The England Lionesses National Football Team represent England in women’s international football. The team is controlled by the Football Association (FA), the governing body of football in England. The Lionesses competed in the first-ever women’s international match, against Scotland in 1881, although since those early games, football in England has been banned for decades. Football in England was growing in popularity, attendance was high at venues all over the country and a plethora of teams sprung up. Matches between men often attracted crowd numbers nearing 20,000 but on Christmas Day 1880, a match between a Lady XI and a Gentleman XI in London drew a crowd of 10,000 (Fielding-Lloyd et al., 2018).
Women’s football became popular, professional football for women appeared on the horizon and games attracting crowd numbers such as 25,000 and 53,000 at the Goodison Park in Liverpool became a reality. A game at Goodison Park was followed by a game at Highbury that drew a crowd of 53,000 and popularised the Women’s game.
Clubs began to take women’s football seriously. The Manchester Ladies’ team, which included prominent players from the men’s team, defeated the known Doncaster Ladies’ team. The match was a hard-fought affair and finished 7-1 to the Ladies. The FA was concerned about the threat to the men’s game, sent the men’s teams to play in Paris instead to quash this upstart and judged that women, in their finer moments, should appear as music hall turns rather than on the football pitch. From this time onwards the FA attempted nowhere else more forcibly than in England to crush this unwomanly devotion but the women’s game appeared to have flourished despite the FA’s best attempts to drive it underground.
Women’s football games were held at well-known men’s football venues, but crowds were usually not the same as those recorded before the ban. The majority of teams resorted to playing at women’s pitches affiliated to the London FA – the majority being parks or grounds lacking any standing to compare with the stadia commonly used before the ban. Nevertheless, gates, plus ancillary receipts, were again large enough to justify holding more games. After a dusty shadowy refuge from scrutiny and admission fees were not collected and no gate figures were reported by the teams themselves.(england lionesses)
The status of women’s football in England remains contested. Football has yet to achieve parity with men’s football in terms of finances, facilities, forum, or fandom. A request was made to the FA in 1895 to access a ground in Manchester for a women’s match. As a result, a match between St. Helens and a team from the North of England was arranged for late that year. It attracted 10,000 spectators. Such matches were unable to escape scandal. When a record crowd of over 20,000 gathered at a park to watch a women’s team take on a team from the north east in 1920, the resultant accusations of impropriety led the FA to ban women’s matches from licensed grounds.
Football was considered unfeminine, despite efforts from some to rebut the claims. Women didn’t play football; they engaged in sport. For some locals, it was pure folly and should be stopped at source rather than tolerated in an attempt to curtail its popularity. Similarly, the President of the FA claimed female players were “hysterical”, fitness for football should engender masculine prowess rather than athletic fitness between the sexes, thus a women’s league should never have existed. Correspondingly, it was ascribed the game in its ministerialised tendencies to a specific clause of the Rules of the Football Association.(england lionesses).
Women’s football regained some favour during World War II, when again women’s roles were altered by men’s absence. A successful operatic incidental musical comedy was staged, the first of its kind, and became an immediate hit. A club rapidly gained a reputation, being billed as the “great Northern club.” A match between two teams was staged at a ground. 27,000 turned up at the venue, and when the changing conditions became known, the venue was enlarged to accept 12,000 more. The groundsman feared the pitch was too muddy for a match of such magnitude, but it received heavy clearing. An invitation to be the last opposing team prior to the appointment of a permanent manager, however, resulted in a 3-1 defeat, one of several unfortunate results that prompted a dismissal.
In 1920, the success of St Helens Ladies, a women’s club formed in 1915 which endeavoured to play across England, encouraged a group of men in the North West to broaden women’s football. The men formed new sides known as Ladies FC clubs and recruited players. In the New Year, a ladies’ team was formed in Manchester and the players soon won a match against Derby County. Reporting their progress, the club’s secretary asked the FA for permission to play in a showpiece match at Goodison Park in Liverpool. Louis Edwards, the FA director of matches who had masterminded the establishment of a second division for the Football League, turned down this request. Edwards, the nephew of a big club secretary, was disquieted by the emergence of clubs outside FA control. Edwards was also anxious about the spread of clubs from different parts of England to play fixtures in opposition to FA rules: Liverpool Ladies had played and submitted an account of expenses incurred “by the club”. Edwards was frustrated that clubs could now pay travelling expenses to players (Williams, 2019). One influential proposal to ensure ownership of the FA Cup, the national knockout competition, avoided a final involving clubs outside FA control through forward planning. Another soured relations between the FA and clubs plagued by accusations of viciousness and bribery.(england lionesses).
The FA took precautions against the league while protecting the public’s interest. The secretary warned referees to watch for improper play and unfair behaviour but freely conceded any control was unlikely. He neither believed it would materialise nor saw the need for drastic measures unless games became openly disreputable. In comparison, reference to women’s football as a public nuisance was effectual but misguided. While control of clubs would be unwieldy under normal circumstances, the departures of FA lifetime members threatened organisations and clubs were now vulnerable to exclusion. Edwards argued it would be better to ban parades, open grandstands, and advertising boards than six clubs. Substantial sums from friendly fixtures and the knotty complication of the cup winner had propelled the FA to take a definitive stance on women’s football. Men’s football was livid because women’s football had become more attractive to spectators, brought healthier economic returns, and was now devoid of excessive drinking and gambling.
Despite occasional arguments made by journalists that the Women’s World Cup will not be as important as the Summer Olympics for British sport, the Women’s Football Association could not have prepared for such an ill-timed start to their official trophy charge. Having had little chance at a chance to take part in the previous World Cup, in 2015, England entered the tournament with their best ever qualification results, finishing top of a group containing Spain and former perennial bridesmaids, Norway. Drawn on a plush opening day at the pristine stadium, England put on a woeful first half display. The Lionesses conceded early to a deft finish from a coached New Zealand side, and the team seemed to have ignored the pre-match voting statistics which placed the coach as the best decorated currently in the game. Killing off an awful first touch from Williamson, she went on a striking run towards goal before falling over and deflecting it towards a player on the edge of the area. However, they should have drawn level after one of the worst pieces of goalkeeping seen: the whole of the USA wished for the back-up keeper back as she had terrible luck cranking drills in a rainbow balaclava, but Williamson chose to shoot instead of relying on a coach of england lionesses.
With the WFA still shattered by the disallowed penalty in the wake of the New Zealand match, the ultimately massive goal difference loss, and being drawn against the USA again in the round of 16, an unsurprising decision was made to write off a tireless hour and a half instead of crashing a team swap. It was anticipated that the USA would have players not in need to sleep at last, but sceptical predictions were made about whether to expect a player to rest in hopes of starting overtime – which perhaps wouldn’t even be let into the conference. All the heartbreak was wasted on a display of ineptitude: an absolutely treasured one-off gift at the dawn of what would momentously be turned into a multi-campionship greatest competition, obliterated by the self-harming failure to send out the strongest team possible. A full team with players at right-back, in centre mid and upfront would have produced a massive goal difference win for england lionesses.
Since becoming a member of FIFA in 1906, England played its first international match in 1920, losing to the Netherlands in 0:4. Due to a number of reasons, progression was slow, and it wasn’t until 1995 when England qualified for its first major tournament, the 1995 European Championship, held in Sweden. Subsequently succumbed to elimination after the group stages. In 2007, England again qualified for the competition, this time in Sweden. By this time, both professional and semi-professional female teams existed throughout England.
