As England celebrated reaching the European Championship final, social media was abuzz with praise for Gareth Southgate.
According to sports analysts at X, formerly known as Twitter, and some reputable news sources, he is ‘the first English manager to lead the team to the final of two major tournaments.’
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As a journalist and avid football fan I can tell you that this is absolutely not the case. It is ‘fake news’, if you want to call it that.
Sarina Wiegman led England to the final of the 2022 Women’s European Championships in a historic victory, after last year’s Lionesses narrowly missed out on the World Cup after a 1-0 defeat to Spain.
“Thirty years of pain”? – try two.
But of course I forget: who cares about women’s football?
That is the reaction Lionesses fans received this morning after they dared to mention the team’s previous successes.
An angry men’s supporter tweeted: “Under 18s from any country could beat the Lionesses.”
In another tweet, a woman responded: “Honestly, who cares about the Lionesses?”
And until recently she may have been right, because historically the women’s competition has not interested most of the country.
Even during the 2019 Women’s World Cup, there was no English merchandise for sale in major supermarkets.
When my mother asked a store clerk where she could find the World Cup flags, he replied, “You’re about a year too late, honey.”
It wasn’t that long ago that I struggled to find channels that showed the major tournaments, let alone the Women’s Super League.
You can forget about those tense exams in your local pub, where the majority would rather watch 24 news channels or 90s music videos.
I’m sure many of you would tell me that this is because no one else cared enough about our girls to want to celebrate them with a Stella but you would be wrong.
In 2022, ahead of the Women’s European Championships, a group of friends formed a team Baller Friends Collective (Baller FC) for frustrated fans like me, who were tired of scouring the streets looking for a stadium where the game was being broadcast.
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Founder Selina Travis says: “If we could find a spot, they would only show it with the sound off, on a small screen with limited seating and no atmosphere – it didn’t feel very welcoming.”
Baller FC now host viewing nights at venues across the UK, with the aim of creating safe and inclusive spaces for fans to watch the women’s games. Tickets for events now regularly sell out.
And is that a surprise?
Interest in women’s football has skyrocketed since their historic 2-1 victory over Germany in the 2022 European Championship.
According to the Women’s Sports Trust, a staggering 46.7 million people watched women’s sport on television in 2023, with football being the most popular sport, accounting for 74% of viewing hours.
I was very happy to hear people calling the team ‘The Lionesses of Men’
Martha Cliff
Stadiums were packed during England matches, pubs across the country broadcast the game and nowadays you can watch most major matches on Dutch television.
I realize this is probably largely a case of free riding, but I don’t really care. It felt like a victory to see so much support.
But as Sunday’s final approaches, I fear a win for the men’s team could see just as many people drop out.
While they were happy to be able to support the women when they were winning, the support for the men’s team is already starting to overshadow their successes.
EUROS GENDER PAY GAP
ENGLAND’S EURO 2024 has already earned the English Football Association £20.4m.
And that figure will increase by another £2.5million when they lift the Henri Delaunay Trophy in Berlin on Sunday.
Gareth Southgate’s men will fall just £840,000 short of the maximum they could have earned from the tournament if England win their first trophy on foreign soil.
This is due to the draws in the group stage against Denmark and Slovenia.
England earned £7.8 million for qualifying, while the opening win over Serbia was worth £840,000.
The two draws each yielded £420,000 – the two teams split the win bonus – with qualification for the last 16 paying £1.26 million.
Reaching the last eight earned £2.1 million and beating Switzerland earned a further £3.4 million.
And Ollie Watkins’ injury-time goal to beat the Dutch added another £4.2 million to the final.
The difference between coming second and winning the final is an extra £2.5 million.
Meanwhile, the Lionesses only received a £55,000 bonus for winning the trophy in 2022.
Lionesses who played all six games received £2,000 per game, leaving them with a total of £67,000.
English fans have been calling for a day off if they take the trophy home on Sunday, but no such proposal has ever been made in 2022.
Sexist comments are also increasingly appearing in online discussions about women’s football.
“Luckily it (women’s football) will never be a fraction as big as men’s football and equal pay will never be an issue in football,” wrote one man on X after last night’s semi-final.
Even Harry Kane disappointed his teammates when he said in a post-match interview against Slovenia: ‘England haven’t won anything for a long time’, forgetting to give credit to his female colleagues.
It is a huge disappointment that Kane has erased their achievements, especially since the Danish Euro team refused to give a pay rise to ensure their female counterparts earn the same basic wage when playing for the national team.
Too many who enjoyed the Lionesses’ success as a national victory are all too happy to forget who paved the way for the men’s European Championship victory.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as happy as a hooligan to see England back in the European Championship final and I’ll be cheering them on with a pint on Sunday.
But I’m also happy that people call the team ‘The Male Lionesses’. It feels like a big step forward that we’re playing at the same level.
The men’s performances are not more important than the women’s and I ask the England fans not to dismiss our Lionesses when they do win.
Furthermore, I have no doubt that if England lose on Sunday, you will be back on your knees for Wiegman at the 2025 Women’s European Championship.
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