Future gazing
The Lionesses’ victory at the Euros has the power to change how women feel about themselves on and off the pitch, says BBC sports presenter Gabby Logan
'It's three months since the Lionesses brought football home and I just have to close my eyes to feel the energy of that night. I’d been covering every England match through the tournament and, like everyone ‘It’s ‘It’s involved, I’d felt the excitement mounting and interest in the women’s game growing. And that moment when they won felt so important, so pivotal. People who’d never been interested in football before were being pulled in; the TV audience size for the final was incredible – more than 23m people. We knew we were on the edge of something – and in the years to come, we’ll find out what it all means for the women’s game.
Straight away you had commentators calling for the Premier League to take over women’s football and for the Football Association to relinquish control, so women’s football could follow the path of men’s football – massive crowds, equal pay for top players and so on. But I say, let’s slow right down on all that. The women’s game doesn’t need to look at the men’s game as a blueprint; it doesn’t have to copy what men have done. However, I’m sure the expertise of the Premier League would eventually be invaluable.
I covered the men’s Euros finals last year, and the Lionesses’ game felt very different. The men’s final was a riot of bad behaviour – the stadium was stormed, some people took seats they didn’t have tickets for, there was drunkenness, it was a toxic atmosphere. Contrast July and the women’s final: the crowds were brilliant, there was a family atmosphere, the German fans stayed throughout the presentations, there was a sense of joyful goodwill. It was friendly, civilised, welcoming – and it’s important to keep it that way, because that’s what will make people think, ‘Maybe I’ll go along to see a Women’s Super League game.’
Building crowds for those matches is what matters now, because for women’s football to succeed, it has to pull in the supporters. That’s not about a sudden move into 40,000-seater stadiums – that won’t work for everyone; you can’t suddenly put that kind of pressure on a sport. It’s about gradual growth: the Football Association has a target of 6,000-strong audiences for an average women’s game by 2024. I think we could try to do a bit better than that – maybe we’ll get 6,000 by the end of this season and look for 8,000 or even 10,000 in two years’ time. You hear people say, ‘I never thought of myself as a football fan, but I’m a fan of matches like that one.’ They mean they’re fans of that sort of
