The first time I reported on an England women’s international fixture from a stadium’s press box rather than from the distant vantage point of a desk in a far-away office next to a television, the Lionesses were playing a friendly against Italy in April 2017 at Port Vale’s Vale Park, a ground which – please forgive me, any Vale fans reading this – I think it’s fair to say could have benefited from a little TLC, compared to the facilities the European champions have become accustomed to more recently.
Such was the relative informality of the occasion, I found a parking spot down a rather poorly lit side road in Burslem behind some rusting garages and quickly realised a member of an England player’s family was reversing to try to fit into the small space immediately behind me. After the match – a rather forgettable yet interesting 1-1 draw attended by 7,181 fans – half a dozen reporters sat around a small table with chairs hastily arranged for an impromptu post-match chat with the coach then, Mark Sampson. The BBC’s very dedicated women’s sports reporter Jo Currie conducted broadcast interviews, but that aside, it was a quiet press room. All of these things felt perfectly normal at the time, for the level of media attention the national squad were receiving.
I could not have cared less about the spiders in the toilets because of the natural pride and excitement that came with the privilege of reporting on an international fixture. And frankly I’d be lying somewhat if I said I did not miss those quieter nights where there was minimal risk of pre-match traffic, higher chances of grabbing yourself a Bovril, and players were comfortable having a relaxed chat with reporters. But the women’s game, those world-class players, and the sport in general, deserved better than so many empty seats, not only on the terraces, but crucially within the media seating zone. England deserved better. Italy deserved better. Women deserved better.
Memories like that were why, when just a mere two and a half quick years later after England’s runs to the semi-finals of both Euro 2017 and the 2019 World Cup in France, as Phil Neville’s side ran out at Wembley for a friendly against Germany in front of 77,768 fans, I remember taking a moment to simply drink the scene in. How utterly wonderful it was to see the place so busy.
Row upon row of journalists sat in a press box that was so bustling compared to Vale Park it would have been tricky to spot even Currie’s trademark bright-coloured trousers among the cram of people in the mixed zone afterwards. Seeing more widespread coverage like that has since become the norm, thankfully.
Across the modern era, there have been numerous watershed or gamechanging moments for women’s football where a key trigger has helped elevate the sport and ultimately create more opportunities for women and girls, whether that be the move to a full-time Women’s Super League, groundbreaking broadcast deals to provide more exposure on television, or moments in time that engaged the nation such as Team GB beating Brazil at the London 2012 Olympics. Various different factors such as those, when all added together, have ultimately helped the sport get where it is today, but transformations in media coverage have been crucial too but rather more subtle.
Which is why, when I heard the Guardian were expanding their women’s football coverage and hiring another women’s football writer, I was so impressed by that decision, heartened to see more investment from the publication, and happy to hear that news for the industry, regardless of whoever was going to ultimately get the job. Then, for it to end up being me that is the lucky one who has the honour of serving you in this role, well, naturally, as you can imagine, I am absolutely delighted. Think back to the smiles on the England players’ faces when they knocked Australia out of the World Cup semi-finals last summer and then imagine that scene again but instead it’s me, my wife and our greyhound Blake bouncing around the kitchen in celebration. That kind of delight.
More importantly than that, though, and most crucially perhaps, one of the things that expanding the women’s football reporter team does is gives us the time and opportunity to dig deeper into more vital stories that readers of women’s football news deserve, and that those involved in the sport deserve to hear raised, because – despite what all the above about the glamour of Wembley games and the rise of the game – this sport still has a very long way to go and a lot of deep-rooted problems that need to be discussed, exposed or called out.
The perfect example sadly emerged on my second day in the job this week with one of the first stories that we wrote together here: Fears are mounting that Reading may no longer be able to play in the Women’s Championship owing to financial concerns.
It’s a situation causing immense stress and anxiety for staff, players and parents of the academy youngsters, with youth teams understood to be at serious risk of being disbanded altogether. It’s just one example of the relative fragility of the women’s game, once you dip below the joyous clouds of international success and the glitz and glamour of live matches on national television. Another of the first few articles we have written this week, published off the back of a survey by the group Women in Football whose data recorded another depressing rise in incidents of discrimination against women in the game, highlights again how much more hard work must be done.
I have a bias in saying this, of course, but only with more journalists covering the women’s game, more investigations and with an increase in the detail of reporting on problems like this, can there be real hope for change.
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