2014 saw the introduction of the Women’s Super League, England’s first professional female football league. At this time, as well as securing a professional league, efforts were made to develop the female game at grass-roots level, with initiatives designed to encourage girls and women of all ages to play football. England recently qualified for EURO 2017 in the Netherlands, their 6th consecutive appearance in the competition. As such, they will be one of the main contenders to win the competition this summer. Currently in an unwinnable group with Germany, Norway, and Iceland, England will nevertheless look to progress to the knock-out stages of the competition.
Consequently, England was placed in Group D of the tournament; the D to differentiate this edition from the previous tournaments, which had ranged from Group A to C. All matches in Group D took place at the tournament’s main stadium in Lviv. England’s first match was held on 24th June against the Netherlands. The match was played out in front of around 9,500 fans. Much was made on the day of the stifling heat and humidity, and England’s last match proved no different. The match shoes successfully spectating away difficulties for your team; England’s first two goals came from set pieces.
Things moved quickly after that opening night. England were crowned champions on Sunday 22nd March 2023 after defeating Spain in the most professional of finals at Wembley Stadium in front of 87,192 fans. As coach Sarina Wiegman said post-match, the Lionesses success was “for everyone… in the game, in business, in culture,” determined to see the legacy of Lionesses continuing long into the future of england lionesses.
The earliest precursor to the FIFA Women’s World Cup took place in 1917 when two teams played a match at the Estadio Minas Gerais in Brazil. Two years later, the first recognised match by the FIFA Women’s World Cup took place when the first football tournament was played by girl’s schools in England. At the same time, it required a few decades for women’s football to make a name of its own on the world stage. In 1966, FIFA organised a demonstration match at the World Cup in England between women’s national teams of England and Scotland, which attracted more than 50000 spectators. Recognising the increasing support and activity among women’s football, FIFA approved of the organisation of the first Women’s World Tournament in November 1991 in China PR under the auspices of FIFA. The final match was played at the Rose Garden Stadium in Guangzhou in a sold-out crowd to the final whistle. FIFA had its first ‘big’ international Women’s World Cup for full national representative teams. In 1995, FIFA decided to hold the second edition of the Women’s World Cup in Sweden. At the time, women’s football made substantial strides in the USA, Canada, Iceland, and Sweden; these nations regarded women’s football as a part of their civil sporting culture. United USA rugby captain, Keersten Krell was appointed the head coach of the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup. This tournament played in the USA was regarded as a turning point in women’s football. The media success of the event took it to a different level of appreciation, and on-field improvement made the tournament more competitive (Soroka, 2017).
In the ninth edition of the World Cup in 2023, Australia and New Zealand co-hosted the competition. It was historic since it was the first World Cup to be hosted by two nations from the Southern Hemisphere as well as the first FIFA Women’s World Cup held in the Asian Football Confederation region since 2007. With the expansion in participating teams from 24 to 32, the tournament’s breadth stretched wider than ever. There were matches in twelve venues across ten host cities, from Auckland and Wellington to Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.
In the aftermath of the World Cup, a revitalisation in English women’s football emerged, with the FA’s ‘Legacy’ plan, coupled with a response to challenge FIFA. These were bold new initiatives but at the same time heavy with responsibility. They would need the sort of commitment and investment which the women’s game had never yet experienced. Traditionally, the FA and FIFA had been content to passively allow development but now they had a commercial and public relations imperative to deliver substantive actions .
A commitment was made to fund women’s football to a level commensurate with the men’s game. A Women’s Super League (WSL) Framework was also published which would transform the competitive landscape. Women’s football would be amateur, professional and semi-professional. £5 Million was raised to provide the stability and quality of new teams and support staff. A dedicated £330,000 fund was to benefit squads and additional women referees. There was also a commitment to maintain all current investments, despite withering criticism. The initial four years from 2011 to 2015 saw a WSL which operated on an elite club franchise basis. Ground hustings and presentations preceded blind bidding, with a set of criteria combining league viability with a legacy fund for an EFL, club management experience, broadcasters, education and support sites. A London incumbent was seen as vital to tap that market. Only one club fitted this criteria.
However, testimony from the remaining bids revealed their ability to deliver much lesser packages fell short. Crowd funding introduced additional complexities. All other clubs would remain non-professional and no cross-league sponsorships were envisaged at this stage. A WSL player trading and contracts resolution process; an exit clause and a fluctuating player transfer fee schedule were also mandated. However, no possible penalties for breaches were mentioned. Next, a direct funding plan was requested along with advertising opportunities and commitments to maintain club structures, competitions and marketing budgets for england lionesses..
The Lionesses, the England women’s football team, made a significant mark in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, setting social media alight and capturing the attention of non-football fans globally. Interest in women’s football surged amid unprecedented coverage and attendance. England reached the semi-finals. In the lead-up to the Euro 2022 finals, the Lionesses were a prominent part of the Football Association’s strategy to ‘normalize’ women’s football and increase engagement, especially among women and girls. The tournament showcased magnificent pageantry, high stadium attendances, a commitment to corporate social responsibility by venues and broadcasters, high-profile sponsorships, and an extensive digital presence (Dashper, 2018). However, Allied, Durex, and Budweiser’s marketing budgets often appeared ill-conceived and amateurish.
The women’s game grabbed headlines more often than not for questionable reasons, leading to discussions on whether women’s football anywhere since 1990 had experienced an annual deceleration of 375% in metrics including coverage, restrictions, wages, and attendance figures. Meanwhile, England’s home FIFA Women’s World Cup bid appeared dead in the water before resuscitation, only for FIFA to award a Men’s World Cup to Qatar in infamous circumstances just days before UEFA’s Euro 2020 following a similar process. Deciding the host of the second Women’s World Cup had barely featured any headlines despite being decidedly controversial, as had the process of awarding England this summer’s Euro 2022, the first of its kind operated by UEFA with 16 teams and matches at the existing venues for the Men’s Euro 1996. How would the tournament generate heat, and galvanizing discussions?
Ultimately, on the pitch and during the build-up to the tournament, women’s football resoundingly appeared unimportant too often notwithstanding high-profile support. The BBC set the stage from the outset in 2020 with an ambitious female-centric digital strategy but became embroiled in civil war following multi-headed social media revelations. A minor player in the digital marketing era of contemporary women’s exploits, The Times tried recasting itself immediately as a leading media player rather late but only gave blanket promotion of a major event the cold; FOOTSIS provided a refreshingly enormous list of promotional ideas but saw many flagged obscured completely. Attempting good faith initiatives, BT Sport entirely shut itself off from the written press.
The England Lionesses have a wide variety of well-known, notable players, who have all supplied their own unique qualities and distinctions to the team, and helped make the Lionesses successful today. Each and every Lionesses player matters in their own right, and they all have interesting qualities to learn about.
Mary Earps is a notable player on the England Lionesses football team. She is an extremely skilled and talented goalkeeper for the England team, who has risen to prominence following the Lionesses’ most recent success at the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 championships. Earps has made over 90 appearances for the Lionesses, including a multitude of incredibly skilled performances, where she has been the LADIES’ MVP in tight games, clutching a number of very close wins for her especially in the group stage of the Euro 2022 tournament against the likes of Norway and Spain. Earps has remarkable qualities in her technique, character, and professionalism, and players today could learn a great deal from studying her performances (Drury et al., 2022).
