Prime Minister Liz Truss met England’s victorious Lionesses today and watched them train at the Lensbury Resort in south-west London.
The Lionesses became UEFA European Champions when Sarina Wiegman’s side beat Germany 2-1 in extra-time on a historic evening at Wembley in July.
During the Tory leadership campaign, all 23 members of the winning squad wrote to Ms Truss and her then-rival Rishi Sunak demanding “real change” for women’s football.
The team said they see their victory as “only the beginning” and want all schoolgirls to have access to a minimum of two hours a week of sport classes.
Ms Truss has said she is “committed to investigating what prevents schools” from providing two hours of PE per week and “wants equal access to all sports for boys and girls.”
During her visit the Prime Minister held up the European trophy and posed for a team photo. The Prime Minister then joined some of the squad in singing happy birthday to the Football Association’s (FA) director of women’s football Baroness Sue Campbell on the pitch.
Only a third of girls aged five to 18 play football each week despite it being England’s most popular team sport, according to research by the FA.
Just 63% of schools in England offer equal football coaching to boys and girls, the FA found.
But the national celebration of the Lionesses’ 2-1 win over Germany at Wembley Stadium in July has prompted calls for an overhaul of physical education (PE) classes.
Following the Lionesses’ incredible success in July, the then Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries announced that grassroots facilities will be named after the 23 players in and around each of their respective hometowns or places that shaped their footballing careers in honour of their achievements.
As part of the Government’s £230 million investment to build or improve 8,000 grassroots football and multi-sport facilities by 2025, alongside the stipulation that they must provide access for women’s and girl’s football, the move will cement the team’s legacy for generations to come.
This will support the FA’s ambition for the tournament to create half a million extra opportunities for women and girls to play football.
£25 million has already been invested over the last year in grassroots facilities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with more than 170 facilities delivered by the Football Foundation, in partnership with the Premier League and the FA.
The Government says it continues to support the growth of women’s and girl’s football and driving up participation in the sport.
Working alongside the FA, the Government says it is determined to achieve their ambition of equal access to football for girls in 90% of schools by 2024, and the £320 million PE and School Sports Premium School Sport and Activity Action Plan will help more girls to take part in sport and physical activity.
During the pandemic £2.9 million in grant funding was provided through the Sport Survival Package to the Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship to cover essential costs and allow the completion of their seasons. This was part of the unprecedented £1 billion package to ensure the survival of the grassroots, professional sport and leisure sectors during the pandemic. The staging of EURO 2022 has also been supported with £4.6 million.
In addition, the Government listed several high profile women’s tournaments, including the Women’s FIFA World Cup, and the UEFA Women’s EUROs as events of national significance. This means they will now have greater opportunity to be shown on free-to-air television, increasing awareness of the women’s game, providing greater commercial opportunities and inspiring more young girls to take up the sport.
It has also been announced that a review of the domestic women’s game has been launched to look at how to grow the game at elite and grassroots level.
