Science has just proven that women’s football is more captivating to watch than the men’s game. Woah! Stop with the potty-mouthed chanting you guys.

Yes it’s slower – but there’s less stoppage time, fewer fouls (20.1 per match compared to 27.7) and guess what, some of us actually prefer it. Cue outrage and generalised fisticuffs in the stands.

Now, if I were to say I prefer dressage to flat racing or the high jump to the shot put, nobody would dream of shouting me down. But there’s something about football’s innate tribalism that really gets rank-and-file male punters aerated; as though even talking about women’s sporting success is a de facto threat to them.

I used to think it was all quite amusing if juvenile. Now I find the knee-jerk drive to dismiss and talk down female football the height of misogyny.

As the Women’s World Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand, I will be watching the Lionesses go head-to-head against Haiti on Saturday. Me and many million others who have little to no interest in the men’s game but like what we see when our women’s team play and want to see more.

I took my younger daughter to see the Lionesses compete in a friendly some years ago; it was fabulous. A family atmosphere, the complete absence of violence on or off the field. Kids, toddlers, families; not a single F-bomb dropped. When England uncharacteristically lost, they encouraged us to clap the winners.

Whenever I tell male football fans this they usually sneer that it’s not “proper football”. I would (not entirely) respectfully suggest that simply because it’s not their preferred style of game doesn’t make it “rubbish” or “for complete wusses”. It’s for people like me, who enjoy teamwork, talent and courage without the drama, the grandstanding or the aggression.

Recent figures from the Women’s Sports Trust show that women’s football is attracting a unique audience. Eight million people watched the women’s Euros, but did not watch the men’s World Cup, and the Women’s Super League has been the driving force behind a 131 per cent rise in women’s sport viewing in 2022.

And now, bona fide scientific research has shown that the women’s game is more compelling. When Swedish sports company Spiideo analysed data from last year’s women’s Euros in England and the men’s World Cup in Qatar, it found that women are less risk averse with their passing and shooting, which resulted in more goals being scored.

On average, passes in matches at the women’s Euros moved teams forward by 3.7 metres, compared with just 2.5 metres in the men’s World Cup. Matches were also 30 per cent less likely to end in a draw.

“It’s almost like the men are playing a game of chess and the women are playing something a bit more interesting.” said Matthew Penn, a statistics expert from the University of Oxford who led the comparative analysis.

“We found the women’s game to be much more free-flowing. It was a lot more attack-based with a lot more changes in possession and end-to-end football.”

I’d like to rest my case but I don’t believe for a moment that parity with the men’s game – in terms of broadcasting, money and sponsorship – will happen any time soon unless women keep up the pressure.

Put bluntly, the Lionesses are the most successful football team this country has ever produced, male or female. Their consistency and achievements at major tournaments are unsurpassed and their profile has fuelled an explosion in participation numbers among young girls at grassroots level.

They want that to be reflected in financial benefits from the game’s governing body, the Football Association. Hand on heart, can anyone call that unreasonable?

Only chippy dinosaurs and churlish blokes too mean-spirited to accept the fact that women’s football is deservedly in the spotlight and the Lionesses might just roar their way to a World Cup win.