Thaindian News

London, July 4 (IANS) Putting on a show, play-acting and protesting are more typical of men who play soccer at the national or world level than women, a study says.

“For men, the thought of staging themselves is much more pronounced than for women, where the game itself is obviously paramount,” explains sports scientist Professor Martin Lames of Technical University Munich (TUM), Germany, who led the study.

“The reason for this could be that men’s football generally pulls in more spectators and receives greater media coverage,” Lames adds.

Men also remain on the ground significantly longer, particularly after sustaining injuries during the game, say TUM sports scientists after analysing scores of football games and evaluating the place, time and duration of every single interruption of the game.

Particularly striking are the differences in the duration of injury interruptions — men remain on the ground 30 seconds longer. Overall, when women play, the game generally resumes much faster than with men, after an interruption, according to a TUM statement.

Cheering a goal, for instance, takes almost a full minute with men, while women only cheer half as long. At 45 seconds, substitutions in men’s football take almost 10 seconds longer than in women’s football.

Interruptions are frequent in football — soccer players spend on average 38 percent of the total game time not chasing the ball, according to TUM in an analysis of 56 football games.

In some games, the interruptions took up as much as 53 percent of the time, thus exceeding the duration of the actual sports activity.

TUM doctoral candidate Malte Siegle adds: “As many fans have conjectured, when they are in the lead, players take their time with injuries. Much more so than if the score is even, or when the other side is leading. This behaviour cannot be observed in women’s football.”

The Women’s World Cup, which just started in Germany, will show whether or not these differences will persist in light of the fact that women’s football is enjoying increasing numbers of spectators and growing media attention.