In the 2010s, more than 700 football pitches across the country disappeared.
It was an unseen consequence of austerity – councils facing funding cuts were forced to abandon them, with many sold off to private firms and others falling into disrepair. In places like inner-city London and Manchester, they have never fully been replaced.
So as the demand for women’s and girls’ teams shot up, a trend developed: the cost of the game and the spaces available meant the sport increasingly veered, in the words of the former Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, into “middle class” territory.
As Euro 2025 kicks off, the women’s game will be catapulted into the spotlight again – but much of the country’s talent remains untapped, with so little working-class representation at the top level.
‘Who has been dreaming up this prawn sandwich football club?’
There has been a huge push to change the perception that the women’s game has deserted working class girls, with a 112 per cent increase in players from lower income households.
The FA now has 70 emerging talent centres across the country for promising youngsters, the cost of which has been reduced from £50 to £8 a week – from next season they will be free. The average travel time for girls playing in emerging talent centres is now 32 minutes.
However, obstacles remain in place for girls in urban areas who do not have access to such programmes.
“There’s many reasons as to why there’s barriers for young girls,” former England forward Rachel Yankey tells The i Paper.
“But for me, people when they looked at diversity automatically looked at ethnicity and colour, and skipped the part which I was quite concerned about, which was the lack of inner-city girls, the lack of girls from the boroughs that I grew up in or played football in or went to school in.
“Especially in the England team there’s a massive lack of inner-city, London-based players playing in that team and that’s got to be coming from somewhere: lack of opportunity.”
Most top clubs position their training grounds in secluded areas, away from the major cities for better privacy. That is partly what inspired the launch of the Rachel Yankey Foundation, which aims to put on football for girls who are unable to travel out of the cities.
During her time at Chelsea, Hayes pointed to the “unbelievable number” of south-east London players in the England men’s team.
“Why aren’t they in the women’s side?” she asked. “I often ask that question. [At Chelsea] They’re all from Surrey… Who in their ivory tower has been dreaming up this prawn sandwich girls football club?”
Men’s trainings grounds are increasingly being shared with women’s clubs, but that creates a balancing act.
“It’s great, because women’s football has got access to better facilities, but it excluded many, because it’s really difficult to get to places that are purposely put in the middle of nowhere,” Yankey says.
Yankey, who came from a single-parent family and joined Arsenal in 1996, believes she would have “struggled” to join an elite side now.
“It’s not just limiting to inner-city kids,” former England international Anita Asante adds.
“Rural kids in the north-east, the north-west, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man they have similar challenges, so again it’s about access, as well as understanding socio-economic challenges for individuals. And the only way we can increase that support is with further investment, with visibility.”
How women’s football has grown since Euro 2022
In the cities that hosted Euro 2022, between 2020 and 2024 there were 129,000 more girls becoming involved in football at school
By 2024, there were half a million more opportunities for women and girls to play football, compared with the same cities in 2020
As of December 2024, there are now 845,000 girls playing football in the UK
The cost of football
A number of clubs have initiatives to help inner-city girls travel to training.
The Premier League has also given £2.29m to help develop emerging talent centres, and many other women and girls’ clubs are run by charitable organisations. There are still significant costs, however, for girls involved in the grassroots game.
“The aim is always to make football accessible to everyone, wherever you come from, and the ecosystem around that is really important,” England legend Karen Carney tells The i Paper.
“We want a virtuous cycle, not a vicious one. So we need to put in strong foundations for more girls to be able to play at grassroots level, and for them to then be able to get on that pathway to reach the top level. Everyone involved in the game wants that, so we are striving to create those opportunities for all girls.”
Over the past 30 years, the National Lottery have contributed £16m to grassroots football. That is increasingly important, Asante says, when so many green spaces are disappearing and elite football becomes so much more demanding – even at youth level.
“As you progress through development phases into more elite pathways, because of the travel that’s required, the commitment that’s required dedicating yourself to a sport, if your goal is to become a professional then absolutely [it’s hard],” Asante says.
“But compared with so many other sports it’s one of the easiest to pick up, all you need is a ball, a bit of space, throw a t-shirt down or a jumper, and you can create a pitch.
“My experience growing up was that we had a bit of green space and found as many kids around the area and made our own mini Wembley competitions. That was without elite pathways as such, it always starts from that grassroots elements first.”
How many girls play football at school?
In the aftermath of England’s European Championship win at Wembley in 2022, the Lionesses began a campaign to improve girls’ access to football in schools.
Over the last five years, there has been a 56 per cent increase in girls and women playing football, but that is still partly dependent on what area they live in and what school they go to.
“Only 50 per cent of secondary schools currently offer equal access to football for girls and boys,” England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy said in June.
“At such a crucial time in a young person’s life we cannot underestimate the positive impact football and sport can have on their physical and mental wellbeing.”
The Government has introduced a new transparency plan so all schools will have to publish their PE offerings, while also teaming up with local sports clubs to ensure more girls are offered the chance to play football.
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Verdict
In 2007, half of the England squad were from the inner cities. Those numbers have dwindled. Women’s football is not as inaccessible as it once was – but are the barriers that still remain holding back the game in this country? That will be one of the questions that looms over the Lionesses’ legacy this summer.
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