Other notable players include captain Leah Williamson, and former Lionesses’ stars, now retired, Karen Carney, and Kelly Smith. Williamson has played for the Lionesses since 2017, and has made her way to the captaincy role in the years since. She is one of the most skilled centre-backs playing football today, who offers her team leadership qualities on and off the pitch daily, offering her skills and personality to coaching, in an attempt to help those who are still playing over the years to come. Smith and Carney are both retired, and both have earned their place in the Lionesses’ Hall of Fame. They are two of the most skilled forwards at the sports position in football, who offered skill, speed, and touch to the Lionesses throughout their careers. These players have made the Lionesses team what it is today, and the women’s games will not be what it is today without them in the officiating, playing, or coaching roles (Williams, 2019).
Kelly Smith is considered by many to be the most important female figure in English football. Renowned for her technical ability, creativity, and flair, Smith opined on the generation of players before her – such as Debbie Bampton and Rachel Yankey – and how the Lionesses of today owe them a debt of gratitude. Her family connections with the club saw her join Arsenal Ladies at the age of eight. Overcoming adversity, a knee-to-knee clash left Smith struggling to walk for two years, yet she persevered. Returning to football, she joined a grassroots team before being discovered by Arsenal. In time, she would prove pivotal in the Gunners’ treble-winning campaign of 2006. She authored one of the greatest-ever FA Cup Final performances, scoring four times in the first half.
Her talents did not go unnoticed by the United States, where the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) was starting out. Smith signed with Boston Breakers, and the relaxed atmosphere of USA contrasted sharply with England. However, the increased profile and professionalism were matched by scrutiny and exasperation. Local news reports were full of roadblocks on the path to success, and the slow transfer of information led to discontent. Ultimately, she returned home, joining Everton as one of few face-of-the-franchise athletes. A mid-table team, campaign highlights included a crossbar smash from Smith and a stunning hat trick against former side Arsenal. A serious ACL injury at a World Cup qualifier against Wales sidelined her for nine months and led to retirement speculation.
Focusing on recovery, resilience, and a commitment to come back better than before saw her return ahead of schedule. Smith returned to the England fold and was part of the Lionesses’ first European Championship squad in 2005. Unfortunately, Smith faced more struggles, and the sporting career extended beyond what training regimes normally account for (Drury et al., 2022). Following further injury setbacks, Smith would quit the international game after 92 appearances. Retiring from club football came earlier, with World Cup legend Birgit Prinz winning the German league title, inspired by Smith. Transitioning to coaching, Smith became a role model in the industry as the professional game expanded.
Discussion around the journalism graduate returned to Smith’s impact on attitudes towards women’s football in England. Following no further output from the Football Association following the 2005 World Cup, her comments struck a chord at all levels. Smith educated audiences on the importance of grassroots and community-level initiatives, encouraging involvement in all capacities and criticising ignorance. Shortly after, WSL, which would reshape the game, would arrive (F. Grainey, 2012).
Fara Williams is a football, both a club and international footballer for England. Williams was born on 25 January 1984 in the London Borough of Ealing and was raised in Harlesden. She has represented England through various junior levels before continuing her international career at senior level. Williams debuted for England on 5 March 2001 in a 25-0 victory against Hungary, at the time, she was the youngest player to have ever been capped by the senior national side. As of 8 April 2015, Williams was the all-time highest capped player for England, male or female (Williams scored 40 goals from 132 appearances). Williams is known for her versatility, having played in several positions, most recognisably in midfield and as a striker. Williams has spent her club career with 11 different teams: a youth club and Amateurs in England, 2 from the USA, and 4 from England (Fielding-Lloyd et al., 2018).
Raised in a single-parent household, Williams attended numerous primary schools in Ealing and Harrow, where she started to play in sports teams. She was expelled from secondary school within a year but continued playing for local teams, notably Harrow Borough, before signing for professional Fulham in 1995. Williams extended her career for over a decade in the USA before returning to England at Everton and later Liverpool. Williams is the oldest member of the squad (39) and an inspiration for youngsters growing up watching her play, as well as being an example of longevity in an ever-competitive field.
1. Ellen White is an English professional footballer (striker) for club Manchester City in the FA Women’s Super League. She has represented England at all youth levels and made her senior debut in 2010 since when she has scored over 50 goals in more than a 100 appearances, representing her nation at four major tournaments.
2. Early career: White progressed through the Arsenal Centre of Excellence and signed for senior club which were at the time top of the league. After winning a place in the senior squad, she made her debut. She scored her first goal and assisted others in WSL against Liverpool at the end of her first season, winning the WSL Golden Boot. White scored twice at the FA Women’s Cup Final and provided two assists in a convincing win and treble for Arsenal. She netted again in the UEFA Women’s Champions League and the following season. The club failed to reach the knockout stage of their European competition. She scored at the FA Women’s Premier League Cup in reaching victory in the last four. She was named Arsenal’s Player of the Month following a WSL hat-trick. She finished the 2016 season with seven goals during a domestic treble win.
3. Birmingham City signed White in January 2017 on an 18-month contract. She was the club’s top scorer with 14 goals across all competitions, scoring in the WSL, FA Cup, and League Cup, but was also netted upon in a shock FA Cup defeat which cost the club their treble. She was subbed in WSL against Arsenal. She later came off with a shoulder injury. She was replaced during her final appearance against Liverpool. Describing the injury as the lowest part of her career, the club missed out on Champions League qualification by a single point on the final day of the season. On leaving Birmingham, White stated that she would take her time to consider her next move.
4. In July 2018, White signed for Manchester City. She scored on her club debut against Cardiff City in the FA Cup, after a close season of transfers and competition. She made her WSL debut in the Manchester derby but suffered a head injury after clashing with a teammate. She scored her first league goal after returning from injury on the first day of the new calendar year. In September 2019, White sustained a hip flexor injury. Following on from the tournament, White was nominated for the PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year.
Lucy Bronze is an English professional footballer who plays as a right back for Spanish club Barcelona and the England national team. Regarded as one of the best defenders in the world, she was voted the Best FIFA Women’s Player in 2020 and was named to the FIFPro Women’s World XI for five consecutive years from 2017 to 2021. Born in Barnsley, Bronze started her career at local club Birkdale before joining the youth team at Sunderland. As an 18-year-old, she secured a scholarship with the university team at North Carolina Tar Heels, where she featured 93 times in four years and was voted to the All-American First Team on three occasions. During her time, the side made the NCAA tournament final twice. Following her graduation in 2013, Bronze returned to England where she signed for Liverpool. She won both domestic cups in her first season but left a year later to join Manchester City.
Following a successful start to life with City, Bronze signed with French side Lyon in 2017 for a fee reported to be £350,000, then a record for a British defender. In her debut season with the club, she was nominated for the PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year and won both the domestic league and UEFA Women’s Champions League. She helped Lyon retain the league title for three consecutive years and win the Women’s Champions League in 2020. Bronze was part of the England squad which reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 in the Netherlands, where she was the recipient of two awards. She was named England Women’s Player of the Year for 2017. Where England reached the semi-finals of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Bronze received the FIFA Women’s World Cup Golden Ball award and was twice the recipient of the UEFA Women’s Champions League Defender of the Year award.
Born in Barnsley, to a family of minority religion and ethnicity (her father is a Sunderland fan of English stock with Sunderland’s annual visit to West Ham as a family day out, albeit she specified to go to Elland Road). Ironically, she later had trials at Barnsley’s academy but thought the club came across “not professional” and felt more comfortable and welcomed at a partner club.
