s game on and off the pitch.’

Last May Sports Minister Tracey Crouch threatened the FA with a loss of £30m – £40m of public funding if it didn’t have at least three women on its board by some point in 2018. Our blog piece on the matter is here.

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