walshball

[walshball]

Women's football journalism, information, misinformation, and online harassment, via England's goalkeeper situation

I've had some thoughts about the state of journalism, "big name" accounts, and the general state of information and misinformation in women's football, and how it contributes to the growing harassment and abuse towards players for a while now. The goalkeeper situation at England, and a whole bunch of things tangential to it, have done quite the job of demonstrating some of the issues.

The general points I end up making are not just applicable to the goalkeeper situation; it is causing problems for all kinds of things in women's football. It certainly is playing a role in how racism, misogyny, and other forms of bigotry are increasing within the WoSo fan spaces.

I just found this situation particularly rooted in many of the problems around misinformation spreading and how rivalry between two distinct "sides" was leading to harassment. It's a long ride, because I like to ramble and yap, and can do so about many things. So buckle up (if you want).

A word on contributing issues

While I have issues with the quality of a fair amount of women's sports journalism, especially women's football, I'm not saying any of the following applies to all journalism in the women's game. Some reporting is well researched and well-written. I also don't think the quality issues are the sole problem.

I think there are a few other things involved as well, including:

A number of popular social media accounts got big after the Euros and are not massively knowledgeable about women's football pre-Euros.

Social media algorithms and the way they push and restrict content on people's dashboards.

Search engines being a black hole of a mess that makes it increasingly difficult to find older articles and information.

The general cesspit that often is rivalry in sports, including the bigotry and abuse it brings and how it gets written off as "banter" or a "really small minority" so it's never really dealt with.

The more general issues reported in social interactions in more recent years, exacerbated by the pandemic and other factors.

You could probably write a book if you wanted to cover them all (maybe someone is! I'd like to read it). The main focus here is journalism and information from big name accounts, with some references to the other points above.

An overview of the goalkeeping situation at England

In summary, under Sarina Wiegman, Mary Earps had, up until recently, been the first choice goalkeeper. She put in strong performances at the Euros and at the World Cup. As a result, she received a lot of media attention and accolades and, already being quite popular on TikTok, her social media blew up. There was a lot of backlash alongside the fanbase that grew for her. Some of that was pure misogyny from men who hated her, women's football, and anything related to it. Some of it was from fans of women's football who felt she was overrated or didn't like her for various other reasons, some football related, some less so.

After having a strong season at Manchester United in 2022/23, a lot of problems began to appear for Earps (and at Manchester United in general). As time went on, Earps' performances for club throughout the 2023/24 season became inconsistent, and a few of her performances for the England team also wobbled. She ended the 23/24 season with a match where she conceded 6 goals to Chelsea.

At the same time Earps was on a low; Hannah Hampton was on the up. She cemented herself (mostly) as Chelsea's first string keeper by the end of the 23/24 season and had earned herself some admirable performance, stats and kudos. Made more impressive by the fact she played fewer than half the season's games for the team. Talk, of course, turned to whether she was the one who should be stepping up to take England's #1 shirt. Khiara Keating also had a strong season, having to step up unexpectedly to become Manchester City's #1 keeper, earning herself the Golden Glove for the season in the process while still a teenager.

Then, in the Euro qualifiers, Earps went off injured and Hampton subbed in, and stayed in for the remaining qualifier games. Even after Earps had recovered from her injury. The 2024/25 season started: Earps struggled in her start at PSG, and Keating was dropped back to second string keeper at City, then not called up for England at all. Leaving the #1 shirt seemingly Hampton's.

This competition between the goalkeepers has been taken up by the media and other accounts in a way that I think demonstrates many of the problems in WoSo journalism and information generally, and also probably to the detriment of all players involved.

The journalism and discussions around England's goalkeepers

Truthfully, Keating has not been the focus of much of the media attention. The Earps vs Hampton narrative has been the focal point. However, Keating has her own challenges right now following an arrest for possession of cannisters of nitrous oxide. It is entirely possible that her dropping to second keeper at City and off the England team entirely is as much to do with that as it is to do with her still being young and needing to develop her skills as a keeper in various ways. I don't want to say much more about Keating's situation because we don't know everything and there's probably stuff going on there that the public are not privvy to, so she's facing a lot is where I'll leave it.

