Women’s football – we’re back on track

""I was a bit gutted I missed the sitter that Lauren [Hemp] played in, so I thought 'I'm going to have to do something about this.' Luckily, it fell to me. I thought that was the quickest route to goal so I hit it and hoped." said Alessia Russo, England forward after that wonder goal.

In case you missed it, England women’s football team gave an absolute stellar performance beating Sweden 4 – 0 to reach the Euro finals and have set yet another record by achieving the biggest ever semi-final victory in the history of the Women's European Championship. There have been so many highlights over the tournament and along with the glorious backheel nutmeg last night one of my personal favourites came from the incredible Beth Mead who scored that fantastic header against Norway to make it 4 and then used all the skill in her arsenal (pardon the pun) to make it 5.?

It has been great to see record breaking crowds for the games, and the Wembley final on 31st?July already sold out, however women’s football did used to have their glory days but after a 50 year ban they are working hard to get back to where they were – and it seems they have almost made it.

I’ll rewind back to a few weeks back where I attended an ED&I and Wellbeing conference by Engage, one of the talks I attended was hosted by an elected director for Lewes FC Karen Dobres who discussed the history of womens football and how Lewes FC are pioneering for change. Whilst, I have always been a massive football fan, I was ashamed I was not aware of the history of women’s football.

The first ever women’s FA football match was held in 1895 and they achieved their biggest crowd in 1920 with 53, 000 to watch Dick Kerr's Ladies beat St Helen's Ladies 4-0. However, after the war and to get people back to the mens game – the FA banned women’s football in in 1921 saying “…the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged." This is despite international and domestic games over 20 years with an ever growing crowd.

It took 50 years until the FA lifted the ban in 1971 and later that year the first Women's FA Cup Final, took place where Southampton beat Stewarton and Thistle 4-1.

Fast forward to 2019 and the Lionesses rounded off another hectic year by attracting 77,786 fans to Wembley Stadium for a 2-1 defeat by Germany on 9 November. It was then a record crowd for an England Women's match.

It is great to see crowds returning to women’s football, but we are still way off from being equal to the men’s game. This is what intrigued me by Lewes FC and the discussion on improving the game for women, Lewes FC are one of the only clubs to pay their men and women equally. They had push back from fans saying why would you pay the same when the men attract higher crowds both for Lewes FC and generally, and whilst they took as a valid point the reason is because the men have had an unfair advantage with much higher marketing, money from sponsorship and TV rights. This has meant most people aren’t seeing the women’s game and in turn don’t have the same level of investment – this is where Lewes FC wanted to make that change. They knew how good their womens team is, but they needed the crowds to prove it, so to encourage them in they reached out the womens institute and had book clubs before the game to entice them in – they also had flowing prosecco and had wine tasting evenings. Yes the initial lay out was big and people were enticed in for other reasons, but since introducing these initiatives and events the crowds have stayed despite no book club or tasting event taking place – why? Because they love the game!

In the continuous fight for gender equality this tiny football club outside of Brighton are true pioneers for the beautiful game – and this has attracted investment globally. Lewes FC is a socially owned club, with over 200 members around the world. You can only buy 1 share meaning no overall majority and decisions are made collectively, so for only ￡50 per year you too can become a member. After the talk I signed straight up to become an Owner plus, as not only is it pretty cool to be an owner, the money is going to club that is really making a difference.

I hope this has shed a bit of light on how hard it has been for womens football, and that this blog is the reason to entice you in to watch a game – I hope many of your will be watching the final on Sunday, but why not check out your own local womens football club and see for yourself just how good they can play.