It’s always been a source of total wonder to me how popular football (or “soccer”, as I believe they call it) is among women in the US. I was delighted when Beau Dure from USA Today sent me a link to this article – yes indeedy, as from 2009, the girls in America will be playing for pay again.

Over there, while the boys wear protective uniforms and run into each other while kicking the ball a long way, or use a big stick to hit a very hard ball a long way, girls are positively encouraged to play the beautiful game. Truly, football is an aesthetically pleasing sport – though it involves contact, it doesn’t rely on brute force or speed – and as such it’s ideal for the more graceful, gentler sex. And, since it tends to contain somewhat less diving than the men’s game, it makes pretty good TV for sports fans as well.

The fiercely competitive Americans want their teams to win, no matter whether it’s lads or lasses playing, so they’re only too happy to hear about a group of sports people taking on the world, particularly if they’re doing so successfully. Witness USA Today – during the women’s World Cup, which kicks off in China this week, they’ll be doing live minute-by-minute reports on each of the US’s games. Can you imagine their British equivalent doing that? In Sweden, where the women’s game is professional, it’s reported alongside the men’s, and nobody bats an eyelid.

Here in the UK, for all our proud talk of inventing the game and flag-waving during major tournaments, football is still perceived as a sport for men to play, even if it is now socially acceptable for women to watch it. The mainstream media coverage of women’s football veers wildly between abysmal and non-existent, and I’ve yet to be convinced that this doesn’t play a huge role in enticing people to the stadia to watch. If people go to a game, gate receipts increase, and money attracts money, with sponsors falling over themselves to be associated with a successful product.

To be fair to Auntie Beeb, they do cover the big games, and they don’t get much bigger than the World Cup, which kicks off in China this week. Admittedly you’ll have to go interactive – or flick over to Eurosport – for most games that don’t involve England, but it’s a start (check out BBCi’s schedule here).

Shiny Media’s new blog, Kickster, meanwhile, will bring you all the news from the women’s game, and women in the game, so I’d like to extend a hearty welcome to all armchair supporters. You never know, you might find a whole new England team to raise and dash your hopes on a regular basis…

Carrie Dunn is the editor of Kickster, Shiny Media’s brand new women’s football blog