Lionesses back in club colours

Fresh from winning Euro 2022, England’s female football stars return to action for their clubs as a new season of the Women’s Super League kicks off on September 10. Record crowds are expected in stadiums, while the BBC will televise 22 live games plus highlights on the Women’s Football Show every Sunday night. Women’s football is the first topic for our monthly Inside Sport page which launches this month.

‘The beautiful game’

If I said that women’s football in this country has finally arrived, it would be very much an understatement. The Lioness’s incredible success in the EUFA Women’s Euros in July is all the proof needed to see how far the game has come in this country – which sets everything up perfectly for what is surely the most anticipated start ever to Barclays Women’s Super League (BWSL). 

In my youth I played at a lower level of football for nearly 20 years; like many of you reading this probably have. I’ve always been a massive football fan but was slow to take much notice of the women’s game, which has gradually started to capture my interest.

It may surprise you to know that this will actually be the 12th season of the BWSL. It certainly surprised me when I began to check. This league comprises of 12 teams including Chelsea, who have won the last three championships thus making them five time winners since 2010.

Chelsea’s squad, coached by Emma Hayes OBE, kick off at home against West Ham United. It will be her tenth season in charge at Kingsmeadow Stadium. Her vastly increasing profile has prompted former Chelsea and West Ham legend Joe Cole to tip her to become the first female manager in men’s football. Emma was apparently in the running to take over last year from Frank Lampard and has been linked in the past with the vacant post at AFC Wimbledon (coincidentally, playing them in the FA Vase in front of 5,000 people was the absolute highlight of my playing days). 

The opening fixtures of the BWSL are due to be played on the weekend of the 10th / 11th September and are…

• Brighton & Hove Albion v Aston Villa
• Chelsea v West Ham United
• Everton v Leicester City
• Manchester City v Arsenal
• Reading v Liverpool
• Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United

Arsenal will be looking to go one place better this year after they finished last season as runners-up; narrowly missing out by just one point, although the ‘Gooners’ themselves have lifted the league title on three separate occasions – 2011,2012, 2018-19.

The new season also welcomes back Liverpool (winners in 2013 & 2014) after they were promoted from the second tier and replace Birmingham City – relegated back down to the Championship.

The unquestionable achievement and positivity that the Lioness’s head coach Sarina Wiegman and her team brought to women’s football last month has undoubtedly raised its profile and certainly not only in this country. Widely regarded as one of the best international coaches in the women’s game, Sarina began her role as England head coach in September 2021. She successfully led her home nation (the Netherlands) to a UEFA Women’s Euro victory as the host nation in 2017 and was duly named Best FIFA Women’s Coach in the same year, before guiding them to the final of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019.

In her playing days as a midfielder, Wiegman gained 104 caps for her country thus becoming the first female player to reach a century of appearances and captained the national side during an impressive career. As England’s head coach she is now unbeaten in 20 games and will forever be remembered as the person who…. ‘brought it home’.

Whilst watching the England team progress through the Euro 2022 tournament over the summer it’s difficult not to make comparisons to the men’s version. On the field, men will of course naturally be physically stronger and faster, but the women’s game has improved significantly in this area. Whilst the women’s game is slower, that in itself seems to provide more scope for skill as opposed to the focus on physicality that we see in the men’s game.

Regarding general discipline and respect – this seems vastly different and there appears to be significantly less aggression, and blatant diving to win free kicks and penalties. Arguing with officials and crowding around them in an intimidating manner also seems to happen far less. Spitting is rarely seen – particularly when in the men’s game it frequently appears to be used as a show of defiance when a decision doesn’t go as expected.

The general atmosphere in the stadiums again seems to be completely different. I’ve been lucky enough to be in crowds watching plenty of men’s football both at Premiership and Championship level over the last 25 years and I am always aware of an ‘edge’ to the atmosphere, almost an aggressive pantomime vibe, with the referee generally playing the part of the villain – regardless of whether his/her decisions are correct.

You only have to watch any live game on TV when a corner is about to be taken to see how the opposition players are treated; verbal abuse, coin throwing and a variety of colourful hand gestures, I even remember watching a Spanish game a few years ago where a pigs head was thrown onto the pitch from the crowd, crazy!

I don’t see this type of animosity and visible signs of hatred in the crowd at any women’s matches. Instead, I see supporters smiling, having fun, enjoying a party-type atmosphere. It’s so refreshing to see. Over time will this change and start to creep into the women’s game I wonder? Let’s hope not. For me, these are wholly positive changes towards a return to what the great Pele once described as ‘the beautiful game’. Maybe changes could happen in reverse and women’s football could in time influence significant changes on the terraces and cultural side of the men’s game…only time will tell. 

Will there ever be a mixed team? How long will it be until the first £1million transfer? Currently, the highest transfer fee in the women’s game being set two years ago …. £250,000.

The Lionesses are due to play their next match against World Cup holders USA in a friendly on October 7th and tickets sold out for this fixture within 24 hours, which says everything about the popularity and growing momentum of women’s football …