This lack of female expertise can be explained partly as a function of the gendered nature of football coaching. It is therefore unsurprising that the large number of highly qualified, professional female coaches would subsequently have experience coaching at lower levels in men’s or boys football at semi-professional or youth levels. Ultimately, despite developments, it remains uncertain whether women’s football coaching will achieve the same level of expertise, recognition, and validation as men’s football coaching, or whether a path unique to women’s football will emerge. Although the barriers for women in football denote their exclusion from the social and economic benefits accrued by it, less is known about how these processes play out in relation to women coaches, and subsequently women’s football. Broadening the portrait of women in sports beyond stereotypes and challenges to understand participation as a social practice that is also class-, age-, and ethnicity-specific would allow to expand the narratives beyond the levels of logos and myths that dominate as heroic and inspiring stories. Furthermore, to focus on women’s sports out of the overshadowing influence of men, opening women’s sport organizations to a more pluralistic view, thus questioning the all-too-familiar narratives of parading successful sportswomen and high-achieving coaches, would need to engage a plurality of interpreters and mediation styles.
Each phase of the data collection process placed increasing restrictions on the ability to recruit subjects for interview and participation in the group discussion. Those individuals who were willing to take part in the interviews were met with obstacles such as scheduling and turning up unprepared. Another limitations, which was particularly profound during the discussions, participants refrained from elaborating on their opinions and conveying their own experiences in detail (Woodhouse et al., 2019).
In January 2023, Sarina Wiegman was confirmed as the new Lionesses head coach, following the departure of previous manager and FA director of women’s football, John Herdman. This made her only the third permanent manager of the England Women’s team in the 40-year history of the FA (Woodhouse et al., 2019). Wiegman, who was the head coach of the Netherlands Women’s team from 2017 to 2021, had previously guided them to the 2017 UEFA Women’s Euro final, the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup final, and the 2022 UEFA Women’s Euro title.
Wiegman was one of the pioneers of women’s football in the Netherlands and made her international debut in 1993, followed by 99 caps for the national team. At club level, she played for HSV Ajax and Utrecht. Coached by American John McWhat, she shone in her positional role as a number 10 or number 8 behind the forwards, which demanded good positioning and crossing skills. In her early 20s, she was already a prominent figure at Ajax, as were her contemporaries.
By 2008, she had moved on to the media side as a commentator on female matches for a women’s online channel. Unfortunately, due to a stoppage of six million dollars in government funding, women’s soccer went off air in 2011, ultimately ending Wiegman’s media career. However, in 2010, one of the FA’s golden girls from 2002 and a former figurehead of the women’s campaign, Sloane Sweeney, became one of the three female directors of sport. With the women now at the helm of the media charter, in-house productions of the women from 2011-13 toppled the men, with Wiegman the key figure.
She was finally appointed as the Dutch head coach in December 2017, leading them to the final of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France. In January 2023, she was appointed head coach of the England women’s football team.
In May 2007 Hope Powell, the Head Coach of the women’s team, announced her resignation after 15 years in charge and claimed she found herself increasingly at odds with the FA over the best way to develop the women’s and girl’s game in England. Hope Powell played for the national team from 1998 until 2003 and during her time as England Head Coach the team improved their ranking from fourteenth to fifth and reached the quarter finals of the World Cup for the first time. Following her departure FA WSL club, Brighton & Hove Albion appointed Hope Powell as their new manager, and at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup the Lionesses progressed to the semi-finals, but they lost disappointingly to the USA 2-1 (Drury et al., 2022). Phil Neville was appointed on the 23rd of January 2018 on a 3-year contract after he resigned from his managerial position at Manchester United’s men’s team. On the 27th of June 2020, it was announced by the FA that Neville would leave his managerial role after the conclusion of the women’s 2021 FIFA championship, which was postponed until 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that day, it emerged that he would take over the Inter Miami job; to be in charge of David Beckham’s MLS franchise in February 2021.
On the 9th of November 2020, it was announced that Dutch manager Sarina Wiegman, who inspired her country to win the UEFA Women’s Euro 2017, would become the team’s new Head Coach on the 1st of September 2021 after being named the Full-Time Manager of the Netherlands in the summer of 2017 and subsequently led the Dutch national team to UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 success in the Netherlands’ favorite tournament and the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 final. Wiegman’s appointment came as the sport was on the rise, with the best players fighting it out in the FA WSL, a better understanding of the English women’s game and what had made some countries women’s teams better than others. Since 2021, England appointed Sarina Wiegman, the Lionesses Head Coach, she lists the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 victory as her highlight in football.
The England women’s national football team, also known as the Lionesses, has a long and proud history as one of the world’s oldest female international sides. The Lionesses continue to make great strides on and off the pitch in terms of success, professionalism, fan attendance, and overall passion, with 2023 being an incredible year for the team as they made it to the World Cup final for the first time ever. Women’s national football teams continue to improve every year, with the Lionesses leading the charge by edging closer to the USWNT’s seemingly insurmountable FIFA Women’s World Cup record of winning four trophies. The Lionesses adore and respect their manager, Sarina Wiegman, who has an astonishing 35 unbeaten run of games with England, including 21 wins. She was also crowned FIFA The Best Women’s Football Coach in 2022 and is one of only two coaches to win a UEFA Women’s Euro title with two different teams. The Lionesses travelled to Australia and New Zealand with a fully fit squad. England played in Group D, finishing top and remaining unbeaten (4-1 vs. Haiti, 2-0 vs. Denmark, 6-1 vs. China). They faced Nigeria, a very well-organised and experienced side, in the Round of 16, needing penalties to go through. The team bounced back and ran riot against Colombia in the Quarter-Final, winning 2-1 and making it to a World Cup Final for the first time. England lost in a hard-fought game against Spain. This marked the end of an incredible year for the Lionesses, who retained their UEFA Women’s Euro title and finished runners-up at their first World Cup.
Playing styles/ tactics have been positively associated with soccer teams over time. While a defense-to-offense or offense-to-defense transition strategy is initiated by a player or the coach, there are many small strategies that depend on a player starting or countering for each team. Data on offensive strategies is mainly collected through categorical approaches. Styles regarding both attacking and defending paradigms collaboratively positively influence choices. A model that describes the importance of them as key performance indicators to characterize teams has been developed. Possession style can be divided into build-up possession style (slow buildup), direct style (directly knock-on or long pass), and their subdivision. All strategies consist of mainly short, medium, or long passes (Plakias et al., 2024).
An increasing number of women’s sporting events and competitions are being held across Europe and the United Kingdom, resulting in heightened interest and attendance from genders and age groups (Fielding-Lloyd et al., 2018). Similarly, attitudes towards female football fandom are shifting as further market research is conducted into female fan engagement, portraying a lucrative and untapped market niche. The media and marketing attention that female football currently attracts is insufficient to sustain its growth. For this to happen, a wider and clearer legislative strategic plan is required at the highest level to ensure that the culture of inequality within English football, and sports entertainment in general does not transfer from men’s to women’s football.
The pursuit of an inclusive, diversity-led approach that actively seeks to engage with the full range of audiences that make up the domestic British population is needed both for football institutions and the media. The continued presence and performative celebratory participation of semi-professional and amateur female football in mass-participation and elite spectacle sporting events will also be needed if current growth trends are to be sustained. Comparisons are often made between petty behaviour of fans of male football teams and the reported negative fan behaviours at Women’s Super League matches. This type of behaviour is undeniably present within the women’s professional game and must be challenged. In particular, a broad selection of female football content must be publicly available, which contains high production, journalistic quality standards.
