[Football] Women's Euro 2022 Final- England v Germany 31.07.2022- OFFICIAL THREAD

[amexer]

I'm waiting for a time when it's the norm for young girls to have the availability to play rugby. As someone who coaches a girls team, I find it frustrating that only three secondary schools in the area offer rugby to girls. And, as mentioned above, offering football to girls is not by itself enough.

I'd like the women's Euro win to act as a springboard for all sports so that there's no longer an artificial divide between sports offered to boys at school and those offered to girls.

That is a surprise. Have always thought womens rugby is so good. More running with the ball. Cricket and football is now available to girls at most clubs. Problem with rugby is there are so few clubs. Usually just one in each big town

 

[amexer]

I wasn’t aiming it at you specifically - but why does it have to be self funding, when the mens team isn’t ?

Well that is another subject all together. Apart from Albions involvement that I admit to enjoying, the money in PL is immoral including wages. So many of owners just enjoy owning a PL club and no worry if they lose money. Albions recent losses came because of covid but have no doubt Bloom will make them self sufficient and not try and compete with other owners. He will continue to try and buy at 3/10 million and sell for 25m plus.

 

[rippleman]

Faye White on R4 this morning heaping praise on Hope Powell for all the work she did with the England side long before EPL clubs showed any interest in womens football and in particular battling and fighting for the international age group teams. Lewes FC also mentioned as they pay their men and women the same (which I wasn't aware of).

As someone who got involved with womens football within ten years of the ban being lifted I have seen the game develop and inprove so much culminating in last night. More than one tear shed.

Every school MUST now give young girls the opportunity to play football in games lessons.

I loved the presentation. Loved seeing Jill Scott offer her hand to Wills and him ignoring it and going for the big hug.

Only downside for me from the competition was the standard of officiating. But then we have the same problem in mens football too.

And the Lionesses roared! Bloody marvellous.

 

[Danny Wilson Said]

Faye White on R4 this morning heaping praise on Hope Powell for all the work she did with the England side long before EPL clubs showed any interest in womens football and in particular battling and fighting for the international age group teams. Lewes FC also mentioned as they pay their men and women the same (which I wasn't aware of).

As someone who got involved with womens football within ten years of the ban being lifted I have seen the game develop and inprove so much culminating in last night. More than one tear shed.

Every school MUST now give young girls the opportunity to play football in games lessons.

I loved the presentation. Loved seeing Jill Scott offer her hand to Wills and him ignoring it and going for the big hug.

Only downside for me from the competition was the standard of officiating. But then we have the same problem in mens football too.

And the Lionesses roared! Bloody marvellous.

Lewes can afford to have equal budgets for men and women as the women's first team actually brings in more money than the men's thanks to sponsorship of the second tier.

 

[Gwylan]

That is a surprise. Have always thought womens rugby is so good. More running with the ball. Cricket and football is now available to girls at most clubs. Problem with rugby is there are so few clubs. Usually just one in each big town

Women's rugby is great: less kicking and physical strength and, as you say, more running with the ball. Clubs can only do so much though, the interest has to start in schools. There are several clubs in the greater B&H area but only my club, Hove, offers rugby to girls of all ages (and we certainly don't have full squads).

Football's catching up (but still only available to girls in 63% of schools). That's where the promotion has to start. Cricket is actually ahead of other sports here, it has several initiatives aimed at 6-year-olds, that's where to generate interest and it treats girls and boys the same. Other sports just have to break that habit.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

This needs sorting too

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/newsbeat-62346385

 

[dazzer6666]

Lewes can afford to have equal budgets for men and women as the women's first team actually brings in more money than the men's thanks to sponsorship of the second tier.

Indeed. The new pitch that’s just gone in at a cost of 750k (FA grant) wouldn’t have happened without the women’s team. The women’s budget should arguably be a lot higher than the men given they’re about 5 tiers higher in their respective pyramids - they’re continually fighting against teams with vastly higher playing budgets (particularly those linked to men’s teams) and would have very little chance of surviving in the WSL.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Great result and a pretty good match. I enjoyed the second half.
Finding all this “it’s come home” and hysteria in the papers today a bit cringe. A great day for the Lionesses and very inspiring for women and girls everywhere but it hasn’t “come home” and everybody knows it hasn’t. It’s not home until our Men’s team win. Deep down, everyone knows that.

But well done ladies! Awesome achievement.

I agree completely. All this nonsense about the women succeeding where the men couldn't is just hot air. The women have won the women's Euros, a weaker competition even in its own terms than the men's equivalent. And that's great and we should all enjoy it and celebrate it for what it is. But nobody talks about, say, Serena Williams succeeding where Novak Djokovic failed because men's and women's tennis are recognised as being the same sport but different competitions. (Someone will now find a cutting that proves me wrong ...)

