It’s the last weekend of the Women’s Euros and Cymru’s time in the Euros has been over for more than two weeks and we all sadly followed a new team for the final. I won’t say who I was waving on, but I’m writing this eating Tapas and drinking Sangria.
Embed from Getty ImagesWe have been able to enjoy the matches without the tense feeling you get while watching Cymru. Wondering how did the German keeper manage to make that amazing save against France, marveling at the amazing skill of Aitana Bomati and how the hell England kept coming back.
Embed from Getty ImagesSo yes this chapter of Cymru Women’s football is over. We made it to the mountain top (both figurative and literal), after 30+ years of trying. Did the last page of this chapter go the way we wanted it to? No, but did we really expect it to? It wasn’t called the ‘Group of Death’ because all the teams are on their last legs. While we are getting ready for Chapter Two of this great story we can have a quick look back at the start of the chapter.
Embed from Getty ImagesA chapter that started with a fight to have a team, wearing hand-me down kits from the men’s team, and attendance figures that included a horse. Standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before them, our current heroes have helped change our country. Giants of the game like Gwennan Harries (the best pundit on TV), Loren Dykes, plus all the other past players and managers such as Jarmo Matikainen, Gemma Grainger and of course Jane Ludlow.
Embed from Getty ImagesBut the three biggest giants of them all are the ladies who started all this, 1992 Karen Jones, Michelle Adams and Laura McAllister met with FAW General Secretary Alun Evans to demand a Women’s National Team. We owe all this to these three ladies.
33 years later and we are mixing it with the top teams and Y Wal Goch were singing in the Alps like Julie Andrews (yes, I know they were in the Austrian section of the Alps, but do you know anyone who sung in the Swiss Alps? See, this isn’t easy.) Singing from before the first whistle to long after the final whistle. We will always remember the pride we felt during the three times we sung Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau this summer.
Embed from Getty ImagesI mentioned at the start that the results weren’t great but this was the first step on the ladder. We got to see the ladies on the big stage, we got to celebrate two goals and watch Jess Fishlock where she belongs, mixing it with other greats of women’s football in front of millions watching around the world.
Embed from Getty ImagesIf you have taken young male members of your family to play or train for their local team, you will know there are not always changing rooms or toilets open, so they have put their shirts on at the side of the pitch and before the match you’ve sent them behind a tree or a bush to have a pee. Imagine this but with a female member of your family, no wonder so many young girls give up playing football.
Let’s get these facilities sorted for the girls (and boys) and include basics such as the availability of sanitary products in these changing rooms for example. There is probably lots more things needed that a fifty-year-old male like me has no idea about!
Embed from Getty ImagesIf by any chance someone from the FAW is reading this, reach out to all the women I’ve mentioned. Speak to all the girls teams around the country and ask them what they need to make sure they keep playing. Speak to the girls in schools who don’t play football but would like to. What is the something(s) stopping them? We must not waste this opportunity. Let’s work together to ensure watching our National Women’s Team playing in the big tournaments is the norm.
Embed from Getty ImagesAnd finally, what can we do as fans? That’s easy. Let’s turn up in greater numbers, let’s one day fill the Cardiff City Stadium.
I will end this by saying a big thank you to the ladies I’ve mentioned (and Jarmo). Also to everyone else involved in Welsh Women’s Football over the years from National team to club football and youth football. Coaches and volunteers, to parents driving their girls to matches and training. You have all helped change our country’s attitude to women’s sports and gotten thousands of young girls and boys joining football teams; especially this past year since that amazing night in Dublin. Diolch!
@StephenJBaker with the words. Thanks, as always, to Getty Images for the use of their photos.