Lionesses congratulations from SuperStar Communicator for your incredible win yesterday in the finals of the UEFA Women’s championships. Both the English and German teams played magnificently. On this occasion, England were the worthy winners.
So why are we so thrilled with this result?
If you know anything about women’s sport in the United Kingdom, for many years it has been undervalued, ridiculed and underfunded. A brief history of Women’s Football in UK reveals that in the First World War the popularity of women’s football increased. And on Boxing Day 2020 53,000 spectators watched a match. But at the beginning of the 20s there was an increase in unsubstantiated theories about football impacting on women’s health and morals.
In 1921, the Football Association banned all women’s teams from playing on Association-affiliated grounds.
‘The game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged‘
Until 1971, women played in other locations but all very low key. They had no funding.The FA “graciously” allowed women to start playing to affiliate venues, but there was no funding. The sport had lost a lot of prestige and followers, so presumably wasn’t a threat to the men’s game.
Women were amateurs playing even if they were representing their country. In 2012 there was women’s football in the Olympics but due to a failure of basic funding from the FA, the development an popularity of the sport didn’t develop.
Fast forward to 2022; some professional teams had women’s teams but certainly these players were not funded in the same way and there training for young players hasn’t provided financial support in a way that the men’s game has. Apparently 37% girls are not offered the option of football at school. Only in the last 5 years have the players been professionals, and their salaries, certainly in UK have been a tiny proportion of the men’s game.
Even in the planning of this wonderful tournament, the premier league clubs the women play for were approached to host games. 8 refused; and we have acknowledge the clubs who did agree to host the games – and had no trouble. The final was a complete contract to the disgraceful behaviour by some ‘football fans’ at the men’s game in Wembley. Record numbers attended the final and there was no trouble. Families attended and all had a good time. The German team were applauded and there was no booing. Surely this is good for the sport.
SO yes: the England Women won 2-1. And many many women and men were very emotional. It was a good game and demonstrated many many years of women being banned, undervalued, ridiculed and underfunded. And here is the press conference crashed by the team!
I am hoping things will change. On average premier league men receive £8.2M salary: women £45,000.
So we celebrate your success on this landmark moment. We hope things will change so the skills of the women are rewarded and recognised.
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