 

[Mancgull]

Yeah, even if you never watch womens football, hard to not taken in pure by the pure celebration of yesterday. Absolute scenes at the final whistle...

Yes, I particularly noticed this. Perhaps it’s that the ladies just get more joy from participating and winning than the men, where the joy is mitigated by the money/ professionalism? Or maybe just that women know how to enjoy themselves better ?

 

[Durlston]

What I loved yesterday compared to a year ago at Wembley was England girls giving the Germans and the officials a guard of honour and sincerely applauding them for their hard work and graft just before the presentations. I don't remember Italy men doing that at all 12 months ago.

Also - and more importantly the German girls kept their silver medals on - everyone of them! Still a great achievement reaching the final. The England mens team tore off theirs immediately, very petulantly like spoilt brats. It's like being given a cheaper version of sausages from Poundland when you wanted Sainsbury's and throwing them down!

 

[The Clamp]

I saw an advert the other day trying to establish the phrase “full fan”

“Are you a full fan? Support both the mens and women’s team”?

Oh do **** off.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This needs sorting too

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/newsbeat-62346385

As does this

"Women’s football hooliganism ‘still has a long way to go’ admits FA"

https://newsthump.com/2022/08/01/womens-football-hooliganism-still-has-a-long-way-to-go-admits-fa/

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Women's rugby is great: less kicking and physical strength and, as you say, more running with the ball. Clubs can only do so much though, the interest has to start in schools. There are several clubs in the greater B&H area but only my club, Hove, offers rugby to girls of all ages (and we certainly don't have full squads).

Football's catching up (but still only available to girls in 63% of schools). That's where the promotion has to start. Cricket is actually ahead of other sports here, it has several initiatives aimed at 6-year-olds, that's where to generate interest and it treats girls and boys the same. Other sports just have to break that habit.

My daughter played rugby at Nottm university, in the 90s, and then at Crawley for a while. She was a very fast runner, and scored quite a few tries.

 

[nicko31]

What I loved yesterday compared to a year ago at Wembley was England girls giving the Germans and the officials a guard of honour and sincerely applauding them for their hard work and graft just before the presentations. I don't remember Italy men doing that at all 12 months ago.

Also - and more importantly the German girls kept their silver medals on - everyone of them! Still a great achievement reaching the final. The England mens team tore off theirs immediately, very petulantly like spoilt brats. It's like being given a cheaper version of sausages from Poundland when you wanted Sainsbury's and throwing them down!

No boo'ing the anthems before kick off as well, something that always makes me cringe

 

[hart's shirt]

The women have won the women's Euros, a weaker competition even in its own terms than the men's equivalent.

When England won the '66 World Cup, it was a 16 team tournament just like the 2022 Women's Euros were and in 2025 will be.

IMHO with the possible exception of semi-pro Northern Ireland, there really weren't any makeweights.

16 sides works for competitiveness for now.


By contrast, next summer will see 32 countries contest the Women's World Cup in Aus/NZ, increased from 24 in 2019.

8 additional sides including first-timers Philippines, Vietnam, Zambia and Morocco will lead to some seriously one-sided affairs.

When USA beat Thailand 13-0 in 2019, there was some criticism saying that they shouldn't have celebrated their goals so much!

It's a no-win situation. Expect more of the same next year.

There's a balance between FIFA growing the game worldwide (and benefiting from TV rights) and ensuring competitiveness.


For men, the 2026 World Cup in USA/Canada/Mexico will be increased by 16 from 32 countries to 48.

16 groups of 3 countries, just 2 group games, top 2 through.

It already feels like a bloated mess with the increased possibility of collusion and the only real winners being FIFA.

 

[Swansman]

When England won the '66 World Cup, it was a 16 team tournament just like the 2022 Women's Euros were and in 2025 will be.

IMHO with the possible exception of semi-pro Northern Ireland, there really weren't any makeweights.

16 sides works for competitiveness for now.


By contrast, next summer will see 32 countries contest the Women's World Cup in Aus/NZ, increased from 24 in 2019.

8 additional sides including first-timers Philippines, Vietnam, Zambia and Morocco will lead to some seriously one-sided affairs.

When USA beat Thailand 13-0 in 2019, there was some criticism saying that they shouldn't have celebrated their goals so much!

It's a no-win situation. Expect more of the same next year.

There's a balance between FIFA growing the game worldwide (and benefiting from TV rights) and ensuring competitiveness.


For men, the 2026 World Cup in USA/Canada/Mexico will be increased by 16 from 32 countries to 48.

16 groups of 3 countries, just 2 group games, top 2 through.

