Lingerie Football League comes to Australia with cheers and jeers

Sydney, June 2 (ANI): The US Lingerie Football League has raked widespread protests for an exhibition match to be played by 32 women at Allphones Arena in Sydney on Saturday.

Lingerie football, a half-time diversion at Super Bowl Sunday, was made for television but the flesh and blood version arrives in Sydney next weekend.

A fight has begun on Twitter between advocates and opponents. Nearly 1500 people have signed an online petition saying, "Stop the Lingerie Football League in Australia," and the Minister for Sport, Kate Lundy, warned the league was an assault on sport.

"Our daughters deserve more," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted her as saying.

"The LFL is about giving viewers an opportunity to perve on women in gear that looks like it's come from an adult shop. It's called the Lingerie Football League because it's almost exclusively about the underwear.

"In sexualising the game of gridiron, they're undermining any future for broader inclusion in the sport, inevitably making it harder for women to ... receive equitable treatment," she said.

However, Mitch Mortaza, who founded the league in 2009, attacked Lundy on Twitter, saying: "Rather unfortunate you could not pick up a phone and explore the sport prior to making your statements. Disappointing.

"The arrogance of certain people leads them to believe their views should be those of millions of others. Let's allow people to choose," Mortaza said.

The game is a contact sport that requires bras, panties, shoulder pads, garters, and helmets. Players are reportedly contractually obliged to accept "accidental nudity" and, like pole dancing, Playboy magazine and Hooters restaurants, it is an American export aimed at prurient interest.

The Allphones Arena general manager, Paul Sergeant, said about half the 10,000 tickets had been sold.

"We're tracking where we expected. LFL is the fastest-growing female sport in the world. It's a hard hitting, explosive sport and we invite the people of Sydney to get amongst it," he said. (ANI)

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