Dedicated UK TV broadcasts of practice matches, and not solely WSL content, would also widen and deepen public engagement. Similarly, popular women’s football fans who are socially prominent need to be enlisted and endorsed in media campaigns and productions to promote matches and relevant fandom discourses. Currently, 70% of the FA Women’s Super League is available on free-to-air television, allowing easy access for peak-time matches for fandom engagement build-ups. The continued availability of matches free on television will be essential, while further building the mythology and lore of the league.
In the decades leading up to 1970, references to women’s football were virtually non-existent in the British media and public discourse. The first important meeting of The Women’s Football Association (WFA) in 1969, however, laid the foundations for subsequent changes. National and regional newspapers began to cover women’s matches as the 1970s progressed, and by the end of the decade, women’s, as well as men’s, football was beginning to be covered on radio, television, and film. Brief sporting reports provided an introduction to football and led to an increase in women footballers, leading to greater female access to football viewing, playing, and reporting (Woodhouse et al., 2019); (Drury et al., 2022). Although the number of women in football has increased over the years, discrimination against women footballers still exists in both the playing and non-playing areas. Men remain dominant at the higher levels of coaching, which is an area of concern as coaches are essential for the growth of the game. The discussions regarding the significance of female coaches must address the issue of transformation. The number of female coaches involved in men’s football is extremely limited, while the female football coaches that remain involved in women’s football are often stereotyped as “not good enough” to coach in the men’s game. Greater female involvement is needed in the development of women’s football at all levels and in order for women’s football to break the assumptions about the capability of women. The media has a prominent role to play in promoting women’s football, especially if women are viewed as not good enough to coach in men’s football leagues. To change the perceptions of ability, accent, and lifestyle, female coaches need to be visible in the media. Social media is an important avenue through which women footballers share their experiences of being a footballer and a woman, and how this impacts their love of the game and job. Within the football world, it is the coaches who influence the players, and the media and public perception of women’s football could directly impact the want of females to be involved in coaching women. It is hoped that as the public eye on the game evolves and the involvement of women in football grows, sexism will reduce in strength as well.
Over the last few decades, sponsorship and financial support for the Lionesses have grown significantly. Since 2013, all domestic football governing bodies have endorsed a legislation for women’s football in England, Football Association Premier League and the majority of EFL clubs pledging their support for WSL. To enhance football’s soft power at the level of community engagement, a more concerted effort is needed from the governing bodies. This is especially the case for developing the WSL. There is a need for continued development, investment, and sponsorship to make it a commercially viable, broadly based league on a par with the men’s equivalent. Clubs need to be pro-actively engaged in market building and stewarding. (Fielding-Lloyd et al., 2018)
At a fundamental level, the rapid rise in the profile, status, and popularity of English women’s football stems from the considerable efforts of the FA and its domestic football partners and from the media. Investment allowed the WSL to be constructed with adequate resource and talent, and commercialisation freed it from the constraints of amateurism. These during and post-tournament developments, especially the announcement and scheduling of WSL matches, were of critical importance. Beyond the footballing establishment, the impact made by women’s football on the British cultural discourse is measurable. Attention is reflected in the volume of newsprint and broadcasting hours, curiosity is evident in sold-out stadia and a doubling of television audiences, and public engagement is found through physical participation at club and recreational levels. This engagement with the national women’s football story at and beneath the ‘performance’ level is being sustained through ever-expanding forms of consumption via new media.
Illuminating some of the reasons for English women’s football’s extraordinary recent history involves understanding the historical significance that the game has had for British society, its cultural status, and its socio-political interaction with the establishment. During the heaviest times of gender discrimination and class oppression in the late 1800s, the emergence of women’s football was a public love affair, defying the odds to entertain audiences of thousands. For as long as women’s football turned into a ‘spectacle’, whether during the First World War or more recently, the game suffered interference from authority. Scarcely a week goes by without the Lionesses being prominently featured in the UK papers. Though over one hundred clubs field senior women’s teams in England, the WSL is still the only viable league.
A pivotal part of the Lionesses’ journey since 2018 has been the consequences of their summer World Cup performance – almost ecstatic for the England Lionesses – and the resultant challenges facing Ball at FA HQ. Greater visibility for women’s football, better funding, a whole of football development plan for girls and women, a pathway to the highly professional women’s game, a tent pole for Women’s Euros 2022, investment at the top tier and the pro club game – all were attached, on a superhuman timescale, to the Lionesses making it through a sometimes dubious series of knockout games. As acknowledged in the case of terms of reference for increased funding, what had been taken for granted was “visibility requires success” and what had often been ignored was matters of governance. Should England make it through the earlier rounds, there would be intense scrutiny of the FA’s governance of women’s football accompanied by inevitable dissatisfaction and discontent, as had been evident in the aftermath of the premature exit from the recent men’s version of the tournament as England faced renewed scrutiny of all things ‘institutional’.
The festive period immediately after the summer’s adventures in France saw FA HQ go into overdrive. With an evidence-based case in hand, FA top brass looked to persuade the wider football community and government to provide the funding and facilities, to provide more coaches and to develop the game. Clubs were visited to nurture and develop alliances on shared goals, with sometimes surprising levels of support, though scepticism remained. FA initiatives were rolled out to extend the reach of women’s football and to better its branding, with mixed results. Collaboration with key stakeholders extended beyond clubs and leagues to players and representative bodies for the first time, signposting greater inclusion in ongoing discussions than had been evident in the past. Initial funding applications made to Sport England and the Government provided criteria to shape future plans and were generally welcomed. However, it was less than a year since the Lionesses’ World Cup Run ignited the most recent explosion of interest in women’s football, which created expectations for immediate transformation that could not be fulfilled.
The England women’s national football team achieved some notable successes over the years. In 2015, they reached the semi-finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time. They subsequently won the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, their first major tournament victory. The Lionesses had also reached second place in the UEFA Women’s Euro 2009. As of August 2022, England is sixth in the FIFA Women’s World Rankings, their highest ranking to date. Their fans, known as the Lionesses’ Supporters Club, have become a larger and more organized group, with a notable turnout at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
On 31 July 2022, the Lionesses won 2–1 after extra time against Germany in the UEFA Women’s Euro final. Ella Toone opened the scoring for England in the 110th minute with a “wonderful” goal. She volleyed the ball into the net with her right heel from just inside the box to the left of the goal after a through ball from Keira Walsh. Shortly after, Germany equalized from a free kick in the 79th minute with a header from Lina Magull ( (Drury et al., 2022) ).
The professional game has only been established in England since 2011 when the FA’s 2011-15 strategy was created. This included an action plan for the newly reformed FA Women’s Super League (WSL), an ongoing development plan to increase the number of women’s football players and fans. An elite path was outlined for clubs to support girls’ and women’s football, allowing them to apply for grants that could help them establish youth development programs (Woodhouse et al., 2019).
To help increase the number of girls who play football, every club in the WSL must have a registered youth development program, and each club, again, must have a women’s team that is affiliated with the amateur FA, county FA, NGB, or non-league club. The UK Football Association (FA) has enhanced and consolidated its approach to youth development. Like other FA’s, it now supports a much wider range of development issues. There are innovations, argues The FA, in potential areas such as coach education, practice delivery, youth development pathways, conversion models, game forms, equality issues, and reflective practice. Additionally, children’s emotional and social development is regarded as a key element in enhancing childhood well-being and successful educational outcomes.
