Women in footballWhen ED noted that the FA had appointed its first-ever female board member, an eyebrow was raised.
Not because a woman had been given the role, but because none had been involved at board level before.
Given the purported importance of developing the game for women and girls from international down to grass-roots level — while 275,000 and rising, Britain has a lower rate of adult female participation than many other nations with similar football cultures — it was frankly bemusing that it had taken so long (148 years give or take a few months) to have a woman at a senior level of organisation and planning.
After all, we are talking about an administrative role, not a strapping new centre-half. Sadly the outdated attitudes that greeted female match officials in recent years was by no means surprising, while it is clear that — with some notable exceptions — a glass ceiling still exists in British corporate and political culture.
However, it is astounding that no woman had been involved at the highest level of running the national game before the naming of Heather Rabbatts as an independent non-executive director yesterday.
But then ED read the reader comments below the article and realised how far attitudes in the game still has to come.
The United Kingdom is widely regarded as one of the more tolerant societies in the world, much to the chagrin of the anti-PC brigade, who hide behind made-up Mail scare stories of banning Christmas and freedom of speech when the real agenda is a wish to defend their own outdated attitudes.
Yet football is so comically behind the times that one has to wonder if it has become a cesspit for a misanthropic minority so riddled with hate that the sight of their own shadow would inspire a racist chant.
Beneath the fairly dry news story (woman with proven track record in sports, finance, law and governance is given a role that encompasses all those disciplines), around 90% of the initial batch of comments was repugnant, bilious nonsense.
ED won't go into detail but, married with children, Rabbatts's appearance, sexuality and even gender were slandered — the latter using a clear (and thankfully removed) example of Wiki-terrorism as 'evidence' — all of which were totally incorrect and, even if they had basis in fact, utterly irrelevant: no-one gives a monkey's what Dave Richards looks like (apart from possibly his wife), and childbirth is a pretty strong indicator of gender.
Furthermore, her credentials to do the job were questioned, despite having been one of the directors involved in successfully turning Millwall around, while also boasting an impressive career in both private and public sectors.
Most ludicrously she was immediately — having had no dealings with the cases in question — accused of having anti-Liverpool bias and of being a Manchester United stooge, as if the only thing that matters in football is whether a player with form for munching on his opponents should be immune to the rules of the game because he hails from a country where it is acceptable to use the n-word.
Speaking of which, it largely went un-noticed that Ms Rabbatts is of mixed race, born in Jamaica to a white British father and black mother before moving to the UK as a child. A game that, on the playing side, is choc-full of the non-white (and certainly non-British) still has some way to go regarding the incorporation of ethnic minorities into its governance.
But that is largely irrelevant - obviously it was a carte-blanche to launch into vitriolic abuse to an entirely innocent party, none of which was remotely funny, just cruel and uncalled for.
The myopic, pathetic, vicious response to a standard corporate appointment from trolls and sewer-rats may or may not hint at a wider problem in society. Either way, it shows that a lot of work still needs to be done regarding gender in football. So, ahead of what promises to be a surprisingly mild festive period, ED would like said troglodytes to bog off.
And to wish a very happy Christmas to the rest of you.
(Early Doors is far too grumpy to be released from its cage during the festive period, so it will return on Wednesday).