lasting legacy
Seeing the Lionesses win the Euros and simultaneously alter the history of women’s sport was a euphoric feeling – one we must work hard to keep alive
words: helen bownass
We want every girl at school to be able to play football… Women’s football has come a long way but it still has a long way to go.” You might think after their history-making 127 minutes of football on Sunday 30 July, the Lionesses would be taking a well-deserved break before they start new-season training. But instead, these 23 footballing legends have used the platform the Euros 2022 has given them to pen an open letter to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, our two potential prime ministers, urging them to help more schoolgirls play the game they were often denied access to growing up. That Euros final against Germany was one of the most joyful moments of 2022 – not least the sight of the team invading the press conference singing Three Lions afterwards – but its impact will hopefully last well beyond that special moment at Wembley. For how it showed the power of women’s bodies, for how we saw women celebrating themselves freely, too, as we reflect on the past decade in female sport since we launched Fair Game in 2012 – our campaign to end sexism in sport and demand equal visibility for female sports stars. We believed in the power of women’s sport 10 years ago, making history as the first women’s magazine to put a female footballer – former England captain Rachel Yankey – on the cover. We believed fiercely that the vast inequalities faced by female sportspeople had to change. Fast forward to 2022 and a record-breaking 87,192 people made their way to Wembley to watch the final, while 17.5 million watched on TV (the biggest TV audience of the year to date). But it’s been a long hard slog. Let’s not forget women’s football was banned in 1921 for being unsuitable, despite 53,000 people turning out to watch Dick, Kerr Ladies and St Helens Ladies at Everton on Boxing Day 1920. The Women’s Super League (WSL) – the highest league of women’s football in England – only played its first season in 2011 with just eight teams and wasn’t made professional until 2018. Many players juggled part-time jobs with training and games (Ronaldo could never…). Former England captain and Sky Sports football pundit Karen Carney, who played for England when they went up against Germany in the 2009 Euros final, found it particularly emotional. “I got upset, but it was relief; we’ve been through the battles, the obstacles, and it was a relief that all the hard work that everybody has put in has [been rewarded],” she tells . “Someone once said to me that women’s football was in a vicious cycle. It’s now a virtuous cycle. It has taken a lot of time, and there’s a massive team behind the team. [The final] was the perfect victory for everybody involved in the sport.”
