European Women’s Football Championship: Girls and Young Women

Stuart Andrew Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2022 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Stuart Andrew)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I thank and congratulate the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) for securing this important debate. Let me say at the outset that I have made this issue a huge priority for me in this role. I am passionate about making sure that all sports are inclusive. I echo some of her points about the forthcoming World cup and share many of her concerns. This morning I met the Qatari ambassador. I sought assurances that the “Everyone is welcome” message is meant, and that fans will find that when they get to Qatar. I also raised the frankly unacceptable comments that Khalid Salman made yesterday; I made my views very clear indeed.

[Hannah Bardell]

I put on the record my thanks to the Minister for doing that, and for raising his concerns, which many of us share, about the treatment of LGBT fans at the World cup. I appreciate that this Government did not have anything to do with the corruption that led to Qatar being chosen to hold the World cup, but I hope that all parliamentarians will consider how we will lobby such Governments and make sure that they do not get to hold international sporting competitions, and hold a place on the world stage, when they treat people from LGBT communities in such a way.

[Stuart Andrew]

I think that the hon. Lady will know that this issue will continue to be high on my agenda. The Government are fully committed to supporting women’s sport at every opportunity, and to pushing for greater participation, employment and commercial opportunities in women’s sport, and for greater visibility both in the media and, as was mentioned, in this House. Let me start by wishing the Red Roses the very best of luck for the rugby union world cup final this weekend.

I am delighted to take on the role of Minister for sport at such an exciting time, and I look forward to making real progress on issues that I feel very passionately about, such as equality and diversity. Overall, I can see that there has been clear progress in a number of areas, but it is also clear that we have a long way to go. I am determined to strive for greater equality and opportunity for girls and women.

I join the hon. Member for Twickenham in celebrating the wonderful success that we witnessed in women’s sport this summer, when our very own Lionesses beat the German team at Wembley to lift the UEFA European championship trophy, teaching the men a thing or two. That inspirational tournament was staged in July in venues across England, from Rotherham and Wigan down to Southampton and Brighton.

So many records were broken during the tournament, but I will just mention two outstanding examples. The final at Wembley was attended by a crowd of over 87,000 people. That was a record for a women’s international game in Europe, and it broke new ground for a women’s or men’s Euro final tournament game. The tournament also became the most watched women’s Euros ever, with a global cumulative live viewership of 365 million across TV, out-of-home viewing and streaming. That massive number is more than double the number of people who watched the last UEFA women’s championship, staged in the Netherlands in 2017.

My local pub, the Red Lion, was transformed; usually, everyone is watching Leeds United, but they watched the championship, and I cannot tell you how excited they were and how they cheered. It was fantastic to witness. The tournament was a truly groundbreaking moment for sport. It has super-charged interest in the women’s game, bringing it to the forefront of people’s mind. We are looking forward to that momentum being maintained and built on, with the FIFA women’s World cup in Australia and New Zealand next year.

When I went to Wembley to see the Lionesses beat the USA, I sat next to Baroness Sue Campbell, and my arm was bruised afterwards because she was clutching on to it with so much excitement. When I meet her in December, I will know to sit on the opposite side of the table. She is clearly a passionate advocate of the sport.

To commemorate the team’s incredible achievement, we are working with the Football Foundation and the FA to name sites after the players in the towns and cities that shaped their careers. That is in addition to investing £230 million between 2021 and 2025 to improve grassroots sports facilities across the UK and help more women and girls to access high-quality facilities. I am looking forward to going to Stenhousemuir multisport facility tomorrow to see the work going on there and to support the Billie Jean King women’s tennis tournament in Glasgow.

We know this is not a one-off. Major sporting events unite the nation, instil pride in our communities and give us all something to feel good about, in a way that few other things can achieve. They also provide fantastic opportunities to create lasting legacies. We continue to see the impact of the women’s Euros. It has increased interest in the club side of the women’s game. Clubs in the women’s super league, which kicked off in September, are still reporting huge surges in demand for tickets. The new broadcast deal with Sky will see women’s football reach more people than ever.

The women’s super league attendance record has been smashed, as we have already heard, after 48,000 watched the north London derby between Arsenal and Twickenham—sorry, Tottenham, I am getting Twickenham on the brain—on Saturday 24 September. That would have been frankly unimaginable just a few years ago. We saw something similar in Birmingham for the Commonwealth games in the summer. There were some important firsts, including more medal events for women than men—a first in major multisport event history—and 173,000 spectators attended the T20 women’s cricket at Edgbaston, a record for women’s cricket.

