Opinion: Challenge now is turning Lioness love into real change

With all the changes to come - heralded by the Lionesses’ historic victory at Wembley this week - let’s hope that black and white clip from 1966 will no longer have to be rolled out during every international football tournament.

The World Cup win, over half a century ago, is a jewel in our sporting history. But since England’s 2-1 defeat of Germany last Sunday, it is new beginnings that football must now focus on.

One of the most enduring images of the summer was eight-year-old Tess Dolan singing along to Sweet Caroline in the crowd as she watched the Lionesses roaring to the final of Euro 2022. That spontaneous footage of a joyful little girl dancing in her football shirt speaks volumes for the legacy created by this inspirational team of young women.

“Hopefully it is the start of something special for the women’s game,” says Yorkshire’s Beth Mead, named Player of the Tournament.

England's historic win is inspiring for young girls. Pic: PA

More than 17 million people watched Sunday’s Euro 2022 final on BBC1 - making it the most-watched women’s football game in UK television history, with the highest viewing figures for a TV programme this year.

Celebrations have continued all week, with euphoric Lionesses leaping onto the table at the post-final press conference, and thousands of fans turning out to greet them in Trafalgar Square.

Now the challenge is to convert this excitement and enthusiasm into tangible changes for women’s football. Sport Minister Nigel Huddleston says better opportunities for schoolgirls will “snowball together” with commercial opportunities and sponsorship: “When we get higher viewership, it means there’s more commercial opportunity for the women in sport, which means they have that greater visibility. And also we should never underestimate the power of events like this, in inspiring future generations, the future sportswomen.”

I guess now it’s a case of fans putting in the graft of following a team, week in, week out, regardless of trophies, to maintain the enthusiasm for women’s football. And schools have a crucial role too. With fewer than half five to 18-year-olds in the UK doing the recommended hour of exercise a day, football can be a huge draw for PE lessons.

When I was at school, it was unheard of for girls to play football. We did netball, rounders and hockey, while the boys did football and rugby. Girls didn’t even play football for fun. I played beach cricket and other ball games, for a laugh with family and friends, but I wouldn’t have been seen dead kicking a football.

Football was always on telly, but for me it was just white noise in the corner of the room. The sport stars I looked up to were Soviet gymnasts with exotic names - way more glamorous than my brother’s Seventies footy heroes. So I had no interest in joining him and his pals for a game of footy in the park. Not that they’d have let me anyway.

Would I have taken to football if I’d been allowed to play it at school? I’ll never know. There was nothing to inspire girls to try football, and no role models. The only female I saw playing it was Dee Hepburn in Gregory’s Girl.

And, unbelievably, within my lifetime women weren’t even allowed to play football. In 1921 the FA banned women from playing at Football League grounds. The ban wasn’t lifted until 1971. And it would take decades for women’s matches to reach anything approaching prime-time TV.

So ‘Yey!’ for the Lionesses - and the women who paved the way for them. In Bradford that goes back over 100 years, when a group of young women from a beer bottling factory formed a football team, became Yorkshire champions and represented England overseas. The Hey’s Brewery Ladies, all aged under 20, defied the FA band and smashed barriers that, a century later, would see a little girl singing Sweet Caroline in the crowd, watching sport history being made.