The story of women’s football in England is a peculiar one. For a sport that exists as a staple of British culture, its past is muddied by efforts to actively stifle the growth of the game in half of the population. That is what makes the present situation all the more staggering. In the space of 100 years women’s football has gone from outlawed to adored, having navigated everything in between.
With European glory in the rear view mirror, and the new edition of the Women’s Super League dead ahead, it strikes me as the right time to take stock of the women’s game. But to look forward, we must first look backwards.
Indeed, the events of 1921 have been documented with a renewed interest this year. It was 101 years ago that the FA banned women’s football, the official line being that as a sport ‘football is unsuitable for women and should not be encouraged’. The reality is likely to be much uglier, with two ideas being particularly likely.
One, is pure jealousy. Women’s football was attracting support to rival that of men’s football. Competition did not go down well, and drastic action was taken.
The second is financial. The FA were not receiving the large sums generated by women’s football. If they could not profit off of it, they had no interest in it.
Whatever the real reason was, the facts stay the same. In England, women’s football was officially banned for the best part of 50 years. It was only in January 1970 that the ban officially ended. To put that into perspective, your parents are likely older than the modern iteration of women’s football.
As to be expected, the climb back up to the summit has been agonisingly slow. As well as having to overcome shallow resources, the game has had to fight against a hideous wave of sexist detractors. To put it quite simply, there are an appalling number of football fans who never miss a chance to sneer at the women’s game.
These are the people who lap up every clip of a goalkeeping error on Twitter, only to go to Old Trafford to watch multimillionaire David de Gea fumble another easy shot into the net. The people who laugh at defenders stumbling over the ball to then go and support a team who employed Shkodran Mustafi for years.
Put simply, these people are not actually concerned about the perceived lower level of ability in the women’s game, they are just sexists.
With this backdrop, 2022 has been a fascinating year for the women’s game. Behind the Euros glory, we can identify some key numbers to back up the feeling that support is blossoming. So far, we are seeing record sales for the Women’s Super League.
As of the 6th September, Arsenal had sold 40,000 tickets for their North London Derby at the Emirates against Tottenham Hotspur. Similarly Manchester City have sold a record 10,000 so far for their derby against Manchester United at the Etihad.
These are the first signs that England winning the Euros can be converted into something more meaningful. Interested in the signs of growth, I wanted to dig deeper. I sought out an interview with James Honeyman, Women’s Academy Manager at Arsenal FC. With James’ expertise I wanted to explore the recent growth of the game, the effect of the Euros win, and what the future might hold.
The first order of business was to talk about what changes James has seen in his career. As a spectator I could simply describe that growth has happened, I wanted to get a grip on the specifics.
The key word here is professionalisation. This is not just the rise in women changing from semi-professional to full-time, but everyone involved. In the not too distant past, clubs’ internal infrastructure was packed with volunteers. Often these were people with more fixed roles within the men’s game, lending their spare time to the women’s game. What we are seeing now is a shift to careers built solely within women’s football.
It is the players who directly benefit from this. James spoke of the chain reaction that improved professionalisation creates. When you have more full-time staff, you have more time for training sessions. When you have more training sessions, you get players who are more physically developed. More physical players create a faster version of the game. A faster version of the game gives us the end result of a higher quality game.
Through more money and attention, every step of the journey is improved.
Next, I wanted to hear about James’ thoughts on England winning the Euros. 17.4 million viewers on the BBC and 87,000 people at Wembley saw Chloe Kelly fire England to glory, I wanted to know what we can do to best capitalise off of it. The answer I received had a healthy focus on the little things as well the big.
On the largest level we think about WSL attendance. We need to get to a point where the women can play in the same stadia as the men without it looking worryingly empty. The early indicators are that we are seeing a boost in the upcoming season. For the Emirates to sell roughly 2/3s of its capacity is highly promising, and still it gives plenty of room for improvement.
It is on this point I would also like to point out the tangibility of improved support as I have experienced it. At various points in a season, the Arsenal Women’s Team will appear to be celebrated by fans. It was this season against Fulham I noticed the highest level of attention yet. Fewer people just checked their phones or totally ignored the players, and there was indeed a hearty amount of applause as they circled the ground.
Taking a step back from the top level, James put a great focus in his answers on the grassroots. For women’s football to grow properly, it needs to happen at all levels. In essence, we need more girls playing football and we need them starting earlier. There are two avenues for this. One is local clubs, and the other is PE lessons.
Little boys get countless chances and places to play football. What we need to think about is how we can make these same spaces more welcoming for girls. It was this conversation that introduced a very interesting idea about how we think of football as a pyramid. By broadening the base we make the whole thing bigger. With more people at local and lower levels, we increase the pool of players available to make the step up to the professional game.
As well as the obvious need for financial support, this needs a personal touch. In perhaps my favourite part of our chat, James and I spoke about role models. The key phrase that James stressed was that “you can’t be what you can’t see”. Indeed, this is a conversation breaking through in all types of entertainment.
Children engage most with material when they can see something relatable. This might be a movie character of the same ethnicity as them, or for a young girl it might be as simple as seeing lots of women playing football professionally. It is a current quirk of the sport that many coaches in women’s football are men, James acknowledged the fact that as a tall, broad man it can feel clear sometimes that he does not make for a directly relatable figure for girls. This is where the England team have such an important role.
Players like Beth Mead and Leah Williamson with their talent and media friendliness have the ability to inspire a countless number of girls. Indeed, it was clear already at the Emirates the amount of attention both garnered. Most touching had to be when Leah Williamson let a young girl wear her winners medal for a photo.
These are moments that matter, and moments we could all do with seeing more of.
Finally, we turned our attention to the future. With newfound fame and glory can come new difficulties, problems not previously experienced.
James estimated that the women’s game is roughly akin to the early days of the Premier League. The parallel is clear. The media are growing an increased interest in the individuals, the physical demands are ramping up, and financially players are becoming richer.
Each issue brings a problem to help players with, but make an even more dangerous cocktail when put together. The 1990s was filled with players riddled with unwanted attention, nagging physical ailments, and financial mismanagement. Players suffered with addictions, and with their often antagonistic relationship with the media.
We need to learn from the mistakes of the past. All of a sudden, lots of women’s players will find themselves being pulled in a hundred different directions by all manner of people. Clubs owe a duty of care to their players to see that they are not being overwhelmed.
The summer of 2021 showed how quick the world is to turn on their favourite toys. All summer it felt as if Bukayo Saka was the nation’s favourite child, only for him to receive a barrage of racial abuse upon missing a penalty in the Euros final. With fame comes resentment, this is something that unfortunately may make its way into the women’s game.
Whilst of course these are concerning, we cannot ignore that the overall mood relating to women’s football in England has to be one of real positivity. The summer of 2022 has provided us with what feels like a real breakthrough, and it would be a tragedy not to fully capitalise on the moment.
As the Women’s Super League starts all I can do is implore you to watch watch watch. Go to a game nearby if you can, watch it on TV. You are watching history be made.
