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History and Progress

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    History and Progress

    If men's international tournaments are saturated with history, women's football is focused squarely on the glorious future as part of a corporate progress narrative – even my breakfast cereal is sponsoring girls' football at the moment. The past, being mostly regrettable, tends to get swept under the carpet, except as a source of individualised tales of heroic pioneers and disruptors, breaking taboos, moving on upwards.

    So here's a thread for views, memories, trivia recapturing the history of European women's international football.

    Former England captain Carol Thomas has seized the current moment to tweet about the first sort-of European championship back in 1984. England, despite a total lack of interest from the FA, upset a more established and recognised Danish side in the semi-final. The final, over two legs, pitted them against Sweden. The first leg, in Sweden, is on YouTube: it was played with a size-four ball, "ideal for players aged 9 to 14". The most watchable stretch of an open, absorbing game is the dozen minutes from about 55:00 up until the only goal.

    https://twitter.com/First_2_Fifty/status/1402911289823969283

    The return leg was played at Luton in the mud. England levelled the tie, but it was decided there wouldn't be extra time and so the match went to penalties, which England lost. Thomas wrote:

    Despite the appalling weather, a great crowd of 2,565 did turn up. I have to say I met no FA representatives that day. There was no interest from the British mainstream media and the game was filmed by a now defunct cable TV company, so, only a few excerpts of the game exist. Of course, the Swedes were accompanied by prominent Swedish FA representatives and up to 36 press and media crew.

    I am sure the crowd would have been much bigger and more media coverage would have taken place had we managed to secure a Wembley appearance or one of the other top London grounds. In truth, whilst conditions were awful, it was a great game that could have showcased the women's game in this country. Indeed, after the game I was asked about the match by the freelance TV Company who had recorded the game. My response, somewhat bluntly was,

    "If people don't come to watch women's football after that, then there something wrong with them!"

    Sadly none of the national TV networks took up the recording and it was never televised in full. Coverage was restricted to a short 10 second clip on national TV news. [...]

    It is unfortunate that the impetus the women's game that had started over that 7 week period covering the semi-finals and final, was not taken up by the FA or the media. Just think where the women's game may have been in all the following years if they had. With that backing, who knows, England could have been the first ever name on that trophy and many, many more trophies.

    I often think of what the England women’s team could have achieved in those intervening years. Instead, we had to continue as a minority sport, run and governed by a tireless band of volunteers known as the WFA, funded by small handouts, sponsorship deals from smaller Company’s and, in most player’s cases, supported by friends and family.

    #2
    The only players from that line-up whose first name I could state with certainty are Gillian Coultard and Debbie Bampton.

    Presumably we won't be hearing much either about the most recent time that England reached a Euros Final, only to get obliterated 6-2 by Germany (2009 IIRC).

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      #3
      Thanks for that, laverte, I didn't know anything about that story. What a criminally wasted opportunity.

      I'm not sure exactly when it was - late 70s or early 80s - but there was a feature once on Saint & Greavsie (I think - if it wasn't, then it was Football Focus) about an English striker playing in a professional league in Italy. Now this is taxing my memory, but I'm pretty certain that it wasn't patronising, and treated its subject seriously. But it was an absolute one-off, and I have no idea how long the pro league in Italy lasted, or the player's name.

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        #4
        Kerry Davis who played in that match above, played in the Italian (semi-)pro league for 4 seasons from 1985-1989. I'd think she would be the most likely candidate. It could have been Marianne Spacey who has a higher profile than Davis (primarily because her career peaked later) but she only played for one season in Italy.

        The standard of that match was higher than I expected. I'd imagined that women's football in the 1980s would be weaker than in the mid 90s when I started watching it, given that the standard now is much higher than it was in the mid 90s. But it was about the same level as in the mid 90s.

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          #5
          Listeners to Scottish football podcast Off the Ball may have heard a recent extended interview with Rose Reilly Peralta, sometime of Scotland, Italy, ACF Milan and er Jolly Cutispoti Catania.

          Meanwhile, the build-up is underway back home, with speculation centring on whether all the mid-30s stalwarts in our squad will still be available come June

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            #6
            Kerry Davis sounds right, Etienne - thanks for the background. Hard finding much about that era of women's football on the internet.

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              #7
              This is an exceptional resource : https://jjheritage.com/stories-from-the-80s/

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                #8
                https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/...eautiful-game/ or it could have been about Rose Reilly.

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