Now that the storm surrounding 'Linogate' has died down, there is an opportunity to perhaps reflect on what the whole episode tells us about football's attitudes towards women in 2011.
The comments and behaviour of the sacked Andy Gray and Richard Keys, who has also left his role with Sky Sports, have been rightly condemned by fans, equality groups, the football authorities and the media.
And it is interesting to note once again the sport's power to shine a light on issues which go far beyond the confines of the pitch.
But do they simply reflect the outdated views of a boys club which exist away from prying eyes, behind the closed doors of dressing rooms and boardrooms and off air in television and radio studios?
A new report on equality in European football commissioned for Uefa by Dr Steven Bradbury of Loughborough University certainly suggests that is the case. Dr Bradbury found that there is "overt and casual sexism" embedded in the game and that women's abilities are "devalued and invalidated".
That Sian Massey is an assistant referee in the Premier League at all is clear evidence of progress but while there are now 853 female referees registered with the Football Associatio (compared to 26,000 men) few apart from pioneer Wendy Toms and Massey have broken through to the top level.
And while there are more junior and middle ranking officials and administrators working at clubs, only five women have made it through to board level in the last five years - Brenda Spencer at Wigan, Delia Smith at Norwich, Heather Rabatts at Millwall, Karren Brady at Birmingham and now West Ham and Lorraine Rogers at Tranmere. Today only the last two are still involved.
Massey has reached Premier League level as an assistant referee this season
Similarly there are only two women on the 102 strong FA council - football's parliament - but there are none at full board level, something that may change if new chairman David Bernstein delivers on his pledge to bring much needed reform.
Uncovering attitudes inside the dressing room is virtually impossible but Robbie Savage said in an interview earlier this week players did not judge women officials on their gender but on whether they were any good or not.
Having said that a dressing room full of young men is unlikely to be the best place to find enlightened comment on the opposite sex.
But is that exclusive to football? Anyone who has been in a rugby or cricket dressing room at any level would probably find evidence of sexism on differing scales. In that sense is football all that different?
Research by the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation suggests the picture might be improving. It found that in 2010 there were 11 female chief executives of national sport governing bodies, or 23%. This equates to an increase of 8% from 2009.
Similarly there was an increase in the number of key executives on boards and committees across sport - up to 25% from 21%.
Compare those statistics to the number of women who hold top board jobs in Britain's leading companies.
The trend might be going up but research by the Cranfield School of Management found only 12.5% of directors in FTSE 100 companies were occupied by women (135 female directors out of 1,076). In pay terms too, women lag way behind men - by 23% according to the 2010 management national salary survey.
But how realistic is it for women to ever attain true equality in a sport like football when it is divided on gender lines at the very highest level of competition?
In April a new Women's Premier league will be launched but no-one expects it will ever come to compete commercially with the highest levels of the men's game.
And nor do they want it to. The women's game is different and that should be celebrated in its own right.
But is there simply a ceiling to female ambitions which will never be broken through? Equality campaigners I have spoken to concede this but argue football has not even started to scale the heights.
Of course, they admit, there are natural limits where the physical differences are so great and the level of experience so contrasting. But why can't there by more women referees, administrators, broadcasters and journalists in the game?
And perhaps the true measure of equality will only come when a woman is the manager of a Premier League club or the England team.
Can a woman who has not played the men's game at the very top level really tell a team of men how to play or is that irrelevant as long as she is a master of tactics and has all her coaching badges?
Perhaps the Football Association should seize the moment and add the highly regarded Hope Powell, manager of the England women's team, to Fabio Capello's coaching staff. That really would send a message that football has moved on from the sorts of attitudes displayed by Keys and Gray.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/davidbond/2011/01/footballs_chance_to_change.html
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