Jill Scott is recalling the time in her teenage years when her football team were so far down the pecking order for pitches they had to train in a car park.
The girls were used to being shunted aside to let the boys’ and men’s teams play, were accustomed to having to wait until the later slots to train, but occasionally they were told there wasn’t one at all.
“One day we had to go to the car park and do shuttle runs,” Scott says. “You know the lines of the car park spaces? That was our training session. I’m surprised I didn’t quit football there and then. It was a very demoralising session.”
Fortunately Scott stuck with it, even though the issue persisted into adult women’s football, as she carved out a trophy-laden career at Everton and Manchester City, playing 161 times for England before retiring from football after the Euro 2022 final victory against Germany.
“We got used to the fact we’d get the last slot after all the boys’ academy teams,” Scott says. “Even when I was a women’s player that used to happen. We’d get that last slot of eight until 10 o’clock at night on a Friday. Some people were travelling two hours to the session, you weren’t getting back until after midnight.”
Scott is proud of how far the game has progressed in the three decades since she was a seven-year-old for whom the prospect of a career in professional football didn’t exist. But new findings that have exposed some alarming statistics have shown her that in some areas the game has not moved on.
The research, conducted by Starling Bank as part of The Kick On Manifesto, reveals that 56 per cent of female players have booked a pitch only to have it reallocated to male players. Almost a third — 28 per cent — told researchers that it happens frequently.
“The findings are astonishing,” Scott, a Starling Bank ambassador, says. “Especially thinking that it’s probably got a lot better but there’s still more than half of women’s football players who’ve booked a pitch and then it gets cancelled and a men’s team takes it. To think that’s going on now is shocking.”
Scott and Beth Mead, who is collaborating on the initiative, recently visited Vicky Park Rangers, a girls’ club with more than 120 footballers who also play for Women’s Super League sides including Arsenal and West Ham, who had a three-year contract with a local council for pitches cancelled to accommodate a boys team. Club chairman Taner Baycanli claimed that girls turned up to find they were locked out of the 3G pitches.
“It’s about putting things in place to stop this happening,” Scott says.
“They were genuinely gutted. For a young girl — or a young boy — when you turn up at football you just want to play. Especially when you look at women’s and girls’ football, they’ve had long days at school, if they’re not professional players have had long days at work, you just want to play.
“A two-hour session is going to be difficult enough. You don’t want to be using energy just fighting to get on the pitch and then have to do a session.”
Scott points out that there could be safety risks associated with training sessions relocating at short notice. “You talk about getting girls involved in football but there needs to be safe environments. Are the pitches up to standard? Because if you can’t get the pitch you booked initially, then where do you go to train? Has it got lighting? There are safety concerns.”
Last year, further research found that girls were dropping out of football at a much faster rate than boys, due to factors such as not seeing a clear pathway into the sport, body image and bullying. Almost a third of girls had left the game by the time they were in their late teens.
Being kicked off pitches to make way for men is yet another factor that could put off future players — even Lionesses.
“Things are a lot better now,” Scott says. “The Women’s Super League has full-time footballers, playing in front of 50-60,000 people, which is fantastic. We need to make sure we don’t create these gaps in the pyramid — we need to be strong in the foundation.
“It’s not a big ask, is it? Whoever books a pitch they get access regardless of your gender. It seems a simple problem to solve in my eyes but obviously it’s not happening.
“Women’s and girls’ football has come a long way, but these findings show there’s still a long way to go and a lot of work to be done.”
Former midfielder Scott was one of the signatories when the Lionesses squad wrote an open letter to the Government, harnessing the momentum and spotlight after lifting the Euro 2022 trophy to demand something was done about the lack of access to football in PE for girls.
“It blew my mind that 50 per cent of girls weren’t getting the opportunity to play football in PE,” Scott says. “You can get caught up in the idea that things are getting better, you’re representing England and seeing these young girls grow the game, and sometimes you don’t see what’s beneath the surface.
“That figure now has increased to 75 per cent who get the opportunity to play football at school. There’s been a shift. But we need to get that to 100 per cent. That’s a good overall indicator of progress.
“That’s a reflection of where the game’s at: there’s been improvement but there’s still a bit of a way to go. But we can be proud. It shows things are moving in the right direction. Change doesn’t happen overnight. It takes work.
“If you get a girl who’s 12 or 13 years old, maybe she’s not comfortable playing in the kit, she’s not getting access to pitches, maybe one day she’ll think ‘why am I putting in all this effort when I’m not enjoying it?’ That could be a future Lioness.
“If a young Lioness isn’t enjoying football they might drop out. The knock-on effect is England losing a future star.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/h1UZHkL
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