With Hampton and Earps, however, the media have had a field day, knowing that if they push the rivalry/fighting for the same spot angle, they will drive clicks and engagement to their posts and articles. Earps' name is already used a ridiculous amount to drive engagement; to the point TikTok videos that she made for fun were being used as the basis to write whole articles.

An article came out just after the qualifiers that made a big deal about how Wiegman was "firing a warning shot by benching Earps", letting other players know that no-one was safe. It was all a very dramatised way to say 'if player's aren't in form, they might not play' (which given some of Wiegman's choices, I feel that it has only applied to the goalkeeping position so far, if we're honest). It worked because it got some of the people who didn't like Earps celebrating her downfall and some of the people who did like Earps making a big deal about it on social media. Discussions about it began to very quickly show that there was absolutely the "Earps side" and the "Hampton side" in some parts of the WoSo fanbase, and the media were going to hammer on all the sore points they could find there to get their engagement.

Earps then had a disastrous start in the domestic season at PSG when PSG were knocked out of the Champion's League by Juventus. WoSo journalists and popular accounts who had never shown an interest in the Première Ligue posted about PSG and Earps' performances, pulling clips of poor moments and posting them to the predictable engagement of their followers. (Once Earps and PSG settled down into more of a rhythm in the Première Ligue, these journalists and big accounts by and large lost interest.) If you listened to some of these journalists and accounts, PSG's failures were entirely Earps' fault. She lost them the Champion's League qualifications.

It's not true. Earps was poor in the Champion's League games, but so was everyone else on the team. PSG were a disaster; they were completely overlapped on the wings and could barely get any shots, let alone any on target. I can understand why PSG started Earps, but you have to wonder whether those games might have been slightly less disastrous (though it's not like the goalkeepers could make the forwards score) if Kiedrzynek had played given she can speak French well and was already much more familiar with the team.

Anyway, after that there was even more celebration of Earps' downfall online, with an increase in the number of negative comments on her social media, ranging from mockery to outright abuse with a hefty dose of misogyny. 3 days after the Champion's League second leg game, Earps was on the bench and Kiedrzynek started against Guingamp. Despite the fact it was quite apparent that this was rotation at play, the English media had their cue: out came the articles about Earps being benched. Then Earps was unwell for the game after that and dropped out of the squad shortly before kick off. All this is where misinformation really ramps up, but I'll come back to that.

Meanwhile, as Earps had numerous struggles in her season, Hampton had a strong start at Chelsea, with the team winning all their games in the league and Champion's League (which Hampton has not yet played in yet) so far. Hampton has also made some key saves to prevent some defensive embarrassment on Chelsea's behalf, including keeping their 1-0 lead in the season opener under a lot of pressure from Villa and keeping out multiple attempts at an equaliser in an intense second half against Arsenal at the Emirates.

Like Earps, Hampton has been rotated for one game and was unable to play one game because she was unwell.

England camp came about in the international break and the Hampton vs Earps discussion reared back up again. More articles came out about the competition between Earps and Hampton; both players were asked about it in interviews. Discussion online brought the two fanbases back into butting heads.

Hampton started against Germany in England's friendly a few days ago and... well, apparently the England team had watched PSG's disastrous chaos in their Champion's League games and decided to use it as inspiration because the game was mayhem. 7 goals, no-one looked outstanding on the pitch, lots of chaos with panic vibes. Earps was shown on-screen after some of the goals went in, watching from the bench, and one photo in particular has been all over some parts of WoSo social media. A lot of presumption is being made about the look on Earps' face, but honestly, it looks like a woman who knows damn well that camera is going to pan to her, trying to keep her face as neutral as possible while her team has just gone 3-0 down.

Now we're waiting to see what happens in the friendly on Tuesday.

Misinformation, Disinformation, and Harassment

If you go under numerous posts on social media now about Earps, you will see multiple people who completely believe that Earps is riding the bench at PSG, or that she's been dropped from the squad, or that she's not getting any minutes. Even Wiegman commented during a press conference that there was this sentiment in English media that Earps isn't PSG's first string keeper, when she is.

As of writing this, Earps has played more minutes domestically (Premiere League + Champion's League) this season than Hampton so far. 450 minutes to 360 minutes.

So where has this narrative of her not playing come from?