These programs provide young footballers with the opportunity to play football and also to develop personal qualities and values that can positively impact their lives off the pitch. It will examine how clubs are encouraging participation, developing talent, and subsequently supporting England international teams through youth development pathways. A study is needed that investigates clubs’ youth development programs in the WSL and the FA Women’s Championship. This case study will examine how those involved in youth development view the programs at their respective clubs.
Football has been a tremendously popular cause of mass entertainment around the world for more than a century. The sport gained popularity in England in the 19th century and quickly spread to other countries, giving rise to football leagues and international football. The turnover from the commercialisation of football led to an explosion of interest in the sport, with the professionalisation of clubs in the FA and rivalries forming as regions competed against each other. It eventually became an established part of British culture, with games attracting vast crowds and even a level of inter-city hostility. Fans feel a sense of identity with their club for a vast array of reasons, from its needless to its geographical ownership.
Having considered these aspects through the top four biggest football rivalries in England, the Auld Enemy rivalry, Merseyside rivalry, North London Derby and the-derbyda-darby rivalry have been highlighted (Whigham & Gibbons, 2017). Football rivalry is vital to the identity of die-hard supporters, with the games providing a source of passion rivalled by few other things in life. The analyses offer a comprehensive examination of this football rivalry, using the Auld Enemy rivalry between Scotland and England as a case study, and conclusions from the case study are generalised to all football rivalries and to other sports. Have a fascination with delving deep down in the oceans of human emotion, touching upon love, hatred, passion and friendship. Celtic v Rangers is a focus of this examination and they touch upon topics as far-reaching as identity, sectarianism, and violence in big cities. Considering the view of die-hard supporters, what it actually means to be a supporter of and participate in English football culture and the London Derby has been focused upon. The fandom of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal Football Club is the focus, with an aim to describe the local fandom, and how it is rapidly changing. The English Premier League is one of the biggest sporting events on the planet, so its impact on the culture of the top flight clubs is inevitably beginning to be felt outside of clubs’ respective home towns as clubs build their fanbase around the globe.
In the last decade of the 20th century, two paramount events addressed as social injustices in the USA were transformed into sports issues steeped in national preoccupation: injuries in ACL injuries in college football; sex discrimination in Title IX at universities. In both cases, two advocate-researcher activists made the issue visible, articulate, and ultimately actionable with rich investigation merged with pointed expert rhetoric: a former NCAA’s football coach while tracking the NFL injury crisis; Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. One pushed for sports safety and for institutional accountability through the courts, as the other pursued athletic equity for women over 30 years at the ACLU. Both crusades nested themselves in male-dominated sports, early on confronting institutional sexism (one on court discrimination since Title IX was passed; the other on exclusive advertising by men’s sports). Each took the fight up the hierarchy, involving prestigious lawyers and colossal spectacle events on the grandest arena — The Rose Bowl and The Super Bowl (one on one, pursuing action by sponsors of the other). Ultimately, both campaigns succeeded, but only for a privileged stratum of decision-makers sport-advanced enough to withstand scrutiny, negating the broader structural issues.
The 1994 USA/Caribbean Women Qualifying Tournament was held instead in Port-au-Prince, remarkably underdeveloped and below-standard facilities and utilities. Still, The US went on to win it with a perfect score of 30-0! The team thereafter held a series of four prep matches against beautifully-integrated Canada, however failing to win any. Entering the World Championship, the Americans lasted out a fierce duel against overwhelming favorite Norway, finally emerging victorious after 90 minutes – a triumph laden with emotion and hope. The rest, of course, is history.
There have been a total of eleven competitions in the history of the England women’s national football team against their nearest rivals: Germany. England have won four of these fixtures, including the most important one inextricably linked to the success of women’s football in this country – the UEFA Women’s Euro 2009 final at the City of the Arts and Sciences Stadium in Valencia. The countdown to the start of that final could hardly have been marked more dramatically than during the thirty-seventh minute when Karen Carney’s long ball over the German defence set up the breaking Kelly Smith for a classic finish into the empty net. England thus led against Germany for the first time in a final and, critically, by a goal when the half-time whistle blew. It is difficult to quantify the psychological weight of such statistics but they appeared to be moving towards the Lionesses. Within seven minutes of the start of the second half, however, Smith’s fine effort was no longer the talk of the press box.
Germany, under pressure to win back the title, had ruthlessly exposed England’s defensive frailties. First, Inka Grings met a long, looping ball back into the box with a classic diving header from just inside the penalty area. Three minutes later, Tina Theune’s substitutions paid dividends. From the corner worked by the German starlet, midfielder Melanie Behringer’s low drive doubled the score. Next, Grings volleyed Helen Lander’s attempt to clear upfield, met the ball on the full, and rocketed her left-foot 45 yards shot high into the arch of the goal – the best goal of tournament in retrospect. Ellen White, introduced to add pace and trickery, nearly replied immediately. Ellen hushed the crowd immediately, bouncing onto a pass, skipping past the goalkeeper, and when one-on-one with the net tempting shot, lulled the defence to sleep. The German backdrop of coaches Andrea Würr and Tina Theune leveled analysis during half-time, wrote hymns and composed history of a 14-year-old from North London merely sipping apple juice.
Despite being too old to aspire to the Metzauid kub, coming from the same country delivered some consolation to the home sides. As Ellen was reagled in the Americans’ final comment, there was a slight twist detection amid the overwhelming underperformance and disappointments. Looking ahead to 2010 and a lengthier season in league format, all England players would bear individually more seeked-to-obtain sell-on value as the “wonder girl” chased other plets on offer. The tournament and Germany had served their purpose, beering scrutiny in some quarters and laying down other turning points – hope in others.
The Lionesses have had a significant impact on the landscape of women’s sports, both in the UK and worldwide. From preventing BBC executives from talking about the Lionesses playing “like girls” after a convincing performance against Norway in the Euro 2016 quarter-final, to being voted the BBC’s Women’s Football Team of the Year 2019, they have become a well-known sporting fixture. The impact and cultural cache of the Lionesses has contributed to the expansion of women’s football across the UK and further afield, helping to change the narrative around femininity and sport. The Lionesses have sparked similar growth and awareness across the US and rest of the world. Although this growth was underway before the Lionesses, the Lionesses’ continued success has catalyzed their growth.
The most successful England Women’s National Team (EWNT) major tournament performance to date in 2022 resulted in significant pre-tournament coverage, but even more so in the aftermath. This growth in audience was augmented with the increased talent pool in the women’s game. With the help of elite facilities and investment into women’s football by men’s clubs including Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester United, the Lionesses shone bright in the Euro 2022 tournament held on home soil (Woodhouse et al., 2019). The Lionesses lifted the trophy in the night of a lifetime following extra-time against Germany. Energized with the win, as London was flooded with fans overwhelming public transport, and fireworks erupted over Wembley Stadium, the entire nation was engulfed in the joy of the Lionesses’ triumph.
The glory that unfolded on and off the pitch caused a seismic shift in the women’s football landscape in the UK. The Lionesses and women’s football dwarfed the next top trend of the week, which was the win of the Women’s Australian Open Golf LPGA, cementing the Lionesses as a cultural moment for the UK. Although the event was planned and touted for weeks in advance, the atmosphere and attention could never match what transpired in London following the Lionesses’ victorious Euros.
