On 31st July 2022, history was made when England won the Women’s European Championship at Wembley Stadium. The Euro 2022 win is the first major trophy won by the Lionesses and the first tournament win since the men’s England team won the World Cup in 1966.
The tournament has been outstanding, inspirational and accessible to millions of football fans across the country, continent and world.
Here, I want to share my highlights from the competition, my thoughts on the media coverage and accessibility, my opinions on the term inspiration, the difference between true fans and fake fans and how the beautiful game can become fully inclusive for all inspiring players and football fans alike.
Highlights of Euro 2022
To be honest, I have no idea where to start with my highlights of the Euro 2022 tournament. It was incredible from start to finish. I watched all 31 games and every match was full of action and thoroughly entertaining.
Overall, the quality of football was outstanding and the work rate and professionalism of every player was exceptional. I know it has been mentioned several times in the women’s game but one of the greatest things is a majority of female players don’t dramatise or exaggerate situations such as diving, overacting injuries or arguing with the referee. They just get on with their jobs and stick to the game plan.
Here are just some of my favourite highlights from Euro 2022:
- England opening the tournament with a 1-0 win against Austria in front of 70,000 fans at Old Trafford.
- Northern Ireland getting their first goal in a major tournament (got to give some support to the other home nation).
- England thrashing, what was meant to be, a very strong Norway side, 8-0!
- The UK derby in which England beat Northern Ireland 5-0 – but that wasn’t really a surprise!
- Belgium reaching the quarter-finals for the first time.
- Georgia Stanway’s screamer of a goal for England to beat Spain 2-1 in extra time of the quarter-final.
- France reaching a semi-final for the first time.
- Alessia Russo’s spectacular backheel goal for England in the semi-final.
- England’s Fran Kirby scoring the winning goal in the semi-final and celebrating in stunning style.
- England beating Sweden 4-0 in the semi-final to reach their first final in 13 years.
- England goalkeeper Mary Earp’s exceptional saves in the first half of the final against Germany.
- Ella Toone’s incredible tap-in over the German goalie to open the score in the final at Wembley.
• The winning goal for England by Chloe Kelly and her now iconic celebration taking her top off (although she can’t do that every game, otherwise she’ll be booked every match!). - England’s Beth Mead getting the golden boot and player of the tournament awards.
- ENGLAND BEING EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS!!!! – I was literally in tears at the final whistle.
I’d also like to mention the Iceland and Portugal fans whom I felt were the most creative and musical fans at the tournament, particular their variety of drum sets and the iconic Icelandic thunderclap.
My only disappointment of Euro 2022 was Ellen White not getting to beat Wayne Rooney as England’s all-time top goal scorer. Fingers crossed she’ll reach it at England’s World Cup qualifiers in September or at their friendly against the USA in October.
Media coverage and accessibility of Euro 2022
Due to the demand for tickets to games and my limitations because of my disability and my dependency on someone accompanying me, I was unable to attend any games in person. When Euro 2022 tickets first went on sale last year, I did try to get tickets for the England vs Northern Ireland match in Southampton but was unsuccessful.
Thankfully all 31 matches were broadcast on the BBC. Due to my visual impairment, I heavily rely on the commentary to follow and understand the action. I tend to struggle to see the live wide shots as the players look like dots and on sunny days I can just see a bright glare on the pitch. Although, I can still see close-up shots and replays.
I guess you are probably thinking “why don’t you just listen to it on the radio?”. Well to an extent I did!
With most major football tournaments broadcast on the BBC, it has a feature in which the TV pictures are synced with the radio commentary via the red button and/or BBC iPlayer. I don’t think this was specifically intended as an accessibility feature for blind and visually impaired people but I’m so grateful for the service as a person with sight loss myself.
The first two games – England vs Austria and Northern Ireland vs Norway – were shown on TV with the radio commentary option. On day three when the group B matches were on, the feature wasn’t available. I soon realised the feature was only available for the England and Northern Ireland group matches.
I was rather disappointed by this as I was eager to watch all the matches in detail. I still watched them on TV but at times I had to rely more on the replays of the goals, saves, tackles and foals. I’m aware there is commentary on the TV coverage too, but I find it gives less detail and there are periods of silence at times.
I know I could’ve just listened to the other matches on the radio but unfortunately, not all matches were available on the radio so I had no choice but to watch them on TV. I understand most people would prefer to just watch or listen to the home nation matches, but there are many football fans, like myself, who like following different teams. Also, there must be visually impaired fans of other teams who would benefit from the synced radio commentary too.
I tweeted BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Sport to make them aware of the benefits of syncing the radio commentary for blind/VI fans and request they do it for all matches. Sadly, I received no response and the changes weren’t made.
@bbc5live @BBCSport Please can you sync the radio commentary with the TV pictures on ALL #Euro2022 matches and not just the #England & #NIreland games? I’m visually impaired and benefit from the extra descriptions as well as enjoying the camera close-ups and replays. #ADForAll
— Emma Purcell 🏴♀⚽️🏆 (@P94Emma) July 9, 2022
On a positive note, all the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final of Euro 2022 did have the TV coverage synced with the radio commentary.