This year’s rugby league world cup, played across venues mainly in the north of England, has been the first time that all three world cups—men’s, women’s and wheelchair—have been staged at the same time. That has helped to give visibility and a platform to those teams and players. Women and wheelchair players are also receiving prize money for the first time, as well as equal participation fees across all three tournaments. I wish all the teams every success.

As a country, we continue to reap the benefits of hosting major and mega sporting events. That is why the Government are fully committed to building on our world-leading reputation as a host. Although it is right to celebrate and reflect on the success of the Euros, we must now refocus to ensure that that success translates to the continued growth of the women’s game. That is why I am pleased that in September we launched an independent review of the future of women’s football, which is being chaired by former England and Great Britain footballer Karen Carney.

The review is looking at how to deliver bold, sustainable growth of the women’s game at elite and grassroots level. The Secretary of State and I recently met Karen to discuss progress to date. I look forward to working closely with her as the review progresses over the coming months. This is a defining period for the women’s game, and I want to ensure that the review contributes to the bold and sustainable growth of the game at elite and grassroots level.

Challenges frankly remain for women’s and girls’ participation in sport. As we have heard, Sport England data showed that the pandemic wiped out all of the gains made in women’s sport participation over the previous five years, falling back to just below 60% of women being active. The latest data, published in April this year, showed that men are still more likely to be active compared with women. The latest Sport England data for children and young people from December 2021 is more positive, showing that physical activity levels are very similar for boys and girls in education, with 45% of both defined as active. However, it is clear that more work needs to be done to continue to break down the barriers that prevent women and girls from being active, such as a fear of judgment, safety concerns and a lack of time.

We know that football is a popular choice for women and girls to get active—indeed, it is the most popular team sport for women and girls. Programmes such as Game On, Shooting Stars and Barclays Girls’ Football School Partnerships are engaging more girls in football at school—for example, more than 3,200 primary schools participate in the Shooting Stars programme. Initiatives such as Sport England’s This Girl Can continue to inspire millions of women to get active, regardless of shape, size, or ability. That campaign has helped to eliminate fear of judgment by normalising women taking part in sport and changing perceptions of what sport is. It also aims to prove that barriers such as time and money can be overcome.

The Lionesses’ fantastic performance at the 2022 women’s Euros has truly inspired the nation, and it is great to see that confirmed by the recent figures published by UEFA in its post-tournament flash report. For example, more than half of local residents and two in five spectators and tournament volunteers have been inspired to do more sport and physical activity generally, and 84% of those participating in UEFA’s women’s Euro 2022 legacy activities report that doing so has improved their confidence and self-esteem. We want to build on that momentum.

[Munira Wilson]

The Minister is outlining a lot of fantastic community initiatives. If he is going to come on to this topic, I hope he will forgive me, but could he address some of the questions I asked about working with the Department for Education to make sure that PE is on the agenda in the way the Lionesses have been pushing for?

[Stuart Andrew]

The hon. Lady does not have long to wait. We want to build on the momentum that the tournament has created to ensure that every woman and every girl has the opportunity to take part in football if that is what they want to do, and—more importantly—to get active in any way that suits them personally. Our £230 million grassroots investment will be key to achieving that.

The Secretary of State was delighted to meet the Lionesses last month; they are extraordinary ambassadors for sport. We will continue to invest in grassroots sport to bring on the next generation of Lionesses. We know how valuable PE at school is: it gives pupils an opportunity to excel, be active and lead healthy lives. We are actively working with the Department for Education to understand the barriers that prevent the ambition of two to two and a half hours of PE a week being achieved. I commit to personally engaging with my colleagues in the Department for Education to ensure that girls have equal access to sport. We are also reviewing the barriers that prevent girls from getting access to two hours of PE. There is more work for us to do to identify and address the different barriers to participation that exist for young people, and I absolutely commit to making that my priority.

Alongside that, the Department for Education is working on updating the school sport and activity action plan, which will set out actions to improve PE teaching in primary schools and help schools to make better use of their facilities. That will include a £30 million project to open those facilities after hours. More broadly, we need to work with other Departments, such as the Department of Health and Social Care. This is a policy area I care passionately about, and I know that if I do not do something about this issue, I will have far more debates to answer, although I will be happy to do so.