England’s footballers want to promote women’s football in the long term. The Lionesses have urged the future government to invest more in girls’ football, especially in schools.
The British Conservative Party is in the process of forming a new government. But England’s footballers have already approached Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the two Tory leaders who are vying for the post of prime minister, with an urgent concern: “absolute priority” to invest in girls’ football in schools, wrote the “Lionesses” to the address of the future head of government.
“We’ve achieved a lot for women’s football, but we’re still at the beginning” wrote the team that won the motherland of football its first title since 1966. “We now have a great opportunity to initiate real change. A change that is affecting the lives of millions of young girls.”
The European Championship in England, with the culmination of the final in Wembley in front of 87,000 fans, was largely considered a success in the reporting, for the development and visibility of women’s football. Above all, the English professional league, with its more professional marketing and significantly better endowed TV contracts, was repeatedly praised as a role model around the tournament, for example for the women’s Bundesliga.
But at the grassroots level, in the clubs and in school sports, there are similarly large deficits on the island as almost everywhere else: Only 63 percent of girls in English schools have the opportunity to play football in physical education classes, according to studies by the Football Association FA . In the secondary schools, even less than half offer the pupils equal access to football in physical education. The schools themselves are responsible for the specific design of the curricula, according to the Ministry of Education.
Advance of the Lionesses: More girls football in physical education
England’s internationals are now demanding that the future Tory government make it compulsory for girls’ football to be included in the school curriculum. At least two hours a week should be reserved for this in future physical education classes. Further figures from the FA indicate how great the need to catch up is: According to this, 60 percent of English schoolgirls want more football on the curriculum.
“We want every girl in school to have the opportunity to play soccer“, wrote the European champions. “Girls should have the opportunity to do whatever they want. No matter how good they are or not, just let them play, with each other.“
Match winner Kelly: Girls teams “fundamentally important”
Chloe Kelly, who scored the winning goal in the final against Germany, almost exclusively played soccer with her brothers and their friends when she was young. She also played on the boys’ team at her school in west London. There wasn’t a girls’ team there – but that’s precisely what “fundamentally important” for the development, as Kelly now emphasized on the BBC: “Young girls want an environment in which they can feel comfortable.“
Few black players, hardly any role models
The push by England’s European champions also touches on another topic: the lack of diversity, which is particularly noticeable in English women’s football. The number of black national team players has steadily decreased in recent years Women’s Super League 90 percent of the players are white. Many young girls, especially from families that come from the former British colonies, also lack visible role models.
Many also blame the structural racism that is still widespread in sport. The professionalization of women’s football in England has exacerbated the disadvantage, like the former international Fern Whelan remarked: “The players are now training in the academies, some of which are far away and difficult to reach“, said whelan at Sky Sports. “A lot of black girls play football and dream of becoming a professional. But when it comes to the next level, to the youth academies – do their parents from the poorer classes have the opportunity to drive them to training?“
School football against “cultural barriers”
ex-professional player Eartha Pondwhich also advises the English association on gender equality issues, spoke in this connection in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of “cultural barriers“, especially in the black and Asian community. For some girls from these milieus, school sports is the only way to get access to football.