Grass ceiling
Every girl should have access to football. But only 63% of schools in England offer girls the opportunity to play the game in PE. With a generation of young women eager to pounce on the Lionesses’ Euro 2022-winning legacy, WH investigates the promise and the penalties ahead of them
Allow us to take you back in time; before filling your fridge and your car became luxuries and heating hit the headlines because of the record-breaking temperatures outside your home, as opposed to the frosty conditions inside. It was late July, and the nation was buzzing with an anticipatory excitement that had nothing to do with the identity of Boris Johnson’s successor; an excitement that, after 90 bum-clenching minutes, became a roar when the team affectionately known as the Lionesses sealed their place in the history books and our hearts.
The final of the women’s Euros, in which England beat Germany 2-1, was watched by millions around the world; 10 million more than the Wimbledon final between Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios. Add on another 87,192 watching at Wembley and anyone still claiming that women’s football was niche didn’t have a stat to stand on. The hashtag #HerGameToo trended on Twitter and the same people who’d once zoned out at talk of the offside rule found themselves chanting in packed town centres. But if hosting and winning the 2022 European Championships brought a new viewing audience to women’s football in England, then an eight-year-old girl in a football strip became part of the iconography of the sport’s future. ‘When I’m older, I want to be a footballer,’ Tess Dolan told BBC breakfast, after a video of the pre-teen dancing to Sweet Caroline in the stands promptly went viral. ‘I was looking at how they were celebrating and thinking of how I was going to celebrate,’ she added, speaking on behalf of a generation of girls who now looked at a football pitch and saw a domain they’d been given permission to thrive in.
But the pitch at Wembley was still decorated with the debris of victory when it became clear that the work of inspiring the next generation was only just beginning. ‘The Lionesses have brought football home. Now it’s down to the rest of us to make sure it stays here,’ said a knowing Gabby Logan, as she wrapped up the BBC’s TV coverage. Echoing her sentiment, three days later, when you’d have forgiven them for having no greater concern than the next round of drinks, the Lionesses wrote to Downing Street to ask for systemic change. ‘We are inspiring young girls to play football, only for many to end up going to school and not being able to play,’ they wrote, referring to the statistic that only 63% of schools in England offer girls’ football in PE. This generation of girls, they pointed out, deserve better.
