‘I want to be a Lioness’: research shows more girls than ever engaging with football

> While TV viewing figures peaked at 17.4m in the run-up to the final, tickets sales for Women’s Super League games have soared and more women’s matches have been upgraded to bigger grounds, with Arsenal due to play all their home games at the Emirates Stadium next season.

This is great news too. Best of luck to England in the final today 🫶

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Great! Kids should want to emulate their heroes and for too long, there hasn’t been that for young girls/women who like football

Now all that’s required is for other women’s sports to receive just as much attention, funding, promotion and publicity.

Want to put a personal spin on this. I’m a lady. I grew up in a big football family. Dad’s family are diehard Southampton Fans. Mum’s family are diehard Tottenham Supports. Mum’s dad actually had to turn down an offer to join Tottenham Hotspur as a goalie because the money wasn’t good and his family wouldn’t support him. 

At 7, through no pushing from anyone, I wanted to join the local girls team. The day before our first game, I fell off my bike and really hurt myself so couldn’t run. I got put in goal, with no training and no real knowledge of any rules. My dad actually stood behind the goal and “backseat drove” me through the game. (Jump now. Run towards them. Arms out. Don’t pick up the ball outside the box). I really enjoyed it and wasn’t too bad either. But our team was treated so badly at our first club. We had the worst pitch at the back of beyond but out games got cancelled if the boys needed it. We weren’t allowed to even use the clubhouse or have a kit. We only got one because the boys kit was being updated and they gave us the old one. We had to pick the names of the boys off our shirts. (We eventually moved to another club who actually bought us our own facilities and hired my Grandad to do it up). The boys teams there were so supportive of us.

At my primary school, we were taught by a year 9 student from the local secondary school who was a sister of one of the girls. We could only play on a Thursday as it was the staff meeting and the only day the PE teacher didn’t have any clubs on. She refused to even book us any games or give us a kit until one of the parents complained. Even then, it was a token gesture. We had to wear the boys kit. She didn’t even wash them before we got them. They stank.

But. There was zero representation of women’s football anywhere so nowhere to point to to prove we deserved something. My secondary school tried to get us to play netball instead. 

My team got free tickets to see England Women play at Southend’s Stadium in 2007. My mum refused to let me go because “I could just watch it on telly”. I poured through the TV Choice and all over the internet and couldn’t see it playing anywhere. So I snuck out. Told a friend’s mum I could go but needed a lift and they took me. When I got back mum was furious but it was so worth it. Outside of that match we rarely heard of the women’s matches and only if our parents bought us the right magazines. Mine refused.

A friend managed to get to the side door for autographs. The ENGLAND team all said they couldn’t stay long as they all had work in the morning. Some were traveling back up north to be in work the next day. 

I cannot begin to tell you what it meant to me to see Jill Scott, Casey Stoney and Katie Chapman play. And Rachel Brown in goal. It was incredible. I was so inspiring. But learning there wasn’t really any chance of making being professional happen was soul crushing. I wasn’t amazing. But I could have been semi professional. But that didnt exist in women’s football at the time. Well it did. It was called making the England team.

Watching the Lioness’s over the past few years reignited my love of football. But it also makes me sad that I didn’t get the role models that you see today. Bend It Like Beckham was pretty much my life but I had no chance of making to America. Scouts didn’t come to sleepy towns.

The other day, I bought a can of Pepsi in the shop.  Lauren James was on the side of it. My inner 7 year old screamed with happiness. Seeing the women’s team on adverts in Tesco like I can now would have made me want to get better. Turn my hobbies into a career. Instead I got encouraged to quit to focus on my GCSEs. I decided to when I got kicked in the head and my arm trodden on and I thought, if I break my arm, I won’t be able to do my exams. So I quit. And I cried. But if I had representation. If womens football hadn’t been a joke. If teachers didn’t laugh when I said I played for a team and of our local team and schools had actually encouraged us, I might have actually have made it a career. Instead, I internalised that. And let it put me off. Representation matters. And this is important to young girls. 

So rather than say “I don’t like women’s football” or “the players are crap” please don’t comment. Let women have their moment. Let young girls be inspired. Don’t let your negativity turn someone off living their best life and having fun . Representation matters.

It’s almost like if you put the support, money and opportunities for them it will happen. There’s literally zero reason why the women’s game can’t be as good as the men’s in time (and as history shows, it was before it got banned).

It must be difficult having to do so when they are facing off against the biggest bunch of crybabies and insecure muppets in the world, as evidenced in every comment section about women’s football, as well as institutionalised opposition.

You need to start with the Lionesses being given the same profile as the men’s game. Although I am pleased to say that is definitely changing.

The past two Euro finals with the men has seen huge hype. Shops closing early so the staff can watch the game (my local Tesco and Co-Op are normally open to 11pm, those final nights they were closing at 7pm), huge crowds gathering, fan zones, workplaces delaying their start time on Monday to give people a chance to sleep it off. Probably gongs and knighthoods. Many England players are receiving club salaries which outstrip my entire net worth in a fortnight.

Last time the Lionesses won a tournament there were “no plans” for any formal celebration and even Boris Johnson didn’t take half an hour out of his schedule to meet them. The highest paid female professional footballer in the UK is Leah Williamson who earns roughly £150k a year. I could earn more than that working in tech.

Meanwhile, Harry Kane earns around £400k a **week**.

That’s excellent. That means there’s now millions of more people that England can constantly disappoint.