England - Creating a women's football legacy from EURO glory
Monday, October 31, 2022
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Following England’s exhilarating triumph on home soil at July’s memorable UEFA Women’s EURO, thoughts have now turned at the English Football Association (The FA) to ensuring the legacy of a record-breaking event.
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The recent unveiling by UEFA and The FA of a post-tournament flash impact report, which highlights the key initial impacts measured so far following the EURO, give early indications of the remarkable success of an event that set new benchmarks and took the women’s game across Europe to exciting new heights.
The FA’s task now is to capitalise on the huge momentum and increased interest created for women’s football in England on the back of this tournament, which sealed England’s first major international men’s or women’s title for 56 years.
Highlighting the EURO’s impact
In addition to UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 breaking attendance, broadcast and social media engagement records, the flash impact report – produced by Ernst and Young (EY) – focuses on statistics linked to operational success, the growth in new opportunities for female participation and indicators of the future legacy of the tournament.
One of the important conclusions highlighted in the report shows that over 416,000 new opportunities are being created in England across schools, clubs and the community to engage women and girls in grassroots legacy football activities across the various host cities – including opportunities to play, coach, officiate and volunteer.
Creating greater access for girls and women
FA Chair Debbie Hewitt visited UEFA’s Nyon headquarters last month for talks with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin that focused on the EURO, and, especially, The FA’s commitment to making football more accessible to girls and women as part of the tournament’s legacy.
“[We need] to make sure that legacy really has embedded itself into the culture of our football,” she told UEFA.com recently. “That any girl or woman who wants to play, coach or referee football has easy access to it. And, I would say equal access to what young boys and men have. Also, that more people come to watch women’s football. That, in a snapshot, will mean that this [EURO] has been the most successful tournament for women’s football ever.”
Building on EURO success: Baroness Sue Campbell speaks to UEFA Direct
Meanwhile, interviewed in the latest issue of the official UEFA magazine UEFA Direct, The FA’s director of women’s football, Baroness Sue Campbell, reflects on the EURO’s huge impact – as well as what comes next as the country looks to build on the event’s resonance on and off the field.
‘Women’s football is excellent to watch’
“What am I proudest of?” she says. “First that women’s football has demonstrated to a massive audience that it’s a brilliant, competitive game, and really excellent to watch.
“Number two is that we welcomed an accumulative attendance of just under 575,000 (more than double that of the previous EURO) and that’s wonderful, though the really great part of it was the atmosphere in the grounds and the warmth and friendliness. I was watching people going into the final with babies and was thinking, ‘This means people feel it’s family-friendly, it’s going to be a celebration’.”
‘Different culture’
Baroness Campbell praises the overall organisation, marketing and promotion of the EURO. “It’s done more for the women’s game than you could possibly have hoped,” she reflects. “I hope that’s felt in Europe and not just in England.
“We promoted it [in England] with the message that ‘if you’ve enjoyed this, go to your WSL [English Women’s Super League] or Championship or local club to enjoy watching football’.” To spread the word further, The FA has increased this season’s marketing budget by 20% in order “to help market the games more effectively working in partnership with the clubs,” as Baroness Campbell says.
Baroness Campbell firmly believes that women’s football can benefit from what she describes as its “different culture”: “People say to me, ‘You’ve brought the beautiful game back’, meaning this is like football used to be.
“Just like men’s football, it’s a great product but it’s definitely a different experience and that’s what we need to market. It’s a place you can happily bring your children, a place where you don’t have segregation; it’s a family experience.”
‘Give more girls access to football’ – England players
The legacy issue was given greater weight by the publishing of an open letter just after the tournament by the England squad, addressed to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – the two candidates at the time to succeed Boris Johnson as UK prime minister – asking for better access to football for girls in schools. Currently, 63% of all schools in England offer equal access through girls’ football in PE lessons. The FA’s strategic objectives aim for 75% access by 2024.
“They feel responsible,” Baroness Campbell says of the Lionesses’ squad, “having inspired a generation of girls to want to play this game, that these girls shouldn’t be prevented from playing because football isn’t available to them.”
Thanks to its Barclays Girls’ Football School Partnerships, a nationwide network of schools offering girls’ football, The FA has already begun to make a difference, as Baroness Campbell explains: “We’ve worked really hard since 2017/18 to build an infrastructure which Barclays, our sponsor, helps us to fund. It gives us an advocate in each family of schools at local level. That advocate then has access to all our resources. We’re in 12,000 schools and there are 21–22,000 so we’re in over half already.”
Competition investment
Investment plans are also afoot for England’s two main women’s football leagues, the Barclays Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship.
“We absolutely want this to ultimately be club-run,” Baroness Campbell says, “but having invested so heavily in the game, we don’t want to just cast it off and hope it survives. We’ll invest a lot of money in the next few years in providing better support right from the bottom of the Championship all the way through.”
Inspiring and improving lives
Baroness Campbell closes by underlining a broader goal for the future – to inspire, and to improve lives. “We want girls to realise you don’t have to be one specific shape or size,” she explains.
“You can get joy, you can build great friendships, you can develop your physical well-being, you can develop your emotional well-being, you can build social links – we want people to understand that sport is a pretty powerful tool.
“We want to play our part in helping a generation of women to be healthy, happy and to enjoy life.”