It was Ian Wright who spoke most sensibly and laid the groundwork for what England must take to a European Championship final.
“If this isn’t a legacy, like we had with the Olympics, then what do we do?” he said Tuesday evening. ‘If girls are not allowed to play football in gym, just like the boys, what do we do? We have to make sure they can play.’ That’s a lot easier said than done.
The stubborn, outspoken misogynistic resistance in this country to the idea that football is a game for girls has translated into a school system where access remains horribly poor.
Alessia Russo’s obsolete goal against Sweden has the potential to inspire a generation
Only 44 percent of high schools provide equal access to football for boys and girls. Only 40 percent of schools – primary and secondary – provide equal access to football for boys and girls outside of school hours.
It’s common at a time like this for colorful ‘legacy’ documents to be issued by the host nation of a tournament, outlining how the wild enthusiasm of young supporters will be harnessed for the future of the game. And yes, the FA has redistributed their 23-page document in recent days.
But the good news for parents whose daughters now want to do just like Alessia Russo is that for several years now, the game’s governing body has been busy with the nuanced and complicated task of making sure football is available to them at school. The FA has had its detractors in recent years, although the preparatory work to meet the new demand for these euros is undeniable.
The challenge has not been easy. It is not so easy to provide the girls with what the boys have because their minds work differently in many cases. The FA has found that a boy in primary school has probably kicked a ball since he was able to walk. A girl will probably have picked up and thrown that ball.
Georgia Stanway’s father drove a four-hour round trip for her training when she was young
Girls will feel much more confident about playing soccer. So much more of girls’ participation is linked to confidence. The FA has worked with teachers to help them adapt to the way some girls think.
“We want to help teachers – train them, without condescending them – to differentiate between boys and girls,” the FA’s head of women’s football, Baroness Sue Campbell, told Sportsmail.
She and her staff have engaged commercial partners such as Disney, which has developed a lunch program tailored for girls, and Barclays, which has funded the creation of 100 school “partnerships” – clusters of schools working towards equal access for girls.
A total of 9,500 schools have joined the clusters. At the high school level, it was a matter of convincing principals that it is worth introducing football into girls’ PE classes, which traditionally have involved netball and hockey. The FA has found that by showing that football lessons can also teach resilience, self-responsibility and decision-making, they can take football over the threshold.
Getting boys to play soccer has never been more complicated or riddled with so many challenges, although all the evidence suggests it’s already been worth it.
Women’s football director Sue Campbell hopes to ‘help teachers without patronizing them’
There was an overwhelming appetite for football among girls long before Tuesday’s defeat in Sweden. Thousands play outside of school, in the FA network of 1,600 Wildcat clubs aimed at those who still need to develop confidence and physicality and are self-conscious about play.
The goal is to establish 3,400 Wildcat clubs by 2024. Schools are not the only challenge. At the top end of the youth system, developing an elite player development system, nurturing professional clubs, means that girls are now being asked to train two or three times a week at academies far from the inner cities.
Fine for Georgia Stanway, whose father’s gym teacher drove her on the four-hour round trip from Cumbria to Blackburn Rovers every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Not so great for the girls from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who don’t have the resources to make the trip.
Not least because girls still have to pay to play in the academy system, while the boys are not only paid to do so, but also transported by clubs to and from training. “There’s not the resources in the women’s game to do that,” Kay Cossington, England’s FA women’s technical development chief, told ESPN last week.
The Lionesses have captured the imagination with their march to the final at Euro 2022
This partly explains the apparent lack of diversity in the England team. The FA set up the ‘Discover my talent’ program in 2021, a referral system that can create a path for any girl seen as talented. There were 1,666 referrals in the first year, with 204 referred further down the talent spotting system.
The FA’s goals for outside these euros look challenging. By 2024, they want every primary school girl to have the same access to football facilities as boys and 75 percent of schools provide equal access to football within girls’ PE classes. The progress of the England team to the final will help in several ways. Headmasters will find that parents demand more football.
And those girls who were once embarrassed by the idea of playing the sport the boys played so freely will be empowered by watching Russo, Lauren Hemp and Beth Mead on a soccer field having the time of their lives.