Throughout their long history, the England Lionesses have seen great highs and frustrating lows, both on the pitch and in the sporting and media landscape. Fortunately for fans of the England women’s national team, the last few years have been marked by an upsurge in the popularity of women’s football both in England and internationally, mostly spurred by the Lionesses’ success on the big stage. For the England Lionesses, however, it still feels like the greatest achievement of them all is lurking just beyond the horizon. There have been chances to win finals, which often slip away through bad luck or referee decisions. There have also been both tournament losses and final insipid performances from which the team is still recovering. If there are fears about the direction of the team in the months and years to come, there are also questions about the legacy of a generation of players that have lifted the game to dazzling new heights in England and garnered new fans as a result; as history has shown, such uptrends in form can happen for a number of reasons. For fans of the England Lionesses, a momentous few years made up of both valuable lessons and bittersweet experiences have been packed into what felt like a whirlwind. Time will tell where the England women’s national team goes next, whether it be on an electrifying new journey to incredible heights or an uncomfortable rebuilding of the squad as the “golden generation” gracefully step away from the game, but one thing is certain: there is still a riveting new chapter to be written on the world’s biggest stage. If the past has shown anything, it is that the Lionesses will always be up for the challenge.
In April 2022, the newly formed Lionesses Community Outreach and Initiatives team planned and executed a series of events aimed at positively engaging communities, allowing young footballers to meet their heroes, and promoting physical activity. Activities included visiting schools, hosting a girls’ football tournament, and dropping into community clubs, culminating in an exciting event for young Lionesses fans at Wembley Stadium, where players showcased their skills. This initiative was inspired by the impact Ellen White, Rachel Daly, and Lucy Bronze had on young girls, leading to a desire to spread that joy and make football more accessible to future generations (Woodhouse et al., 2019). The Lionesses were keen to leave a positive legacy from their time campaigned together as a team, capitalising on an opportunity to inspire young footballers.
Using the hashtag #SeeHerPlay, Lionesses inspired and promoted youth engagement in football events around the country. To launch the initiative, the Lionesses visited Woodside Academy Primary School in Barnet, North London, during their 2021 European Championship quest. Players led the girls through various football-themed skills and shooting drills while coaches recorded their participation. Kicking it at Wembley followed the primary school visit, a landmark event at Wembley Stadium that brought together girls between 8-14 from London club teams Whetstone Wanderers and House of Commons FC. Before a pre-match meet and greet with the Lionesses and filming of #KickingItAtWembley, mini-soccer games were played on the hallowed turf. Young Lionesses played on the same pitch as their idols for the first time, making it a history lesson and an unforgettable occasion.
In an article for Slate earlier in July 2022, Rachel Leaf approved many of the positives of the Lionesses’ progress yet questioned England’s priorities in its treatment of women’s football and its overall broadcasting value. “Why is it, after all, that the Lionesses’ achievement has been treated with such jubilation, while no one seems to be all that bothered about those who left behind the rest of the World Cup?” She continued, “For far too long, women athletes have been neglected instead of celebrated. Increasingly we have seen some strides towards equality; this has included world cups, thrilling FA Cup finals and gorgeous Olympics. Yet it is still hard to shake the omnipresent feeling that women’s football is treated mediocrity, dismissed as petty and petty. Just like the underhanded comments and snide remarks made on the banality of ‘the ms’ documentary series of women’s sports (Bowes & Bairner, 2019).” Nevertheless, the Lionesses are increasingly fighting against doubters whilst they themselves are becoming some of the largest rebuttals to such assertions. Following unexpected success at the most recent Euros in July, the team were back in action for a run of World Cup Qualification matches, with the opportunity to further etch their name into the history books of English football. A win against the Czech Republic on August 30, 2023, would mean that the Lionesses would win eleven matches ahead of the tournament in Australia and New Zealand next year- the record for any Lionesses coach. Sarina Wiegman was able to use this opportunity to partially experiment with squad personnel. New to the fold were Rachel Daly and Maya Le Tissier, invited for next week’s training camp in St. George’s Park. Perhaps starting in ail that would interest more debate was opportunistic City loanee Alex Greenwood on the left of the back three for the first time. Also starting three on the right, Millie Bright was constantly looking to switch play with deadly long vertical passes that caught out the Czech Republic backline.
The England Women’s National Football Team (Lionesses) is one of the 10 best football teams in the world, ranked 6th with 1635.29 points. The Lionesses have qualified for all UEFA Women’s Euro Finals. Their record in these tournaments is 25 wins, 13 losses, and 5 draws, scoring 102 goals and conceding 49, making a goal difference of +53. The Lionesses hosted the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, becoming the first team to win this tournament with 20 wins, with a record 17 consecutive matches won from 5 March 2020 to 11 July 2022. The Lionesses are the first European team to beat the United States Women’s National Team in World Cups, going undefeated in five consecutive matches (2 wins, 3 draws) from July 11, 2019 to September 27, 2022. Their XI against Norway in the quarter-finals of the EURO 2022 (11 July 2022) is the first to score 8 goals in a knockout match in Women’s Euro Finals history. Goalkeeper Karen Bardsley became the first player to save a penalty in Women’s World Cup history against Colombia. Women’s football in England has a long-standing history, with the formation of the first women’s football club in 1895, the first match of which saw the first ever women’s goal scored just two minutes into the game. In December 2015, The Football Association launched a new strategy for women’s football to build on the national team’s success and drive the game forward at all levels. The strategy included a range of goals around the growth of the game, teams, the Lionesses, events and higher standards, the first of which was the formation of an 8-team league on top of the Women’s Super League. The England Women’s National B Football Team (Lionesses) is the female national football team of England that is controlled by the England and Wales Football Association (FA) (Scanlan, 2018)
Due to the limited availability of historical statistics, the comparative analysis with other national teams only covers more recent matches (those played on or after 01 January 2018). The analysis is based on FIFA’s Women’s World Ranking standard measures—namely, the number of matches played, wins, draws, losses, goals scored, and goals conceded (Scanlan, 2018). While there are 142 national teams in the overall analysis, only ranked teams—those that have played at least five matches in the past four years—are included in the graphical representations.
The Three Lionesses’ gradual improvement in the FIFA Women’s World Rankings is illustrated in the progress quadrant graphical representation (Congdon-Hohman & Matheson, 2011). The three fastest climbers in percentage point increase of Elo ratings (i.e., the difference in international match success) are those in the upper right quadrant: Angola, Vietnam, and Jamaica. These teams dramatically improved over the four-year span, winning five or more matches against teams ranked in a lower decile than them. All three teams, however, have still only managed to achieve a 44% match win rate against all opposition and 38% against ranked opposition over the same timeframe, lower than the lower quartile of teams on 55% and 53%, respectively.
Moving to the lower right quadrant, eight teams, including England, managed to improve but are still below the average winning percentages. These teams benefited from an enormous talent pool combined with excellent structure and development programs. While improvement against the top-ranked teams in this slice has yet to happen, teams in this quadrant bolster the upper quartile of teams against all competitors (80% win rate)—e.g., Canada and Brazil. Using FIFA Women’s World Rankings quartiles to analyse relative strength, ‘over-scrutinised’ teams (relative underperformance) are at the top: England managed an underwhelming 67% success rate, eliminating Canada’s consistency and goalkeeping strength.
This project has outlined the trajectory of the England women’s football team since its inception. The historical overview traced the establishment of the FA Women’s Committee in 1920 and the early attempts at international play against France. The considerable gaps in both off-field and media-led coverage between both Lionesses early competitors and their later counterparts have been detailed. The women’s game was firmly in its infancy in 1928, with crowds of thousands viewing the titanic struggle for supremacy between the teams operating outside the suffragette movement. But as media interest burgeoned, quickly falling away, so too collapsed the early establishment attempts at female participation in the beautiful game. A very different landscape awaits Lionesses today as ever higher broadcasts figures and crowds flock to grounds prove the immense growth of interest in women’s football over the last two decades .
