Levelling the playing field? Post-Euro 2005 development of women's football in the north-west of England

Abstract

This paper investigates the longer term impacts of Euro 2005 on participation and organization of women's football in a multi-method case study approach, with a focus in one of the hosting areas in the north-west of England. Using primary data from local football development officers and clubs, documentary sources and secondary data analysis, I consider in this paper whether hosting the event has contributed to any long-term legacy in participations and greater gender equity in the sport, regionally and nationally. The evidence suggests that there is still some way to go before such a claim could be made and the plans to develop a ‘Women's Superleague’ have uncertain outcomes and significant resource implications, particularly at the grass roots of the sport. The possible impacts of such major events on building participation and profile for women's sport are also considered, due to the legacy aspirations from the forthcoming Olympics in London.

Acknowledgements

FA Development officers and Sport Development officers who have contributed advice and help with collation of data and Kate Grimes and Georgina Roy who were Research Assistants on the initial studies and who contributed to data collection and analysis are thanked. Edge Hill University Research Development fund contributed to the costs of initial studies 2005–2007. Institute of Performance Research, Manchester Metropolitan University have supported this research from 2009. I would also like to thank the reviewers for helpful comments on improving the article, and the editors for their assistance in preparation of the final version.

Notes

¹ Reference to FIFA World Cup legacy plans in 2010, World Cup 2010. South African Government website. http://www.sa2010.gov.za/en/node/2926 (accessed 2 June 2010).

² Sport England, Active People Survey Data (accessed 23 March 2010).

³ Culture Media and Sport Committee, Women's Football.

⁴ Hong and Mangan, Soccer, Women, Sexual Liberation.

⁵ Scraton et al., ‘It's Still a Man's Game?’; Hong and Mangan, Soccer, Women, Sexual Liberation; Williams, A Game for Rough Girls?

⁶ Bell and Blakey, ‘Do Boys and Girls Go Out to Play?’

⁷ But this time, with more success, reaching the final to be defeated by the 2005 Champions, Germany. In 2005, the team had not progressed from the group stages.

⁸ UEFA websites included reference to the work of the Finnish FA in building participation-based legacy from Euro 2009.

⁹ UEFA, ‘Official Approval for Euro Success’; BBC, ‘FA Hails Euro 2005 as Big Success’; Bell, ‘Football's Coming Home’.

¹⁰ Hong and Mangan, Soccer, Women, Sexual Liberation.

¹¹ Including Lopez, Women on the Ball; Owen, Kicking against Tradition, as ex-international players post 1972; Newsham, In a League of Their Own, with a history of Dick, Kerr's Ladies from early twentieth century; Williams, ‘The fastest growing sport’.

¹² Williamson, The Belles of the Ball; Williams, A Game for Rough Girls?

¹³ Williams, A Game for Rough Girls?

¹⁴ Cauldwell, 1999, 2003; Scraton et al., ‘It's Still a Man's Game?’; Harris, ‘The Image Problem in Women's Football’; Jeanes, ‘Girls, Football Participation and Gender Identity’.

¹⁵ Football Association, ‘Participation Figures’.

¹⁶ Scraton et al., ‘It's Still a Man's Game?’

¹⁷ This situation persists, despite recent efforts to overturn FA regulations, after trials had indicated the potential benefits to both boys and girls involved in mixed teams. The results remain unpublished.

¹⁸ Scraton et al., op. cit., 108.

¹⁹ TNS Consultants, School Sport Survey 2004/5.

²⁰ As explored by various reports and programmes in the UK, for example, Kirk, Fitzgerald and Wang. ‘Nike/YST Girls in Sport’.

²¹ Bryson, ‘Sport and the Maintenance of Masculine Hegemony’.

²² Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Report; Women's Football Report, and FA, ‘Building on the success’.

²³ UEFA, ‘Official Approval for Euro Success’.

²⁴ Newsham, In a League of Their Own.

²⁵ Blackburn with Darwen Sport Development Unit, responsible for the promotion of sport participation in the district, and Edge Hill University collaborated in research in the region.

²⁶ This was based on surveys completed by KKP consultants, in 2001 and 2004, for Blackburn with Darwen District Council.

²⁷ See Egford, Using the Power of a Major Sporting Event; Potter, ‘Using the Power’ (both studies by consultant on the legacy programme).

²⁸ FA representative, personal communication.

²⁹ Bell, ‘Football's Coming Home’; Bell, ‘Soft Legacy and Hard Evidence’.

³⁰ Rossi, Lipsey and Freeman, Evaluation: A Systematic Approach.

³¹ See Bell, ‘Football's Coming Home’, for more details.

³² Using the approaches suggested in Ritchie and Spencer, ‘Qualitative Data Analysis’, for thematic coding.

³³ Scanlan's model was used to help code the initial analysis of the transcripts and frame some of the questions for discussion with the groups.

³⁴ BBC, ‘F Hails Euro 2005 as Big Success’; Bell and Blakey, ‘Do Boys and Girls Go Out to Play?’; UEFA, ‘Official Approval for Euro Success’.

³⁵ Potter, ‘Using the Power’.

³⁶ Culture Media and Sport Committee is a cross-party group of MP's appointed by the House of Commons to ‘examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the DCMS and its associated public bodies’.

³⁷ This was produced using software on wordle.net.

³⁸ CMS Select Committee, Women's Football: Replies.

³⁹ This situation has yet to be resolved, despite the FA commissioning research into the impact of loosening this regulation. Girls over 12 are not permitted to play in teams of boys.

⁴⁰ CMS Select Committee, Women's Football: Replies, 8.

⁴¹ CMS Select Committee, op. cit., 11.

⁴² Referred to as section 84 of the 2006 Equality Act, from April 2007 there was to be public sector duty on local authorities to have due regard to gender equality, to promote equality of opportunity.

⁴³ The detailed proposals were published in Football Association, ‘The Women's Super League Brochure’.

⁴⁴ This site is perhaps indicative of an alternative niche being carved out by the women's game, which is still largely hidden from popular sport media.

⁴⁵ Sport England, as part of the Active People Surveys from 2005 to 2009, has produced summary results for football, for which women's football data can be extracted, and the Active People Survey can be interrogated, with some difficulty, for all forms of football (indoor and outdoor shown separately).

⁴⁶ Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation, ‘Women's Football Factsheet’.

⁴⁷ This is the FA's quality assurance scheme for amateur clubs, for which clubs must undergo stringent screening, though it is not without criticism, such been indicated in Lusted and O'Gorman, ‘The Impact’. One of the criteria for Charter Standard status is that the club must have at least one team for girls.

⁴⁸ Lusted and O'Gorman, ‘The Impact’.

⁴⁹ Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation, ‘Women's Football Factsheet’.

⁵⁰ The policy window concept indicates an opportunity when multiple streams in the policy area may provide favourable situation to advance a particular agenda or solution, as noted in Kingdon, Agendas.