Our very own Lionesses!
Posted: Wednesday 23rd August 2023
Over the past few weeks our lionesses have showed perseverance, passion and played some brilliant football. Unfortunately, they lost in the final round of the Women's FIFA World Cup to Spain.
Despite the loss, the Lionesses have inspired thousands of young girls to get involved in football. Here at MCFC we are supporting the development of Women’s football and will continue to encourage girls to get their boots on!
We offer an Under 10’s team, who are starting their league in September with an Under 12’s team hopefully starting in January. In addition, the Under 7’s to 9’s will be taking part at the Lionesses sessions on Sundays, lead by Tony and Grace Dedman.
Although girl’s football is being encouraged and widely embraced a lot more in today’s day and age, as we all know it hasn’t always been this way. We have been educating ourselves on the history and the heritage of Women’s football.
Starting with a bit of background information, Women’s football was established at the same time as men’s football. However, it didn’t take off until World War One because whilst men were away fighting, women had to take over predominantly male positions. Consequently, more females were working in factories, where they started to form their own teams. Dick Kerr Ladies F.C. were one of England’s earliest football teams, some teams were bringing in crowds of up to 53,000 people! Unfortunately, when WW1 ended, football was deemed unsuitable for women due to ‘health concerns’… or so they said.
Here is a timeline of 9 moments that changed the face of the game:
1921: THE FA BANS WOMEN’S FOOTBALL FROM OFFICIAL GROUNDS
1971: THE BAN IS LIFTED AND THE WOMEN’S FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION IS FORMED
1972: THE ENGLAND TEAM WINS INTERNATIONALLY FOR THE FIRST TIME
1999: THE LADIES BEGIN TO SELL OUT STADIUMS
2002: FOOTBALL BECOMES THE MOST PARTICIPATED SPORT FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN
2005: THE UEFA WOMEN’S EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP TAKES PLACE IN ENGLAND
2010: THE WOMEN’S SUPER LEAGUE IS FORMED
2012: WOMEN’S FOOTBALL TAKES THE OLYMPICS BY STORM
2022: THE LIONESSES BECOME THE FIRST ENGLAND TEAM TO WIN THE EUROS IN 60 YEARS
The FA also have a page fully dedicated to the heritage of Women’s football, click this link to read more:
https://www.thefa.com/womens-girls-football/heritage
To find out more about the girls sessions we offer including our Lionesses sessions that run on Sundays, please contact Tony Dedman on 07887 670001.