One in ten Britons believe England’s Lionesses received too much recognition for winning the 2022 Women’s Euro, according to a study by YouGov.
Nine percent of UK adults said the English women’s national team had been too highly praised for their coveted win, with this figure being higher for men (13%) than women (4%).
Meanwhile, 32% of those surveyed thought that plaudits had been too few.
The 2022 victory saw the first time a senior England side had won a major football trophy since the World Cup in 1966.
Amy Clement, co-founder of the Her Game Too campaign against sexism in sport, said: “I personally think the celebration was about the right amount, because it’s still a growing sport and the quality of the sport is getting better and better every season, so those celebrations will only get bigger.”
Besides the memorable celebrations in Trafalgar Square in the immediate aftermath of the tournament, the winning squad have been honoured in a number of other ways.
Beth Mead was awarded the golden boot as top goal scorer of the tournament, and went on to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Goalkeeper Mary Earps won it the year afterwards, following her stellar performance in the World Cup.
Earps and Lauren Hemp both received MBEs in the 2024 New Year Honours List, and Millie Bright was awarded an OBE.
The increased enthusiasm for the women’s game translated directly into involvement, both in terms of match attendance, and participation at an amateur level.
In the wake of the tournament, the total attendance of the subsequent UEFA Women’s Champions League season in 2022/23 saw a 23% increase in attendance when compared to the year before, and a record average match attendance of 11,166.
UEFA also recorded a 140% year-on-year increase in participation among girls under 16, and a 53% increase among women aged 16 and over in the year after the tournament.
Clement noted the boosted enthusiasm among Brits in both the sport and the individual players.
She said: “I can’t quite comprehend the difference, with things like the sticker books with women’s players in, the fact that it-s on TV, the fact that you can access it, the fact that some clubs – but not all – give parity to the men’s and to the women’s teams through their social media channels.”
In spite of this, Her Game Too has seen a continuation in criticism of the women’s side, particularly from men, who are disproportionate in their disapproval of the Lionesses’ acclaim.
Clement said: “I think there’s still a target on the back of women’s football, suggesting that the standard isn’t very good, and saying things like ‘I couldn’t care less about my team’s women’s side’, and that’s very very often coming from men.
“That sort of attitude is because of embedded misogyny.”
She recalled comments about women’s inability to kick the ball with as high a velocity as men, a debate which was called into question by William Roy Barfield, Donald T Kirkendall, and Bing Yu in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, with the conclusion finding that this was not an accurate generalisation, as one of the six female test subjects outperformed both the male test subjects.
This study, published over 20 years ago, went on to consider whether any disparity in kicking speed would become negligible over time as women gained greater access to high-level football training.
Clement similarly pointed out the impact of increased participation at lower levels.
She said: “Imagine how much more talent we’ll be able to find because so many more girls are playing, and the pathways are going to get better.
“Therefore the quality of the football will get better, therefore the product is better, and there’s more money, more time, more fans, there’s a wider reach.
“It just sort of grows itself over time and I think that people forget the history and how quick the incline has been.”
For fans of the Lionesses, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in supporting the current Euro campaign.
Her Game Too runs watch parties around the country, and, in collaboration with Alessia Russo and Hellman’s, have launched the Russo burger, from which £2 of every sale will go towards the Her Game Too campaign.
For Clement, these watch parties symbolise how far the women’s game has come.
She said: “It’s so nice to see people going to the pub to see the women’s Euros because that’s what we do with the men’s games, so it’s great to see that being imitated.”
Picture credit: Jarmoluk
