England flags and bunting hang across the Kirby Estate in Bermondsey where residents are showing their support for England ahead of the final of Women's soccer World Cup.Lucy North/The Associated Press
Pubs are preparing to open early, giant screens have gone up in town squares across the country and a senior bishop has given the faithful a dispensation to skip church.
England is readying for Sunday’s Women’s World Cup final against Spain with an outpouring of excitement that only a country mad about soccer can generate. The hype has got so intense that there are calls for a national holiday if England wins and plans for a statue of head coach Sarina Wiegman outside Wembley Stadium, the home of English soccer.
“I’m beyond excited for the game,” said Alice Devine, 34, a soccer fan in south London who will be among 200 supporters packed into the Ivy House pub on Sunday to watch the final, which kicks off in Sydney’s Stadium Australia at 11 a.m. British time. “I am still processing that it’s a reality because it feels like a dream.”
Like a lot of women, Devine didn’t have a chance to play much soccer as a kid. So last April she started her own team, the Deptford Ravens. The club has grown to 170 members, all women of varying ages and playing abilities. “I wanted a place where women who had never played before were really welcomed,” she said.
For Devine and many others, the buzz surrounding the Lionesses illustrates just how far the women’s game has come in Britain. It’s not lost on her or anyone else that when England last won the World Cup, in 1966, women were effectively barred from playing the game.
The Football Association, the sport’s governing body, wouldn’t allow women to set foot on fields belonging to FA-affiliated clubs. “The game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged,” the FA said when it introduced the ban in 1921.
The exclusion remained in place until 1970 and while a handful of women’s teams managed to create a rival Women’s Football Association, they were relegated to playing matches at rugby grounds and small venues. The FA took over the WFA in 1993 and only then did the national association create a women’s football committee.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, women were still largely discouraged from playing soccer and England’s national team struggled on the global stage. The team didn’t qualify for the first Women’s World Cup in 1991 and failed to make it in 1999 and 2003.
The turning point came in 2011 when the FA launched the Women’s Super League. The WSL started out as a part-time summer league with eight teams but became fully professional in 2018 and expanded to two divisions, which now have 12 teams each. The playing season was also switched to match the men’s game.
The reforms led to greater involvement by English Premier League clubs and this season all but two of the teams in the top division are part of EPL giants such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City. The WSL went on to sign a sponsorship agreement with Barclays Bank and broadcast deals with Sky Sports and the BBC.
A mural of soccer player Fran Kirby is painted onto a wall outside the Kirby Estate in Bermondsey in South London, on Aug. 18, where residents are showing their support for England ahead of the final of Women's soccer World Cup between Spain and England.Lucy North/The Associated Press
As the league grew, it became a proving ground for England’s national team and attracted global stars such as Australia’s Sam Kerr, Vivianne Miedema of the Netherlands and Jamaican striker Khadija (Bunny) Shaw. A total of 94 WSL players – including five Canadians – competed at this year’s Women’s World Cup, more than any other professional league.
The strength of the WSL has helped propel England into the top echelon of women’s soccer. The Lionesses won the European championship last year and advanced to the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2019 and 2015.
The team’s success has had a trickle-down effect. There are now 2.4 million women and girls playing soccer in England, according to the FA, and attendance at WSL games soared 200 per cent last year to an average of 5,600 fans a game. Attendance is expected to grow further this season when more games are played in Premier League stadiums.
“The number of players has just gone through the roof,” said Danny Rebbeck, 38, who coaches a girls’ team in North Walsham, a town outside Norwich, which is home to England star Lauren Hemp. Three years ago North Walsham had no girls’ team and a limited women’s program. Now there are five youth teams for girls and a range of adult teams. “We get inquiries, pretty much on a daily basis. At times it’s hard to keep up with it,” Rebbeck said.
There are still many challenges. The WSL teams have yet to turn a profit and access to facilities remains largely unequal. And despite all of her success, Wiegman is paid a fraction of what the FA pays men’s coach Gareth Southgate. She earns around £400,000 ($690,000) while he is paid close to £5-million.
Devine is among those who hope a win on Sunday will encourage still more growth in the women’s game. But even if England loses, she feels the team has already had an impact.
“For children watching this, they have role models I never had and that is sure to have a huge psychological effect on the country,” she said. “I even notice in myself, how much more confidence and belief I have in myself from watching the players. It’s infectious.”