In the euphoria of the night – as always in such moments – there was a lot of talk about what will now be different. It’s not just that the English footballers won a tournament on Sunday night by scoring a goal more than the Germans. But, more importantly, a sizable portion of the nation watched and cheered them on. 87,192 viewers were sold out at Wembley Stadium, at times 17.4 million Britons watched the European Championship final on the BBC, never before have there been so many people watching a women’s soccer game in the United Kingdom. The euphoria of the night continued the day after, with thousands celebrating the team in Trafalgar Square on Monday, and congratulations from all manner of social and political figures. The intonation has always been similar, most beautifully put by Labor MP Alison McGovern, who said: “A new, progressive page has been written in the English history books.” The only question now is how quickly you can scroll through.
Euphoria is always a temporary state, even in England when the national team wins a final against Germany. The last time this happened was in 1966, when the men won the World Cup against Germany with the help of the so-called Wembley goal. 1966 is a long time ago. Back then, women in England were not allowed to play on football pitches at all.
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After the First World War women’s football was a popular sport in England, there were 150 teams and the games were attended by thousands, often tens of thousands of spectators. Probably also out of concern that women could endanger the status of men, the association announced in December 1921 that women would no longer be allowed to play on the football pitches of the clubs. It is quite “inappropriate” for her to play football and it poses a medical risk. Many female footballers subsequently emigrated to the United States and played there, which in turn contributed to the rise of US women’s football to the top of the world. The association only lifted the ban in 1971, under pressure from the European Football Association.
It is possible that women footballers are being overstated when they are declared to be symbols of a progressive British society in 2022. After the Brexit vote and three years of Boris Johnson, the country is more divided than ever. Johnson’s potential successors, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, are doing their best to please the Tory base, which can hardly be combined with social progressiveness. Sunak, for example, announced that he wants to examine the equality law against discrimination and stigmatization, which he describes as a “Trojan horse for left-wing activists”. And the fact that Truss has not spoken out on the subject of abortion since the scandalous US Supreme Court decision and has often abstained from votes on it is a matter of serious concern to women’s rights groups.
The path that women footballers have been on since 1971 is steep and rocky. It is still too early to say whether British society is ready to continue down this path after the frenzy of euphoria. Or whether ultimately only a memory remains of a beautiful Sunday night when the country hugged each other because something historic was happening, something that may not happen again anytime soon: a win against Germany in the final.