WoSo journalists, big name accounts, and multiple accounts on social media, mostly. That news article that came out the first time Earps was on the bench, reporting on her fall from stardom — from "Sports Personality of the Year to PSG's bench" — was the start. Then when Earps was unwell ahead of the next game and Kiedrzynek played again, this also led to commentary online. Now not only was Earps benched, she'd been dropped entirely!

Some people tried to point out that there was no way Earps was off the squad completely and it was much more likely she was sick or injured, but it was somewhat overshadowed. It didn't matter that she came back as the first keeper for the next two games, the media had already moved on by that point.

So, now we have a bunch of people who seem to genuinely believe Earps isn't playing at the moment and who have never thought to double check that assumption before posting about it.

There's also been an assumption that Earps is the individual referenced in part of a recent expose kind of article in L'Équipe. The article is about various problems at PSG and in one part, there is a mention of an unnamed "international player who complained that her lack of game time was affecting her social media engagement". Now, I couldn't say that it definitely isn't Earps: I'm not at PSG. However, it would be strange for a person who has voluntarily taken a break from social media (a break which started weeks before the article came out) and who is regularly playing to be the person to complain about lack of minutes affecting social media. In a write-up in another article, a player (not Earps) was actually named as being unhappy about her limited minutes so far, though no reference of social media was made, so it's unclear if they're the same person.

What probably made it easy for people to presume the article (not that many of them read the article, it is in French and behind a paywall; they read a tweet thread about the article) was about Earps was that they already believed, thanks to the earlier articles, that Earps wasn't playing.

Hampton has also been the subject of media scrutiny and judgments, though not so much in recent years (sadly, I think that is likely to change and she'll be subject to unwanted media attention again, too). After a departure from England camp in 2022 and some strange tensions and goings on at Aston Villa, articles began to crop up about Hampton being sent home from the England camp for "attitude problems". No-one knew anything more than that, and the original article itself was fairly light on details with a strong hearsay vibe to it. Hampton some time later posted online about being in hospital.

Aston Villa was another matter entirely where, in addition to what was reported, the coach at the time, Carla Ward, made some comments in an interview that invited more scrutiny to Hampton. Ward and the author of the original Guardian article were criticised by some, especially given Hampton's age and the scrutiny she was being placed under as a young player. It all added to the general sense of "something is going on!" that interested the media. With little information to go on, though, the story soon found itself falling out of the news cycle and Hampton returned to the England squad some time later.

However, it has arguably left some people already primed to assume Hampton has attitude problems. I've seen some suggest this underpins some of the online discourse about Hampton in recent days.

We're a few days out from England vs Germany, in which Hampton had a fairly shaky performance. Now she is in the awful position of receiving abuse online from some people who rate Earps over her, from some women's football fans who take issue with her performance, and those same men who hate all women's football but it has popped up on their page due to the social media algorithm. (Misogynistic football fans, if you interact with posts about women's football, the algorithm will feed you more of it. That's why you keep seeing more of it.)

Weirdly, Earps has also caught flack from the misogynists who just assumed she was in goal and don't actually know Earps from Hampton... Goes to show just how knee-jerk the misogyny and hatred is, I guess.

And the rival fanbases have come out to clash once again. Fans of Hampton are pointing out that more of the blame lies on the outfield players than Hampton and are posting about Earps' worst performances to point out that she also had bad games. Some are claiming that Earps "never received this criticism or hate for her poor performances", when she did, including from some of the same people making the claims. Some of those who previously posted things to the effect of 'you can't always blame the defence, if Earps was a better keeper she'd save more of them' are now claiming the goals Hampton let in were unsaveable and entirely the outfield's fault. The outfield were absolutely to blame for a fair chunk of those goals, but Hampton didn't have a particularly good performance either. No-one in that defence came away unscathed.

At the same time, fans of Earps are equally ridiculously claiming that Earps would have saved both penalties or not conceded behind the mayhem on the field. They are all over social media insulting Hampton just as Hampton fans are insulting Earps, and calling for her to be dropped. There is no way Earps would not have conceded in that disaster of a game. A like-for-like comparison on the goals is a pointless endeavour because both keepers run their back-lines differently. Additionally, while Earps has made some huge penalty saves in the past, no keeper is expected to save penalties because the odds are stacked so much against them. The likelihood of her saving one let alone both is small. It's a silly and immature argument to make.

