Strategic opportunities, gender and payment

 In Module 2, we can read about that event, when the club saw the potential in the women's team, but they still did not pay as much as for men.

How many decades are the difference in women and men football?

A lot, in Denmark, for example, the first football match was played at the end of the 1800s.

Women's football started 60-70 years later, in the meantime, there were several wars and more...

A lot of former football players, men in Denmark, also serve in the army, and then they retun to football some ways.

Like, when I did the UEFA C1 exam, the head coach was from Fyen, and he played football, then he served in the army, and then he taught football again. He also had another civil career in the merchant area. 

It is not so common to see similar things in women's football. 

Like in Module 1, we could learn about the army and sport education in the 19th century, this type of way of sport still has valid value.

So when we think about women's football, and women are not men, then we need to think about different solutions, different aims, different career tracks...

Men do not have an urge to give birth and then raise kids.

Does it mean that a woman with kids would be a less good football player? Not!

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/nov/22/hednesford-town-hazzana-parnell-remaya-osbourne-mother-daughter-fa-cup

Hazzana Parnell (left) with her daughter Remaya Osbourne as they take time out from training at Hednesford’s Keys Park Stadium in Cannock. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian

Meet the mother and daughter duo playing on the same team in the FA Cup: ‘It’s surreal’

“As a mother you try to give your child the best you can,” says the Hednesford Town forward Hazzana Parnell before the tier-five side’s Women’s FA Cup second-round match against third-tier Sporting Khalsa on Sunday. “The ball will be on the line and I’ll lay it back for her, as if saying: ‘Go on, you have it.’”

This isn’t like letting your kid beat you at Uno, or half-hearted efforts to save the ball when standing in goal at the local park. This is a mother, Parnell, 38, and her daughter, 16-year-old Remaya Osbourne, playing on the same team in the FA Cup, fulfilling a dream many footballers probably have when they hold their newborn in their arms, and that so few have achieved, in men’s and women’s football.

Parnell went to trials with Aston Villa at 11, getting through before switching to Birmingham City after a game against the Blues, where she stayed until she was 17. She then played for teams such as Fulham, Charlton, Nottingham Forest and West Brom, including under managers such as Keith Boanas and Matt Beard, and represented England Under-19s.

Her career was interrupted by the birth of Remaya. “I had Remaya, took a time out, away from football, and never thought I’d go back into it,” she says. “I just stumbled back into the game. I suppose you can never really get rid of it; it’s in your heart for ever. I used to take her along to games. It’s just amazing to see her on the pitch with me. It’s a bit surreal.”

The pair are strikers and have found themselves on the scoresheet together. Parnell also provided an assist for her daughter’s goal in Hednesford’s FA Cup second round qualifying match against Bromsgrove Sporting. The team have also beaten Hereford and SJR Worksop to reach this stage.

The pair are strikers and have found themselves on the scoresheet together. Parnell also provided an assist for her daughter’s goal in Hednesford’s FA Cup second round qualifying match against Bromsgrove Sporting. The team have also beaten Hereford and SJR Worksop to reach this stage.

The accessibility of the game to young girls and women now is hugely rewarding for Parnell. “I struggled,” she says. “My brother used to play for Derby and I used to beg the coach to let me join in. For the last 10 minutes at the end of training he’s like: ‘Come on then.’ It was so difficult finding other groups of girls that played football but Remaya just grew up in it. It’s nice to see that I’ve been able to make a contribution to the pathway that’s created for her to be able to access now.”

Osbourne has ambitions of a career in the game but Parnell says: “I’d never put that pressure on her. I just want her to create a path for herself and enjoy her journey that she’s on. If Remaya ever turns around to me and says she’s not enjoying football and doesn’t want to do it, then I’ll support her. Her happiness is what comes first.”