WOMEN'S FOOTBALL - AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON 4.2

4.2 However, in comparison to continental Europe and America, these figures are still very low. In Norway, a country with a population one-eighth the size of England, there were 44,000 registered female players in 1993 - more female than male players and this figure rose to 60,000 in 1997 (figures from the Norwegian FA). In Germany, participation rates are higher still, with approximately half a million female players nationwide (figures from the German FA). Italy also provides a good marker for the British female game with a semi-professional league that has been in operation since the early 1970s, and women's matches there sometimes draw crowds of up to 10,000 and are regularly reported in Gazetta Dello' Sport , Italy's national daily sports newspaper. This is a far cry from the situation in the British press where women footballers and administrators are still sometimes more likely to appear in 'fashion' features and on the Women's page than on the sports pages, although The Express newspaper did run a women's football column each Tuesday in the late 1990s. Today (2002) The Guardian and The Times both run weekly women's football columns and the broadsheet press usually report on the major matches in the women's football calender.