Thanks to the Guardian , the FT and Helen Burggraf
The bans on women’s association football , went on for 50 years, surely one of the most misogynistic acts in the UK in the 20th century. You can read the full story here.
Even today problems persist. The FT rather misses the point about yesterday’s event.
Women’s football is well on its way when it comes to sponsorship from big clubs, Stephen Bush talks about watching the game….
Missing the point?
I passionately believe that Arsenal Football Club ought to step in to save those football pitches up by Old Street/St. Lukes (which they’ve avoided even issuing any statements about thus far) is that the growth of women’s and girls’ football means that all the UK’s existing public football facilities will be called upon a lot more than they have been in the past to accommodate these “new” players, and as a result, lawmakers will need to take this into account, when planning for the construction of new homes and the renovation of existing developments.
And, therefore, councils like Islington should NOT be, instead, looking to repossess council land (such as that which lies underneath those four street level, 5/6-a-side Finsbury Leisure Centre pitches), for yet more housing, given how much has been built in the past 50 years in that area since those pitches were laid out (1970s).
What follows is what I saw when I was on the Mall and at Buckingham Palace yesterday lunchtime. From the same correspondent , a woman of my age who looks to the future rather than bemoaning the past
65,000 women and a few men too
but it is also the more amazing in the context of women’s football being kept 2nd class. And as I say, the need for football pitches to be available to all these up-and-coming girl players hasn’t really been talked about, but it matters, IMO!(My passion for saving those Islington pitches is something I’m continuing on behalf of my late dad, who taught regional planning at the college level, and who was a force of nature on the importance of public open spaces…)It was interesting, watching the televised Procession, how many women football players had started on the local boys’ teams… same for me with my tennis, back in the day; classic.
Trafalgar Square three years ago – not like this
I’m lucky- I can walk, cycle – take a 15 bus to Trafalgar Square and the Mall.
It was triumphal for the team in 2022 but nothing like yesterday. There’s no need for me to rehearse what is everywhere on the media, the short history of women’s football is now being picked up and publicised, it should be – to us men’s shame!
But trying to make women’s football like men’s is not what we need, it’s where the FT article went wrong, we need to give young women the chance to be sporty in football.
Where women need to win is not just on the big pitches of the Euro, but on the small pitches that kids play and should play whether men or women.
It is not just attendances that spiked following Euro 2022. Here are some other significant developments:
Just hours after winning Euro 2022, England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy spearheaded an ultimately successful campaign in which the Lionesses’ squad wrote an open letter to the then-government demanding equal access to school football for girls.
Successive governments have since turned her words into action and on Monday ministers announced plans to double the amount of time women’s and girls’ football teams get allocated at government-funded sports facilities.
“These girls are constantly using their voice for change,”
said former England striker Ellen White.
In 2024, the Football Association (FA) revealed that in the previous four years 129,000 more girls became involved in schools football across the host cities of Euro 2022, while almost 1,500 new female football teams registered.
I hope that 2025 will spark thousands more women’s teams local and youthful as men and boys teams are. Then this will really mean something for football and girls and women
Thanks BBC for this
Thanks so much, Henry, for highlighting this aspect of the Lionesses victory! And just so everyone knows, the years-long campaign to save the four 5-a-side community football pitches near Old Street finally paid off earlier this year, when Islington Council agreed not to build housing on the land beneath them, but to retain the pitches, give the run-down leisure centre a “facelift”, and otherwise seek to maintain the area as a tree-shaded neighbourhood asset. (See https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/football-pitches-are-saved-after-extra-time.)
What they could still use, in my opinion, would be some charity input from one or more large corporates and/or football industry entities in order to make the most of this special facility, which dates back to the 1970s, and is the only thing like it for miles.