This weekend will see two Premier League football competitions get under way.
On Saturday the men will get their season going, and by Saturday night they will have produced enough unsavoury incidents to keep Gary Lineker and his chums chatting away for an hour or so on Match of the Day.
There will be the obvious examples of diving, feigning injury, over the top challenges and maybe even some evil winking for the boys to mull over rather than just a set of straight forward, competitive, honest games of football.
On top of the on-pitch shenanigans, we will be treated to a whole host of whining post match interviews where players and managers queue up to blame anyone but themselves, and most likely the referees, for what has happened.
Most of what is shown will probably leave something of a nasty taste in the mouth. If that hasn't, then the following morning newspapers certainly will as a series of mega rich young men rail against their terrible lot, stuck at such and such a club and not allowed to go and play where they want. Poor dears.
Then on Sunday the women will get their season under way.
Their matches will receive virtually no television coverage and little media interest, at a variety of non league grounds before a handful of spectators.
The games will vary in quality but will remain true to what used to be called the "spirit of the game." That's a saying that has disappeared from mens' football, simply because there is no longer any left.
The women play football as it is meant to be played. They don't dive around like little gir..... sorry, big strong men, even though tackles will be flying in all over the pitch and nobody will be backing out.
Dissenting voices towards the officials will be few and far between, despite the fact that the women obviously get referees and linesmen of a much lower standard than their male counterparts.
When a questioning voice is directed towards the man or woman in black, you can be pretty sure the player asking the question will have a reasonable case. And once the game is over, the players might have a little moan amongst themselves about certain things, but will basically have a drink and look forward to the next game.
That's football as I understand it and also how I remember it from my youth, which is not that long ago. Somewhere along the line (about the same time Sky started hurling money at the game) the men lost the plot.
The women, to coin a modern phrase, are managing to "keep it real."
It struck me increasingly last season during the matches I covered for this website, that I was watching the game I was brought up with.
I am not making claims about the respective ability of men and women footballers. Just their attitude to the game and the way in which they go out to play it.
The womens' game still allows players to go into a tackle without knowing a yellow card is coming if they slightly mistime it. This situation exists because the players on the receiving end get up and get on with it whenever they are able, without rolling around on the floor for five minutes and only getting up when the tackler has been booked.
Their teammates don't make every situation twenty times worse by running over to give their opinion either.
And don't let yourself believe that this stems from apathy because their games are not as important. The women could be forgiven for getting more upset when things go against them. After all, they are the ones that have to make sacrifices to play football every weekend.
They are the ones who have to train during the evenings and nights while going to work during the day to earn a living. They are the ones fitting their football in around their studying. Many then have to find the time to help run their families, or have put off having families so they can continue playing.
One way or another the women manage to maintain a proper perspective and, because of this, their dignity.
Quite frankly there is no shame left in the mens' game. All you have to do is find any veteran of the American goldrush to learn that gold makes men mad.
Our male footballers have struck gold in an unprecedented way and the madness it induces is there for all to see, week in and week out. Our female footballers are still mining copper and they are probably better people, and certainly better sportswomen, for it.
There is little doubt that our women footballers look up to their male counterparts and will have heroes and role models among their ranks.
It would do the men good to take in a couple of womens games and then maybe reflect on their own behaviour in certain situations.
Patrick Vieira famously asked for a rest during his time at Arsenal. I think the season had reached November.
Lianne Sanderson, who turned 18 during the campaign, didn't miss a single game all season for the Gunners last season as well as turning out seven times for the England Under 19 team. At the end of the season she won her first full international cap.
Her performances grew stronger as the season wore on and in April she turned out for Arsenal and the England Under 19's on successive nights, playing the full 90 minutes in both games.
In the same Under 19 game Jill Scott scored England's last minute equaliser despite the fact that she had been carried off the pitch with concussion during her game for Sunderland the previous weekend.
Whatever happened to footballers trying to pretend they were not hurt after taking a blow rather than pretending that they are anytime someone goes near them?
Rivaldo goes to ground clutching his face like Hot Shot Hamish has just launched one at him when in fact the ball has been lobbed against his leg gentler than one of Mike Atherton's occasional leg spinners whereas Ellen White, a young lady with features of bone china, is able to stay on her feet and just twitch her nose ever so slightly when someone leathers one straight into her kisser from about two feet away.
She must have felt it but you'd never have guessed. Her eyes weren't even watering. I was only about five yards away and mine were.
And if you want to see the most bone jarring tackle of last season get hold of the video of the Womens League Cup Final. About 70 minutes in Casey Stoney puts in, as Ron Atkinson would correctly have called it, a "reducer" on Lianne Sanderson. Shock waves must have been felt in Wycombe for weeks.
Of course it is possible that the womens game could become plagued by all the crap that now infests the mens game.
There is World Cup qualification up for grabs this season then hopefully the finals themselves. Will the bigger stakes make the ladies forget their manners? If they fall because another nation uses underhand tactics will they then begin to think they could not beat them so they will have to join them?
We have to hope not but if the profile of womens football does get bigger then I would not rule it out.
The biggest games in the domestic calendar last season were those battled out by Arsenal and Charlton Athletic.
These were magnificent affairs which deserved a much wider audience than they were permitted. It was during these games, however, that the womens' game came closest to suffering from the worst aspects of the mens'.
In their first meeting, with Arsenal trailing by two goals, Kelly Smith went to ground inside the box with very little encouragement to "earn" her side a penalty.
Shortly afterwards Charlton's Emma Coss was sent off for use of the elbow as the game became tetchy.
Then the League Cup final also threw up some talking points.
Stoney's challenge on Sanderson ruffled a few feathers, although Sanderson herself remained pretty composed, but the most telling situation came later.
Arsenal were again trailing and this time Julie Fleeting went down inside the box under a slight challenge. Arsenal claimed a penalty while Pauline Cope raced from her goal to remonstrate with the forward and leave the referee in no doubt that, in her opinion, Fleeting had dived.
The referee did not give the penalty, which looked the correct decision to me, and Charlton went on to win.
After the game Vic Akers, the Arsenal manager, faced with the novelty of a television camera in front of him instantly became Arsene Wenger. Laying into the referee he described the penalty as "nailed on" and questioned the officials' right to be in charge of the fixture.
Of course he had made no comment about the penalty won by Smith in the earlier game.
As it stands womens football provides a throwback to the days of honesty, dignity and whole hearted committment for which British football was once famous.
Let's hope that the game does continue to develop apace but that the participants can remain true to themselves and to the spirit of the game
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