It already feels like a bloated mess with the increased possibility of collusion and the only real winners being FIFA.

I think the expansion of the men's tournament is silly but really think it will be good for more of the world to be involved in the next women's World Cup. If it wasn't for the awful England team in the late 90s/early 00s failing to qualify for some tournaments, there is a decent chance you'd have this years "revolution" - to some extent at least - back in 99 or 03 instead.

Letting more teams participate in the World Cup is the easiest way to engage more countries and people in this. Sure, there will be some big results but in the long run it will be worth it.

 

[Seagull27]

But nobody talks about, say, Serena Williams succeeding where Novak Djokovic failed because men's and women's tennis are recognised as being the same sport but different competitions. (Someone will now find a cutting that proves me wrong ...)

That's not really the same as Djokovic and Williams are from different countries, and don't have exactly the same pool of supporters. Looking at British tennis we've had success for both genders in recent years so that statement wouldn't be made, but if Andy Murray had never existed then I think people would certainly have said the same thing about Henman et al. after Raducanu's win. Though it's worth noting that in Tennis, people often support an individual rather than a nationality.

The point is that the England Men's team have not won any major titles since 1966, so the majority of the country's football supporters haven't been able to celebrate anything significant in our lifetimes. But now the Women's team have given us that.

 

[Gwylan]

My daughter played rugby at Nottm university, in the 90s, and then at Crawley for a while. She was a very fast runner, and scored quite a few tries.

Yeah, most women who play rugby start at university. What clubs are trying to do is to get them to start much younger. We surveyed our girls last year about their attitudes to rugby and an overwhelming majority said that they wish they'd started playing earlier. One encouraging sign is that there are more girls in our younger age groups but then there's a drop off when they reach 9 or 10.

I coach cricket as well and there's much, much more equality there - not 50/50 yet but it's getting close to 60/40 at the younger ages. I think that's an achievable ratio for all sports but there's a long way to go. The real challenge is teenage years as that's when a lot of girls drop out

 

[Half Time Pies]

Dan Roan (BBC Sport) raised 2 questions on tonight's 10pm news - girls' participation and WSL attendances / sustainability.

We'd all hope that thousands of young girls have been inspired to play and there'll be every opportunity for them to do so.

As far as the latter goes, it was interesting to hear Gabby Logan's closing monologue at the end of the coverage.

For those that might've missed it, she chose to encourage people to make every effort to attend domestic women's matches.

Words to the effect of 'football has come home, but it's up to us to keep it there'.

The Lionesses have been well supported both on TV and at games and rightly so, but that was always likely to be the case.

High viewing figures in watching English / British success in tournaments doesn't guarantee week-in, week-out numbers.

Contrasting approaches have worked in other sports.

Women's domestic rugby and specifically 6 Nations has seen a large gate increase as a result of separate dates.

But attendances last summer at Women's Hundred cricket matches worked well in tandem with the Men's Hundred.

Let's hope the numbers significantly increase, but we'll have to wait until Sept-Oct to see. Until then, the jury's still out.

What is unarguable is that now there's every incentive for the women's game to grow, both in numbers playing and attending.

And that can only be a good thing for all who love football.


Edit - With Albion season tickets for U18s / over 65s at only £19 and the first 2 games at the Amex, there's even more chance!

This is always spun as a problem for men to sort however ultimately more women need to watch sports. Theres a much larger percentage of Men that follow team sports, go to the games and sign up for the sports subscriptions, they spend a fortune on sports and thats why it's all geared towards men because it makes commercial sense.

Twitter and Facebook is full today of feminists calling for equal pay for Male and Women footballers but I wonder how many of them actually regularly go to watch a women's team?

 

[Gwylan]

This is always spun as a problem for men to sort however ultimately more women need to watch sports. Theres a much larger percentage of Men that follow team sports, go to the games and sign up for the sports subscriptions, they spend a fortune on sports and thats why it's all geared towards men because it makes commercial sense.

Twitter and Facebook is full today of feminists calling for equal pay for Male and Women footballers but how many of them actually regularly go to watch a women's team?

But as this competition has shown, there's no intrinsic reason why more men are drawn to team sports. It's a bit of a chicken and egg, we won't get more women watching domestic league or playing sports until it's seen as a women's thing too. And that would mean more sponsorship, more visibility and more opportunities.

As Silverhatch pointed out a few pages back, there's a difference between boys and girls who are good at sport. Boys who are good footballers are seen as pretty cool, part of the popular kids. Girls who play football (or cricket or rugby) are too often seen as freaks, as dykes, as not girly enough. It's this attitude that has to change - it's going to happen overnight but more money in women's sport will certainly help.