Women's FA Cup Final to be played 100 years since the ban of women's football

However most fans will be unaware that there is significance behind the chosen date that will see the show down between Arsenal Women and Chelsea Women.

On the 5th of December 1921, exactly 100 years prior to the date of this year's game at Wembley, women's football was banned by the FA, changing the course of the sport forever.

The female game had initially become popular during the First World War when men's football was put on hiatus in the face of players being drafted for war.

Even after WW1, the sport was drawing crowds of over 50,000 with teams such as Dick, Kerr Ladies FC from Preston attracting audiences as big as 53,000.

However society's attitudes towards women at the time meant the return of men from war signalled women's time to resume their 'right and proper' domestic lifestyles.

Despite the best efforts of women to keep their game alive, on the 5th December 1921 the FA made its views clear on women playing football, ordering its clubs to 'refuse the use of their grounds for such matches'.

Even doctors at the time were advising that women were unsuitable to play the sport, saying it was 'unsuitable for the female frame'.

Women's football did continue despite this ban but on a much more informal basis, causing audiences to disappear and return to the men's game.

However in 1971, after fifty long years, the FA finally lifted the ban on women's football and saw the return of females being allowed to play at the association's clubs grounds, marking the sport's revival.

The leaps and bounds that both women's football has taken since its dissolvement in the 20s has been gigantic, particularly in the last few seasons, and the FA Cup Final will signify this.

In 2012 the women's football Olympic final in London between the USA and Japan saw a record breaking crowd of 83,000 and the 2019 Women's FA Cup final had 43,000 fans in attendance.

And in England there are an estimated three million females that play the beautiful game and the sport's top league.

It's fair to say that there is still a long way to go before women's football receives the same recognition that the male game does.

But hopefully by this time in another fifty years it will reach the potential it could've had if the half a century ban had not been put in place.