Women’s Football: Levelling the playing field? Post Euro 2005 development of the game in the North West of England
Barbara Bell
Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Manchester Metropolitan University
The relative inbalances in football, particularly for women at the higher level have been recognised across Europe and beyond (Scraton et al, 1999). Euro 2005 (European Women’s Football Championships) provided a unique opportunity to examine how women’s sport could be promoted through development work in building a tournament legacy. Previous studies (Bell, 2006 and Bell and Blakey, forthcoming) have examined the tournament legacy work and social marketing approaches used to promote the women’s game in the region.
Using a social realist research design, based on the work of Pawson and Tilley (2007), the ongoing research is the completion of follow up interviews with selected stakeholders, focussing on their perceptions regarding longer term success of the event in providing a stimulus for the growth of the game in the Northwest and the emergent policy for women’s football in England. Further research included analysis of secondary data provided by development officers, House of Commons Select Committee report and evidence (Culture, Media & Sport Committee, 2006) and FA strategy documents and previously completed case studies.
The paper examines the extent to which the planned legacy has emerged and the efforts in promoting the game regionally and nationally. Initial concerns were expressed that, although the tournament was hailed as a great success (UEFA, 2005), through unprecedented support from the BBC, high spectator figures for England games and the tournament, these did not clearly translate into higher participation figures or increased club registrations immediately after the event.
More recently, development in the region has enjoyed increased funding, the implementation of a national strategy for women and girls football, increased school based activity and increasing efforts to promote the game in clubs. The delayed launch of the professional ‘superleague’ for women’s footballers (due to start in March 2011) was seen as being indicative of the struggle for recognition and equality in the game. Whilst recent developments were welcomed, resource-led conflicts between ‘grass roots’ and the elite levels of the women’s game was seen as potentially problematic, given the dominance of male football and the uncertain future of the new league.
As identified through wider discourse, women’s football has continued to struggle for recognition in the UK due to long standing and deep-seated cultural and social barriers, which Euro 2005 and the legacy programme only partly addressed. However, the event was an important catalyst to the development of the game for women and girls, and a policy window clearly opened in 2005. There remains much potential towards 2012, based on Euro 2005 lessons. Though there may be some levelling of the playing field, it is too early to claim that women’s football in the UK is attaining equality.
References
- Bell B (2006) ‘Football’s Coming Home: and its not for boys’: the impact of the Euro 2005 Women’s football championships in the North West of England. In Robertson, M. (Ed) Sporting Events and Event Tourism: impacts, plans and opportunities. LSA Publication 91, Volume 1. Brighton: LSA Publications. pp. 95-120
- Bell, B., Blakey, P. (accepted 2009) Do boys and girls go out to play? Women’s football and social marketing. A case study of the European Women’s football Championships. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Management.
- House of Commons, Culture Media and Sport Committee (2006) Womens’s Football. Fourth report of session 2005-6 Report HC 1357 Published 25 July 2006. London: The Stationary Office Ltd.
- Pawson, R. and Tilley, N. (1997). Realist evaluation. London: Sage.
- Scraton, S., Fasting, K., Pfister, G., Bunuel, A. (1999) ‘It’s still a man’s game? the experiences of top-level European women footballers’, International Review For The Sociology Of Sport, Vol. 34 (2): pp. 99-111.
- UEFA (2005) ‘Official approval for EURO success’. Online at : http://www.uefa.com/competitions/WOCO/news/kind=1/newsId=310875.html accessed 27th June 2005.