Commercially, the Lionesses will hopefully be presented with a similar inertia, if not relative, as that experienced by the men in recent decades as lower expectations and media engagement gave way to international prominence and heightened scrutiny. For the nation’s elite female footballers, this heightened scrutiny could amplify its effect if performance fails to match this soaring interest. Key issues such as inequalities in preparation and pay are likely to attract far wider media gaze than ever before, which has been historically absent. Looking ahead, the task remains the same: to preserve the footballing foundation whilst future-proofing football for future generations of young girls who will soon only know footballing gender-equality, parity and ever-burning hope.
But as the Lionesses’ club footballers showcase in the WSL, jealousy of international competition should make way for international cooperation as youth leagues proliferate, professionalisation expands and resources grow. The men’s game, successful on the back of this, must remember the call to arms for commercial inequality and disparity to not permeate nascent club competition. Into this landscape, the Lionesses stand ready to shine with longer-term, club-orientated footballing vacancies needing filling. But just as with the men, one missing issue stands in the way of medal-winning glory: the dominance-fighting presence of fierce competitors – Brazil, France, Germany – is present, ready to right their own historical wrongs.
Authors: Margaret Phillips, Michael Fosmire, Jing Lu, Kristin Petersheim, Laura Turner
Year: 2018
URL: Link to paper
Citation (APA): Phillips, M., Fosmire, M., Lu, J., Petersheim, K., & Turner, L. (2018). How do professional engineers use information compared to undergraduates, and how can libraries prepare students and support engineers for future success?
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Authors: Ingbert R. Floyd, M. Cameron Jones, Dinesh Rathi, Michael B. Twidale
Year: 2007
URL: Link to paper
Citation (APA): R. Floyd, I., Cameron Jones, M., Rathi, D., & B. Twidale, M. (2007). Web Mash-ups and Patchwork Prototyping: User-driven technological innovation with Web 2.0 and Open Source Software.
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Authors: Luke Hilton, Claire Browne, Elaine Lewis
Year: 2018
URL: Link to paper
Citation (APA): Hilton, L., Browne, C., & Lewis, E. (2018). Analysis of UX Cultural Probe: study of postgraduate taught students, University of Birmingham.
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Authors: Mannat Kaur, Michel van Eeten, Marijn Janssen, Kevin Borgolte, Tobias Fiebig
Year: 2021
URL: Link to paper
Citation (APA): Kaur, M., van Eeten, M., Janssen, M., Borgolte, K., & Fiebig, T. (2021). Human Factors in Security Research: Lessons Learned from 2008-2018.
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Authors: Sandy Zinn, Dorcas Krubu
Year: 2018
URL: Link to paper
Citation (APA): Zinn, S., & Krubu, D. (2018). Information behaviour of Nigerian undergraduates in the World of Web 2.0.
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Authors: Aditya Mehta, Arun Paudyal, Atul Sharma, Zyanya Ambros, Ipek Baris, Jun Sun, Oul Han, Akram Sadat Hosseini
Year: 2020
URL: Link to paper
Citation (APA): Mehta, A., Paudyal, A., Sharma, A., Ambros, Z., Baris, I., Sun, J., Han, O., & Sadat Hosseini, A. (2020). Does the First Mover Advantage Exist on GitHub?.
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Author: Rosalyn M. Metz
Year: 2006
URL: Link to paper
Citation (APA): Metz, R. M. (2006). Conducting Online Research: Undergraduate Preferences of Sources.
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Author: F. Basar Kurtbayram
Year: 2007
URL: Link to paper
Citation (APA): Basar Kurtbayram, F. (2007). User Innovation: Why and How?.
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Author: P. Alison Paprica
Year: 2021
URL: Link to paper
Citation (APA): Alison Paprica, P. (2021). Risks for Academic Research Projects, An Empirical Study of Perceived Negative Risks and Possible Responses.
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Authors: Vahid Garousi, Michael Felderer, Mika V. Mäntylä, Austen Rainer
Year: 2019
URL: Link to paper
Citation (APA): Garousi, V., Felderer, M., Mäntylä, M. V., & Rainer, A. (2019). Benefitting from the Grey Literature in Software Engineering Research.
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You can explore these sources for insights and further readings relevant to your project. (Phillips et al., 2018)
References:
Fielding-Lloyd, B., Woodhouse, D., & Sequerra, R. (2018). ‘More than just a game’: family and spectacle in marketing the England Women’s Super League. [PDF]
Williams, J. (2019). Wehre the lassies from Lancashire : Manchester Corinthians Ladies FC and the use of overseas tours to defy the FA ban on women’s football. [PDF]
Soroka, A. (2017). HISTORY OF WOMEN’S FOOTBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN 1991–2007. [PDF]
Dashper, K. (2018). Smiling assassins, brides-to-be and super mums: The importance of gender and celebrity in media framing of female athletes at the 2016 Olympic Games. [PDF]
Drury, S., Stride, A., Fitzgerald, H., Hyett-Allen, N., Pylypiuk, L., & Whitford-Stark, J. (2022). “I’m a Referee, Not a Female Referee”: The Experiences of Women Involved in Football as Coaches and Referees. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Williams, J. (2019). Upfront and onside: women, football, history and heritage special edition. Introduction: Women’s football and the #MeToo movement 2019. [PDF]
F. Grainey, T. (2012). Beyond Bend It Like Beckham. [PDF]
Woodhouse, D., Fielding-Lloyd, B., & Sequerra, R. (2019). Big brother’s little sister: the ideological construction of women’s super league. [PDF]
Plakias, S., Tsatalas, T., Armatas, V., Tsaopoulos, D., & Giakas, G. (2024). Tactical Situations and Playing Styles as Key Performance Indicators in Soccer. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Whigham, S. & Gibbons, T. (2017). The Auld Enemy?: Exploring the England vs. Scotland rivalry from the perspective of soccer fans. [PDF]
Bowes, A. & Bairner, A. (2019). Three lions on her shirt: hot and banal nationalism for England’s sportswomen. [PDF]
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1. Introduction Chelsea Women’s Football, officially known as Chelsea Ladies Football Club, is a women’s…
Get ready to dive into the exciting world of women's football with Chelsea Women's team leading the charge! Chelsea Women's Football has been making waves in the sports scene, captivating fans with their skill and determination. The team's passion and commitment to the sport are truly inspiring. chelsea womens football The thrill of watching these talented athletes take to the field is unmatched. With their impressive performances, Chelsea Women's Football is redefining the sport and pushing boundaries. … Experience the Thrill of Chelsea Women’s Football (2025)Read More »
1. Introduction to Women's Football Women’s football has a long history, dating back to the…
We are witnessing a significant surge in the popularity of women's football, and with it, the demand for high-quality women's football jerseys is on the rise. The importance of stylish and high-performance women's football kits cannot be overstated, as they…
1. Introduction to Women's Football Jerseys Women’s football is not just a sporting phenomenon; it…
The women's football world in the Premier League has seen big changes thanks to Arsenal WFC. This team shows top skills in the sport. Arsenal WFC has a long list of wins. It's a top women's soccer team. It motivates young female players to follow their dreams. The team's success in the Premier League shows women's football is getting more popular and competitive. … Arsenal WFC: Premier League’s Premier Women’s Soccer Team 2025Read More »
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