It has been an incredible week for women’s football. Winning the European Championship was a landmark achievement for England and the infectious joy of the team, the scenes at the press conference and victory parade were a reminder of why we all love the game. Congratulations to the inspirational Sarina Wiegman and her amazing group of players.
Quickly the conversation has turned to the legacy the tournament can create. Ian Wright, an informed and passionate champion of the women’s game, called for more grassroots investment and for the Premier League to take over the running of the Women’s Super League (WSL).
The grassroots argument is an essential one and every school should have a football programme for boys and girls — but the future of the WSL requires careful consideration. As a Chairman and owner who has been involved on the periphery and is about to fully take over our women’s team at Crystal Palace, I see obstacles that we need to overcome to create a truly amazing women’s domestic league.
We have a vibrant international scene and potentially interesting European club competition but the women’s game has in many ways been created from the top downwards. It has worked as a strategy to build interest but the men’s game, by contrast, developed from local club football upwards (there weren’t serious men’s internationals until the 1950s).
From the turn of the last century pretty much every town that could muster a decent crowd formed a club and every club was formed on the basis that they had the chance to get to the top. With a local professional team geographically accessible that supporters could identify with, interest and attendance grew rapidly.