I’m happy for England’s Euro 2024 squad but it’s no excuse to erase women’s football – remember who paved the way lads
AS ENGLAND celebrated reaching the Euros final, social media was littered with praise for Gareth Southgate.
According to the sporting pundits of X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as few reputable news sources, he is ‘the first England manager to take the team to the final of two major tournaments.’
As a journalist, and an avid female footie fan, I am here to inform you that is simply not the case – ‘fake news’ if you will.
Sarina Wiegman took England to the final of the Women’s Euros in 2022 leading to their historic win, and just last year we saw the Lionesses narrowly miss out on World Cup victory after a 1-0 defeat to Spain.
“Thirty years of hurt”? – try two.
But of course I forget, who cares about women’s football?
That is the response that Lionesses fans are receiving this morning after daring to mention the squad’s previous success.
One furious men’s supporter tweeted: “Under 18s of any country would be able to beat the Lionesses.”
In another tweet, a woman chimed in, “To be fair, who cares about the Lionesses?”
And up until recently she might have had a point, historically most of the nation didn’t care about the women’s league.
As recently as the 2019 Women’s World Cup, England merch was not available to buy in major supermarkets.
When my mum asked a shop assistant where she could find the World Cup bunting he responded, “You’re about a year too late love.”
It was not so long ago that I would struggle to find any channels showing the major tournaments, let alone the Women’s Super League.
You could forget about nail-biting finals at your local boozer with the majority preferring to show 24 news channels or 90s music videos.
I’m sure plenty of you would tell me that’s because no one other than me cared enough about our girls to want to celebrate them over a Stella – again you’d be wrong.
In 2022, ahead of the Women’s Euros, a group of friends established Baller Friends Collective (Baller FC) for exasperated fans just like me who were sick of scouring the streets trying to find a venue showing the match.
Founding member Selina Travis, says: “If we were able to find a place, they’d only show it with the volume off, on a small screen with limited seating options and no atmosphere – it didn’t feel very welcoming.”
Baller FC now hosts viewing parties at venues across the UK, aiming to make safe and inclusive spaces for fans to watch the women’s games, and ticketed events now regularly sell out.
And is it any surprise?
Interest in women’s football has sky-rocketed since their historic Euros 2-1 win against Germany in 2022.
The Women’s Sports Trust reported that in the year following a record 46.7 million people watched women’s sport on television in 2023, with football being the most popular sport with 74% of the viewing hours.
I wasy thrilled to hear people referring to the team as ‘The Men’s Lionesses’
Martha Cliff
Stadiums filled out at England matches, pubs across the nation showed the game and you can now catch most major matches on terrestrial TV.
I am aware that a lot of this was likely bandwagon jumping but I don’t really care, to see an outpouring of support felt like a victory to me.
However, as we approach Sunday’s final I fear that a win for the men’s team could see just as many people jumping off the bandwagon.
As happy as they were to champion the women while they were winning, the support for the men’s team is already beginning to overshadow their successes.
EUROS GENDER PAY GAP
ENGLAND’S Euro 2024 run has already banked £20.4m for the FA.
And that will go up by a further £2.5m if they lift the Henri Delaunay trophy in Berlin on Sunday.
Gareth Southgate’s men will fall just £840,000 short of the maximum they could have earned from the tournament should England win their first trophy on foreign soil.
That is because of the group stage draws against Denmark and Slovenia.
England earned £7.8m for qualification, while the opening win over Serbia was worth £840,000.
The two draws each earned £420,000 – the two teams shared the victory bonus – with qualification for the last 16 adding £1.26m.
Reaching the last eight was worth £2.1m and beating Switzerland brought a further £3.4m.
And Ollie Watkins’ stoppage time goal to see off the Dutch meant an extra £4.2m for reaching the final.
The difference between being runners-up and winning the Final is an extra £2.5m.
Meanwhile the Lionesses were given a bonus of just £55,000 for taking home the trophy in 2022.
Lionesses who played all six games received £2,000 a match so pocketing £67,000 in total.
England fans are calling for a Bank Holiday should they take home the trophy on Sunday, but no such suggestion was made in 2022.
Equally, insidious sexist remarks are seeping back into the conversations about women’s football online.
“Thankfully (women’s football) it will never be a fraction as big as the men’s and equal pay will never be a thing in footy,” a man wrote on X following last night’s semi-final.
Even Harry Kane let his fellow players down when he said ‘England haven’t won anything in a long long time’ in an interview following the Slovenia game, forgetting to credit his female counterparts.
Kane’s erasure of their achievements is hugely disappointing especially considering the Danish Euro squad refused a pay rise to ensure their female counterparts earn equal basic pay when they play for the national team.
Too many of those who revelled in the success of the Lionesses as a national victory are all too happy to forget who paved the way to the men’s Euros victory.
Don’t get me wrong, I am as glad as the next hooligan to see England in another Euros final and will be cheering them on over a pint come Sunday.
But I am equally thrilled to hear people referring to the team as ‘The Men’s Lionesses’, being on a level playing field has felt like a big step forward.
The men’s achievements aren’t more important than the women’s and I am asking England fans not to cast our Lionesses aside if it does come home.
Besides, I have no doubt that should England lose on Sunday, you will come crawling back to Wiegman at the Women’s Euros 2025.