It is, in summary, very much a case of "any under-performance from the player I like is someone else's fault, any poor performance from the player I don't like is entirely their failing" repeated over and over. That and a mix of "my well rounded and justifiable criticism" vs "your unwarranted and uninformed hate" for every discussion. So, a big chunk of football rivalry in a nutshell.

As the argument rages about each keeper's strengths and weaknesses, current form and past performances; a whole bunch of fans are being incredibly vile and unpleasant, including sending abusive comments to the players. As I said above, Earps has been off social media for the most part (she's posted what seem to be some contractual posts like partnerships/sponsors, with nothing personal) for weeks, and now Hampton has had to turn off the comments on her most recent social media post. I think it would probably serve them both well to stay well away from social media for the foreseeable future; something I think we will see more and more women footballers having to do.

The push for more rivalry (which some fans were calling for) and the media squeezing all they can out of this goalkeeper situation may have brought a lot of online engagement and discourse, but I doubt it's done anyone much good. And I suspect neither Hampton nor Earps will have any peace going forward.

We're in a situation now where we have a young goalkeeper being held up as the WSL's best keeper and England's number one at just 23 years of age; she has a huge and unfair weight of expectation on her shoulders. Whenever she fails, she will be bombarded with awful comments and harassment. If Earps gets put back in goal and she fails, those same fans of Hampton will come back just as viciously to berate her. Both of them will likely be scrutinised, compared and contrasted when they return to their clubs. Any failures there won't go unnoticed.

Certain fans of each will only ever see the best of their favourite and the worst of the other. They will use that to fuel more engagement and rivalry online, which will lead to even more clashes between the fan bases. Some criticism will be level-headed and reasonable; others will just be hateful and abusive. There will be squabbling about what falls into what and dismissal of just how much of the latter there is.

You can only imagine this has to put some strain on the two keepers. Competition is healthy and necessary; this bullshit? Is anything but helpful. Each of them has strengths where the other struggles and they could push each other to improve in those areas, but with the constant push of vicious rivalry and their every moves scrutinised by the media for engagement, I have to wonder how much that gets in their heads. It's easy to say "well, they should just be professional and get on with it", but it's not easy to shrug that stuff off.

So, the poor quality reporting from the media over the years and how information spreads in the world of WoSo fans has now contributed to a situation with two players at the centre of scrutiny and abuse. Neither can win, both will end up losing out somewhere, and I can't imagine it's going to get any more pleasant from here on out. Maybe, and hopefully, I am wrong.

Some resources for references

I've included the references because I'm talking about the media and their role in all this. Given the above discussions, a critical approach should be used while reviewing them. Some of them are downright odd in their approach, some are poorly research and others are more balanced.

TikTok clip from Steph Houghton and Ian Wright discussing Khiara Keating

The Telegraph, Hannah Hampton v Mary Earps: Battle to be Lionesses No 1 shows Sarina Wiegman will drop anyone

The Times, Mary Earps: from Spoty winner to PSG bench (with no shirts in club shop)

Goal.com, Mary Earps vs Hannah Hampton: England need long-time No.1 to thrive at PSG amid competition from Chelsea star for Lionesses starting berth at Euro 2025

Football.London, Hannah Hampton gives Sarina Wiegman more questions than answers as England reach Euro 2025

Goal.com, Is Mary Earps in danger of losing the England No.1 shirt? Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman confirms PSG goalkeeper is facing 'huge competition' from Hannah Hampton after tough start to life in France

BBC, Sarina Wiegman 'will not comment' on Hannah Hampton's absence from England squad

The Guardian, Euros winner Hannah Hampton dropped by England over attitude

Since-71, Four Different Versions of Events: Hannah Hampton In Media Disarray

Telegraph, Mary Earps still in my plans despite PSG struggles, says Sarina Wiegman

BBC, More questions than answers for England in defeat

L'Équipe, Élimination en Ligue des champions, tensions en interne, joueuses frustrées... le climat est électrique au PSG féminin

[walshball]

I'll bet she does!

[walshball]

I’m going to be brave since nobody else will say it- maybe we should sell Russo. Girl couldn’t finish her dinner, I don’t care how good her hold up play is we need a goal scorer.

