England women's football captain says she 'won't break her neck' to watch the sport whereas evenings 'revolve' around the men's game

As England captain and ambassador for the burgeoning game of women’s football, Steph Houghton has played in World Cups, the London Olympics and won an MBE for her services to the sport.

But the 31-year-old has admitted that she doesn’t often watch it on television, preferring to “revolve whole nights” around the “pacier, more intense” men’s game, where “the best teams play.”

In frank comments, Houghton said that there is “still a lot of difference between the attraction for men's football in comparison to women's.”

“To be honest, even though I'm in the women's game I don't really watch a lot of women's football. If it's on the telly, I won't break my neck to go and watch it,” she added.

With a lack of relatable footballing role models growing up, Houghton sought inspiration from the film ‘Bend it like Beckham’, which follows a young woman trying to realise her dream to be a footballer.

“The only player I'd heard about female-wise was Kelly Smith,” said Houghton.

“It was probably more about male players; Beckham, (Steven) Gerrard, Kevin Phillips, they were the people I looked up to.

“I think at that moment in time women's football in England wasn't professional at all so I think, I'd be honest enough to say that I knew I'd be a part of football and I knew I wanted to play, but I could never really see that as a job going forward.”

Earlier this week, Fleetwood Town manager and former player Joey Barton sparked controversy when he claimed women's football will always be an "inferior product" unless smaller pitches, goals and balls are introduced to the game.

Barton told podcast Football, Feminism & Everything in Between: ''You have to accept that men and women are fundamentally different,” and that the game should be ''adjusted for women, physiologically, biologically''.

Houghton believes that one day, there is potential for men’s and women’s football to be on an equal footing, citing extraordinary viewing figures for the Women’s World Cup over the summer.

Some 11 million people tuned in to see England play the United States in the Semi Final, which she described as “ridiculous” adding that stadiums had also sold out of tickets.

England lost the match, but a wave of enthusiasm swept the nation and for the first time in history, the Women’s team sold out the 90,000 seat Wembley stadium for a match against Germany in November.

But despite being one of the great role models for the game, Houghton still admits that she prefers watching the “pace” and “intensity” of the best men’s teams.

“To be honest, even though I'm in the women's game I don't really watch a lot of women's football. If it's on the telly, I won't break my neck to go and watch it.

“Whereas if there's a good game on in men's football, our whole nights revolve around watching that game.

“I love watching any form of football but if it comes to Premier League, Champions League, I actually love watching the pace of the game, the intensity, watching the formations, watching the best teams play.”

Speaking to Jamie Carragher, the former Liverpool and England defender and Telegraph columnist, in his podcast ‘The Greatest Game’ Houghton was asked to name her dream five-a-side team, and replied: "does it have to include female players?" before naming an all-male line up.

While some eyebrows have been raised at these comments, it has been pointed out that plenty of male footballers have admitted to not engaging with the sport beyond their working hours.

Gareth Bale, the £80m Wales and real Madrid winger told ESPN last year, “I don’t really watch much football, I’d rather watch the golf to be honest.”

And Gabriel Batistuta, an Argentine hero, who lies second behind Lionel Messi in their all-time scoring charts told a television channel: “I do not like football, it is just my profession.”

Houghton has her own off-field passions, and is a campaigner for the Darby Rimmer Motor Neuron Disease Foundation, which she has supported since her footballer-husband Stephen Darby, also 31, was diagnosed with the illness.

The former Liverpool player was told he has between two and five years to live - something he described as “brutal”.

Speaking about her husband’s situation ahead of the last World Cup, Houghton said: “If anything were to change in the near future, my job is to be the best wife that I can be and to look after him.