I also just loved the passion and excitement the Radio 5 Live team provided throughout the games. My highlight has to be Izzy Christiansen’s squealing reaction to Georgia Stanway’s winning goal in the quarter-final.
Despite the efforts the BBC made to make the media coverage as accessible as possible, I still feel more can be done. I would like to see the BBC sync ALL live football matches with radio commentary, whether it’s the Women’s Super League (WSL), The FA Cup or International friendlies and tournaments, no matter the team or if it’s men’s or women’s football.
Alternatively, TV commentators should commentate like they are on the radio so blind and visually impaired viewers can follow the match in unison with sighted viewers. This should be the case for all channels broadcasting live football – BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky Sports and BT Sport.
SIGN MY AUDIO DESCRIPTION PETITION
As well as the live coverage, I’ve loved listening to the Daily Euros podcast where they had pre-match conversations, post-match analysis, interviews with players and much more.
Before Euro 2022, I listened to another podcast called Jill Scott’s Coffee Club, in which England midfielder Jill Scott interviewed several England and Northern Ireland players ahead of the tournament. I loved it because not only was it funny and entertaining, but you got to find out more about the individual players. I hope they do a second series interviewing players across the WSL.
Is inspirational porn occurring in women’s football?
Throughout the tournament, I noticed a lot of journalists, pundits and fans kept referring to how inspirational England’s women’s team has become. I agree they have inspired young girls to play football but I feel the term is used far too much in the women’s game. It’s not like they are the first female players on the planet. We know boys get inspired by men’s football too but it’s not mentioned in the media every day.
What has baffled me the most is I’ve heard female fans between the ages of 18 and 30 on the radio saying how inspiring the team is and how they never had female role models as kids. However, when they were children, it was the late 90s/early 00s and there were plenty of high-profile female players – Kelly Smith, Alex Scott, Farra Williams, Faye White, Rachel Yankey, Rachel Brown-Finnis, Karen Carny, Casey Stoney, Anita Asante, Karen Barnsley, Siobhan Chamberlain … the list goes on.
In 2002, we also had the iconic film Bend It Like Beckham, in which an ethnic minority teen girl tries to make it as a footballer, proving anybody – no matter their gender, race or religion – can play football professionally.
Yes, I understand the women’s game wasn’t broadcast as much as it is now but I’m 28 and still remember watching on TV England games back when Hope Powell was manager from 1998 to 2013.
Overall, I’m just starting to feel a sense of “inspirational porn” in women’s football. Inspirational porn is usually associated with disability, in which non-disabled people call disabled people “inspiration” for simply getting out of bed or going to a shop etc.
Now I feel a similar thing happening in women’s football. They are not all inspiring by their football techniques and skills, but because they biologically happen to be female instead of male.
The quality of football shouldn’t be defined by their gender but just their actual talents. In the words of Georgia Stanway, “football is football”.
True fans vs fake fans
In a previous blog post I wrote back in 2018 – My secret love of football – I mentioned my frustration with people saying they are football fans and hardly ever watch or listen to games, read articles or listen to podcasts.
This frustration escalated during the women’s euros. Some people only watched the England games. Some people only watched England in the knockout stages. Some people had never watched women’s football before and still got tickets to matches. I also heard one story of a lady who went to the England game against Norway and the final in Wembley with her husband and doesn’t even like sport full stop.
I was also shocked to discover an acquaintance of mine who is a woman and loves football, doesn’t watch women’s football.
I agree we want more people to follow the beautiful game but I’d rather see, hear and be around people who genuinely love football and not just people who check the score on their phone or glance at the telly when there is a goal.
Despite loving football for as long as I can remember, it really saddens me – especially during this historic moment at Euro 2022 – that I have no family or friends who genuinely love the game as much as me and want to enjoy it with me. At times, it really escalated my sense of loneliness.
I know people reading this will probably say “attend more games and meet fans” or “go to a pub or a big screen event to watch it with others”. However, that’s difficult for two reasons. One I need accompanying by a carer to go out and so far I’ve never had a carer who likes football. Plus, not every club or venue will have audio headset commentary for blind fans. Two, as I heavily rely on commentary, I won’t be able to hear it in crowded places.
Furthermore, I was listening to an episode of 606 on BBC Radio 5 Live in May 2022, in which a Man City fan was accused of not being a true fan because he had not been to a match in person since December 2021. This angered me because I’ve not been to a match in person since 2010. Does that make me less of a football fan? No! Many of us can’t go to games due to distance, cost, health and other issues.
I define a true football fan as someone who attends, watches and/or listens to a majority of matches in full, watches/listens/reads pre-match and post-match content and knows everything about their favourite team (the fixtures/results/players/manager).
Women’s football for the future
For the future of women’s football, I would like to see these 5 things:
1. Equal pay in the women’s game
2. Free access to football academies for girls
3. More football in schools for girls
4. Cheaper/free access to all TV coverage
5. Have lower league football broadcast on TV and radio – not just the WSL!
CONGRATULATIONS LIONESSES!!!! FOOTBALL HAS COME HOME!!!
Did you watch the Women’s Euros last month? Are you a genuine football fan looking forward to the new seasons in the Premier League, English Football League (EFL), the Women’s Super League (WSL) and the upcoming men’s and women’s World Cups? Share your true love for the beautiful game in the comments box or on social media.
