UEFA Women's Euros #1: Time to shine
As I am writing this, I should be halfway to Lancaster, spending a day off with friends as I await the big kick-off on July 6 at Old Trafford. Yesterday should have been the day I picked up my accreditation and kit as a volunteer in Manchester - ready to go for my first session on Sunday 10th July.
Sod’s law, I am at home in Birmingham, isolating due to a positive Covid test. I am not really feeling unwell but that’s less the issue, isn’t it? It’s more about making sure that I am not spreading it, and a packed Old Trafford is probably not the best place to avoid doing that.
The aim of the game
So here we are, on kick-off day of the biggest women’s football tournaments to have ever hit the British shores to date. And I am banking on the Lionesses to do what the men failed at the last hurdle last summer: bring it home. The media thinks it’s going to happen, they always do. They are great at overhyping and then being over-critical when it all falls apart, victimising those they built up in the first place. It isn’t unique to women’s football, of course: name a game and the media hype always creates hope for fans; only for that hope to slowly kill you. Death by hope – a fan’s affliction..
(pic: by author) Lionesses training at St. George’s Park
Being a fan of women’s football is increasingly less of a niche it once was, and I am enjoying that, even though it means the gap between fans and players may stretch a bit. But there is another gap in the mind’s eye of many: where women’s football is often thought to be inferior to men’s. Even allies of the game have told me this, with comments about the size of the pitch or the height of the goals relative to the height and stride of women. “It’ll be better if it’s smaller,” they say, but not many have stood on the terraces to watch the women’s game and seen it for what it is. They have not watched each masterful kick, each crunching tackle, each beautiful cross that hits just right for the volley to rush past the head of the keeper. Nor have they appreciated each stretch to save, or the absence of players rolling around for a good 30 seconds faking an injury.
Besides, I don’t see the men’s game adapting pitch size or goal height to acquiesce to differences in size or height of non-European players; so why should things be different for the women? For sure, it’s definitely not the same game - just like men’s tennis is not the same as women’s tennis - but in its difference lies the beauty of the sport. You have to see beyond prejudices sometimes and start appreciating the game for its multitude of artistic facets - and not just the one you understand or are used to.
More eyes on the prize
The past FAWSL season has seen a significant change in the way the public has been able to consume women’s football in the UK: live telecasts not only via Sky Sports but also on terrestrial channels, specifically the BBC. For me, personally, this was massive. Only in recent years have I been able to follow live WSL telecasts on FA Player (and a VPN, depending on where I was). Prior to this, you only got to watch the Women’s FA Cup final on television, so this was quite a step up.
And so, to be able to come home after coaching on a Sunday, sit down in front of my television and watch Everton vs. Arsenal on BBC2 has been the mother of all good things for me this season. A lovely treat and a move in the right direction for a Lionesses side that actually made the World Cup semi-finals in 2019 - not that too many people noticed.
(pic: by author): Miedema, Groenen and van de Donk, England vs Netherlands Friendly, Elland Road 24 June 2022
Even in the birthplace of modern football, the women’s game has had a stop-start experience. Most people these days hear about the 50-year ban on women’s football by the English FA from 1920 to 1970. But you also hear of players in their prime today, like Lucy Bronze, speaking of their early years in the league holding another job on top of being a footballer because even if they were on professional contracts, the pay was abysmal. You hear about the gap between the facilities of men’s and women’ teams, despite playing for the same badge. You hear about the lack of access to support for women who are essentially professional athletes.
So if you have had cast a keen eye on this side of football over the past decade, you’d appreciate how massive recent changes have been., and you’d definitely be forgiven for pinching yourself to see if it’s true, and for hoping that they won’t backtrack on this.
Backing the Lionesses
That’s why I’m super excited for this Euro tournament. It showcases some of the best of footballing talent to a mass audience: six of the top 10 FIFA ranked women’s team are playing in this tournament, two* of the three most recent Ballon D’or winner (plus two runner ups) will be stepping onto the pitch (plus two runner ups) as well as a number of record breakers in their own right.
So who will win, you ask? I don’t want to be a pundit and so I am going to say I don’t know. What I will say is who I want to win it: and that, of course, is England, because I’ve backed this football team, men or women’s, since I was a little girl. Can they do it? I think they have a fair shot. They have a coach with a different mindset that made champions of the Netherlands only 5 years ago, coming from out of nowhere, only five years ago in Euro 2017. They have home support. They have interesting young talent balanced with experience. The current line-up isn’t necessarily the one I’d agree with - (but which fan ever agrees 100%?) - but it’s one I can fully back on each night they take to the pitch.
It goes without saying that I am so, so gutted that I am not going to be at Old Trafford come Wednesday. But unlike the Women’s Euros or World Cups of years past, this year I know I can watch it from my living room. In HD, no less, thanks to the live telecasts that were unheard of even 5 years ago. No longer am I looking up dodgy streams online, hooking up my laptop to a TV so I could see it on a bigger screen, only to be treated with potato-quality cams and single-angle views.
This feels big to me, whether I am at the ground or watching on TV. It feels right. And on that level, it feels like regardless of whether England win or lose in this tournament, football has come home - to the heart of the fans that know it matters.
*Since this article was written, Alexia Putellas has been ruled out of the Euros due to an ACL injury.