Politics

The Lionesses wrote an open letter to call out government apathy to girls’ football

Oonagh Keating. Updated August 4th, 2022

On Sunday night, the action may have been mostly on the pitch at Wembley, as the amazing Lionesses passed, dribbled and scored their way to sporting history, but at the keyboards and smart phones of MPs, they were flexing their muscles jumping on the bandwagon.

While some will truly have been swept up in the moment, others were definitely only in it for the brownie points.

It must have been really annoying for Rishi Sunak to have that photographer standing right in the way of the television.

When journalists checked, it turned out that the Department for Education’s policy on girls’ football fell short of Westminster’s apparent support for the adult game.

‘Government says schoolgirls will not be guaranteed same football lessons as boys – but that girls can be offered the chance to play a ‘comparable sport’ instead.’

Gary Lineker summed it up.

He wasn’t the only one left disappointed but far from surprised.

The Lionesses took action, going straight to the two people with the most potential to shape policy in the new parliament – the leadership candidates.

In case that’s difficult to read, here’s what it says.

Dear Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.

On Sunday evening history was made. The dreams of 23 women came true. England became European champions for the first time in history.

Throughout the Euros, we as a team spoke about our legacy and goal to inspire a nation. Many will think that this has already been achieved, but we see this only as the beginning.

We are looking to the future. We want to create real change in this country and we are asking you, if you were to become Prime Minister on 5 September, to help us achieve that change.

We want every young girl in the nation to be able to play football at school.

Currently only 63% of girls can play football in PE lessons. The reality is we are inspiring young girls to play football, only for many to end up going to school and not being able to play.

This is something that we all experienced growing up. We were often stopped from playing. So we made our own teams, we travelled across the country and despite the odds, we just kept playing football.

Women’s football has come a long way. But it still has a long way to go.

We ask you and your government to ensure that all girls have access to a minimum of two hours a week PE. Not only should we be offering football to all girls, we also need to invest in and support female PE teachers too.

Their role is crucial and we need to give them the resources to provide girls’ football sessions. They are key role models from which so many young girls can flourish.

We have made incredible strides in the women’s game, but this generation of school girls deserve more. They deserve to play football at lunchtime, they deserve to play football in PE lessons and they deserve to believe that they can one day play for England. We want their dreams to also come true.

This is an opportunity to make a huge difference. A change that will impact millions of young girls’ lives. We – the 23 members of the England Senior Women’s Euro squad – ask you to make it a priority to invest into girls’ football in schools, so that every girl has the choice.

Regards, The 2022 UEFA Women’s EURO England Squad.

People were solidly behind the sentiment.

Both candidates responded quickly and publicly.

Even the current Secretary of State for Education got on board – though why he needs to meet the team to do his job is a mystery.

So, we can carve equal access to football in stone, right?

via Gfycat

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Ian Wright got serious for a moment during the Lionesses’ path to Euros glory and it’s brilliant

Source Lionesses Image Lionesses, Screengrab