Soccer: British women catch the fever

World Cup fever is tightening its grip on soccer-crazy Britain and the signs are that women, far from becoming "football widows", will be enjoying the month-long tournament more than ever before.

The "ladette" culture of the 1990s, when many young women began enjoying such laddish pleasures as watching sport and drinking to excess, put paid to the old cliche that women were incapable of understanding the offside rule.

Today, a plethora of World Cup merchandise is on sale aimed at women with their ever-increasing spending power.

In short, soccer is cool.

Fashion magazine Marie Claire put England captain David Beckham on the cover of its June edition. He was the first man to grace the cover in the magazine's 14-year history.

Boutiques are snapping up customised World Cup clothes and accessories and high street fashion stores have brought out special World Cup ranges including sequinned bikinis in the colours of the Union Flag -- although French Connection UK's "FCUK football" T-shirt is a less whole-hearted endorsement of the game.

Supermarket chain Asda is aiming to win over families during the coming month with the installation of televisions in its in-store restaurants and drive-in style big screens in the car parks of some of its larger outlets.

The games in South Korea and Japan will be on during the mornings British time and Asda plans to serve breakfast and free hot drinks to spectators.

It is unclear just who might choose Asda as a venue to watch the matches, which run well into the working and school morning, but a spokeswoman for the company said she imagined less interested mothers might appreciate getting on with the shopping unhindered while fathers and children watched the soccer outside.

Surveys say up to two-thirds of fans who work have already planned excuses for taking "sickies" on the days of important matches. England's first match, against Sweden, is being played on Sunday.

Running parallel with soccer's new trendiness is a surge of interest in women's soccer, which has overtaken netball as the most popular female sport in England.

"Bend it Like Beckham", a British film about an Asian girl who joins a women's soccer team, has been a smash hit in Britain, making more than £2 million ($NZ6.27 million) in its first weekend.

The women's FA cup final attracted a record 2.5 million television viewers earlier this month, and the Football Association has taken thousands of calls this season to a hotline for girls wanting to get involved in playing.

Beverly Ward, the FA's spokeswoman for women's soccer, hopes the World Cup will stoke up even more interest.

"We expect this to be the next step on the ladder," she said.

Players such as Marieanne Spacey, one of the biggest names in the women's game, are role models for soccer-mad girls.

At 36, Spacey is a veteran of the England team and plays as a forward for semi-professional London team Arsenal.

Speaking shortly after picking up three awards from the FA, including players' player of the year, she talked about how she had watched the game develop.

"I think the major change has been the fitness levels and the technique because girls are getting good quality coaching at a young age now," she said.

Spacey said she began kicking a ball "as soon as I could walk" and joined a five-a-side team at 11 when she got bored with netball.

Apart from her playing career, she also finds time for a fulltime job in soccer development and for her six-year-old daughter, who is not yet following in her mother's footsteps.

"If there's a ball there she'll kick it around but she's just as happy playing with a Barbie doll," Spacey said.

- REUTERS

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