If England win Euro 2022 on Sunday, in front of a full-house at Wembley and an audience of millions on TV, it will be, in my opinion, one of this country\u2019s greatest ever sporting triumphs.<\/p>\n
Major tournament success is a rarity for English football, but this goes so much deeper than that. It would represent the most beautiful culmination of a decades-long struggle for respect and recognition, and would also be a quite remarkable sporting comeback.<\/p>\n
Just over a hundred years ago, women in England were effectively banned from playing football. In 1921, the FA ruled that clubs weren\u2019t allowed to let women play on their grounds, declaring the sport \u2018quite unsuitable for females\u2019, which meant there was no way for women to play and practise in a recognised league or team. That ban lasted almost 50 years, but its effects have been felt so much longer when it comes to social perceptions and prejudices.<\/p>\n
Prior to that ban, the women\u2019s game was thriving \u2013 the famous Dick, Kerr Ladies team played a game against St Helen\u2019s Ladies on Boxing Day 1920 that attracted a crowd of 53,000 to Goodison Park in Liverpool, with thousands locked outside. More than a century on, this year has seen a record crowd for a women\u2019s game \u2013 91,553 for the Barcelona v Real Madrid El Clasico in the UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League \u2013 we\u2019ll also see 90,000 in attendance to watch Sunday\u2019s Euro 2022 final at Wembley, but what a journey it has been back to this sort of prominence.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/england-womens-euro-2022-team-8d522f2.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Leah Williamson and her teammates have climbed on the shoulders of so many who\u2019ve gone before them \u2013 and one of the special things I\u2019ve discovered about women\u2019s football is that the modern-day players know and appreciate that. Female participation might have begun to explode in popularity over the last 10 years, but for decades every inch of new ground, every bit of renewed respect has been painstakingly and collectively fought for. These women, these girls haven\u2019t just been playing a sport, they\u2019ve been fighting for a cause, they\u2019ve been driving change.<\/p>\n
The WSL\u2019s launch in 2011 and the TV coverage that followed thereafter has done wonders for visibility \u2013 which has in turn helped drive participation and standards \u2013 but the last 50 years is littered with individual examples of women who refused to just bow down or walk away when they were sneered at, or told they shouldn\u2019t be playing football \u2013 girls who never gave in. The likes of Lucy Bronze and Ellen White wouldn\u2019t have made it without people before them like Rachel Yankey and Kelly Smith. There\u2019s a bond, a sisterhood, a respect for what\u2019s gone before them \u2013 an appreciation of the path that\u2019s been painstakingly built for them to walk on.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/07\/rachel-yankey-kelly-smith-hope-powell-64353bf.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>While the likes of Millie Bright, Keira Walsh and Lauren Hemp are now becoming household names \u2013 their faces adorning cereal boxes and fizzy drinks bottles \u2013 how many people know about the likes of Sheila Parker (England\u2019s first female captain) Gillian Coultard (the first woman to win 100 England caps), or Lily Parr (the only woman to be made an inaugural inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame)? They and many of their peers never got the respect and recognition that their persistence, perseverance and ability warranted, but without them, and their ilk, this Sunday wouldn\u2019t be happening, and everyone associated with women\u2019s football knows and appreciates that, including the players actually on the pitch.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s also so fitting is that the more senior players in the England squad form part of the last generation of England players who will \u2013 thankfully \u2013 truly know about the fight for any level of respect and recognition. The last generation who were told they couldn\u2019t or shouldn\u2019t play football \u2013 who maybe had to lie about being a girl to get a game \u2013 \u00a0or who had to play part-time and work several jobs just to chase a dream. Lucy Bronze, now a Ballon d\u2019Or winner, once worked for a pizza delivery firm; Beth Mead washed dishes at a pub while playing for Sunderland; Jill Scott and Demi Stokes were two of a number of emerging female players in the early 2000s who used to do their strength and conditioning training at their local prisons twice a week, as that was the best equipment available to them at the time.<\/p>
If so many of this current group have achieved all they have without access to the best facilities and the support of academy systems, imagine what could be possible for the next generation \u2013 my daughters\u2019 and their peers\u2019. Even at the age of 10 my youngest has just been given her own log-in for a website where video of her team\u2019s games is uploaded, so that the coaches can give feedback and homework \u2013 it\u2019s amazing attention to detail, the likes of which many of the current Lionesses could only have dreamed of growing up.<\/p>\n
No sport I can think of is seeing participation levels rise so quickly and consistently in the UK \u2013 I go to playing fields every weekend with my daughters that are filled with dozens of girls playing competitive football. The revolution is happening, and it\u2019ll continue to happen regardless of Sunday\u2019s outcome, but an England win would accelerate that growth even more in this country, inspire so many and be the most fitting tribute to generation after generation who fought and persevered, even when they thought this day would never come in their lifetimes.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for something else to watch check out our\u00a0<\/b>TV Guide<\/b><\/a>\u00a0or visit our\u00a0<\/b>Sport<\/b><\/a>\u00a0hub.<\/b><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0<\/b>subscribe now<\/b><\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<\/b>Radio Times podcast<\/b><\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/b><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Christian Tobin Published: Thursday, 28 July 2022 at 12:00 am Football Commentator Adam Summerton has covered women\u2019s football since 2015 for the likes of BT Sport and DAZN \u2013 he also has two daughters, both of whom play at grassroots level If England win Euro 2022 on Sunday, in front of a full-house at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":19396,"template":"","categories":[7,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/englands-lionesses-are-on-the-brink-of-a-triumph-decades-in-the-making-scaled.jpg",2560,1706,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/englands-lionesses-are-on-the-brink-of-a-triumph-decades-in-the-making-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/englands-lionesses-are-on-the-brink-of-a-triumph-decades-in-the-making-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/englands-lionesses-are-on-the-brink-of-a-triumph-decades-in-the-making-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/englands-lionesses-are-on-the-brink-of-a-triumph-decades-in-the-making-1024x682.jpg",800,533,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/englands-lionesses-are-on-the-brink-of-a-triumph-decades-in-the-making-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/07\/englands-lionesses-are-on-the-brink-of-a-triumph-decades-in-the-making-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Christian Tobin Published: Thursday, 28 July 2022 at 12:00 am Football Commentator Adam Summerton has covered women\u2019s football since 2015 for the likes of BT Sport and DAZN \u2013 he also has two daughters, both of whom play at grassroots level If England win Euro 2022 on Sunday, in front of a full-house at…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/19395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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