[walshball]

Either Leah Williamson hasn’t fully recovered from her concussion or she’s completely lost interest in being a footballer: lazy, half-hearted decision making and an overall lack of effort, followed by a whiny attitude. Our whole backline was fucking WASHED.

[walshball]

BULLYING

We are sixth place with a game in hand. Manchester United are above us, having played two games less. It’s not enough to sack Jonas, I want him to be killed with hammers

[walshball]

We are sixth place with a game in hand. Manchester United are above us, having played two games less. It’s not enough to sack Jonas, I want him to be killed with hammers

[walshball]

I awake covered in sweat, gasping in the dark. A terrible nightmare, that I followed a club called “the Arsenal” in the clutches of a psychotic Swedish man. It was so real… but no, just a dream. I turn over into the arms of my dear wife and fall into a peaceful slumber.

[walshball]

My head is actually fine, Viv Miedema take me into your loving arms. I’m a City fan now.

[walshball]

Pernille…

[walshball]

Getting more joy from hate watching Chelski v Madrid than Arsenal atm

[walshball]

Gone on a massive Twitter blocking spree bc a lot of these people are chronically online teenagers who don’t understand they’re talking about real people. I say this whole heartedly and without reservation: if you mock someone’s dead family member over a game of football, you shouldn’t be allowed in polite society.

[walshball]

Actually quite refreshing seeing outside takes after the complete headless

WSL 24/25: Arsenal Women FC vs. Everton FC Women

Mostly just checking in to assess how the Arsenal's current form was.

Overall, they didn't play exceptional, but they also didn't play poorly and it was clear that the UWCL matchup against Bayern was more on their minds than Everton. I'd give them a 60% mental effort. Maybe 75% at some times, which gradually declined throughout the game, but there was something that should give people note.

Arsenal's defense is going to be a problem. They're aggressive and coordinated. And yes, it was against a low-level Everton, but their ability to affect the on and off-ball plays and create quick transitions because of it will cause many fits. Especially if your team doesn't have a midfield that can counter and play low to create their won counters and impact the defense.

Offensively, it's nothing fancy. And most definitely Arsenal has a finishing problem. But the opportunities were there. And while their midfield is excellent in collaborating with their backline and has many, two-way players who can start a counter or create on their own from the dribble or move well off the ball, the strikers truly need to step up. It also doesn't help that the midfielders aren't looking to score first or cut to score, either. The center was open far too often and Maanum doesn't have the technicality to receive and act as multi-faceted offensive facilitator. Stina... well... I've discussed her technical and statistical inefficiencies beforehand.

Rotation was also prevalent, with Jonas likely keeping many of his starters in the UWCL on the bench as subs. So expect an entirely different lineup against Bayern coming up. One with the true A-Team. So any dull edges may be even sharper.

However, when you move as quickly and accurately as the Arsenal do, a slower backline like Bayern's may make this irrelevant.

In goal, van Domselaar was given minutes. I expect Zinsberger to start against Bayern, but Daphne showed excellent vision and patience. Already at such a young age, too.

Overall, it truly depends on which Arsenal shows up. But even a sleep-walking Arsenal is dominant. And their powerful, well-coordinated backline and midfield with precision and patience is dangerous. Especially because they've shown that they can amp it up to 11 when needed. It may not be the easiest task for them to do, but it can be done.

This isn't going to be easy. For either team.

[walshball]

Can’t even speak on that performance. Utterly depressing, not a bright moment to be found— even Frida’s good shift just indicates what a waste it was to have her on the bench almost of last season.

[walshball]

Harder giving Lea and Jovi goals on a plate only to see her efforts wasted, I’m starting to get fucked off tbh. Bayern first half snooze fest, what’s new.

[walshball]

I triple capped Kaneryd I’m FUMINGGGGG

[walshball]

Recording for posterity, a bearable Russo chant that occurred to me in the car/rips off Johnny Stones:

(To the tune of Salt-n-Pepa “push it”)

She comes from Maidstone,

She plays in Red and White,

She hates United,

She thinks they’re fucking shite

She’s scoring bangers

Everywhere she goes

Her name is Lessi

Alessia Russo

Du-du-du-du-du (ad infinitum)

[walshball]

I’ll be taking apologies from Beth Mead haters in my inbox, feel free to cry xx