Tag: Lionesses

Government to name grassroots football facilities in honour of triumphant Lionesses 

  • Government determined to build future legacy on the back of England’s success and increase participation for women and girls
  • Comes as part of Government’s £230 million investment to build or improve 8,000 grassroots football and multi-sport facilities by 2025

Following the Lionesses’ incredible success at UEFA Women’s EURO 2022, the Culture Secretary has announced that grassroots facilities will be named after the 23 players in and around each of their respective hometowns or places that shaped their footballing careers in honour of their achievements.

As part of the Government’s £230 million investment to build or improve 8,000 grassroots football and multi-sport facilities by 2025, alongside the stipulation that they must provide access for women’s and girl’s football, the move will cement the team’s legacy for generations to come. This will support the FA’s ambition for the tournament to create half a million extra opportunities for women and girls to play football.

£25 million has already been invested over the last year in grassroots facilities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with more than 170 facilities delivered by the Football Foundation, in partnership with the Premier League and the FA.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said: “The Lionesses have enjoyed amazing success in a record breaking tournament – selling out all of their matches, with over half a million fans at games throughout the competition.

“Millions of women and girls have been inspired by the team’s success and honouring their achievements will mean they leave a lasting impression at grassroots facilities across England.”

The Government continues to support the growth of women’s and girl’s football and driving up participation in the sport.

Working alongside the FA, the Government is determined to achieve their ambition of equal access to football for girls in 90% of schools by 2024, and the £320 million PE and School Sports Premium School Sport and Activity Action Plan will help more girls to take part in sport and physical activity.

During the pandemic £2.9 million in grant funding was provided through the Sport Survival Package to the Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship to cover essential costs and allow the completion of their seasons.

This was part of the unprecedented £1 billion package to ensure the survival of the grassroots, professional sport and leisure sectors during the pandemic. The staging of EURO 2022 has also been supported with £4.6 million.

In addition, the Government listed several high profile women’s tournaments, including the Women’s FIFA World Cup, and the UEFA Women’s EUROs as events of national significance. This means they will now have greater opportunity to be shown on free-to-air television, increasing awareness of the women’s game, providing greater commercial opportunities and inspiring more young girls to take up the sport.

It has also been announced that a review of the domestic women’s game will launch later this summer, to look at how to grow the game at elite and grassroots level. More details will be set out in the coming weeks.

The Government’s grassroots pitches investment was announced in March 2022. The next phase of projects will commence later this year.

Glory Hunters!

PM writes letter of support to England’s Lionesses

Scottish Government gets in on the sporting glory act too

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has written to the England Women’s Football team, wishing them luck in the Euro 2022 final:

At least he didn’t mention the War …

All-female crew to lead RAF flypast over Wembley for Euro 2022 final

A C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, crewed by three women, will be flanked by two Typhoon fighter jets as they fly over Wembley Stadium before England’s historic fixture with Germany.

The aircraft will fly over at 4:57pm, immediately after the national anthems, before kick-off. The Hercules will fly from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and both Typhoons will take off from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “I wish the best of luck to the Lionesses as they take on Germany at Wembley.

“It’s a landmark day for English football and women’s sport and it’s fantastic that the Royal Air Force will be marking the occasion with a flypast featuring an all-female aircrew.”

The Hercules is captained by Flight Lieutenant Lauren who has been in the Air Force for 12 years. She has deployed all over the world, including Afghanistan, where she helped train the first female Afghan pilots.

Speaking about the flypast, Flight Lieutenant Lauren said: “I am proud to be piloting the lead aircraft for the flypast over Wembley. I’ve flown missions all over the world with the RAF, but this will be one of the most memorable. 

“It’s been inspiring to watch the Lionesses progress and I will be loudly cheering them on as soon as I land back at RAF Brize Norton.”

Ahead of the match, the RAF and RAF Coningsby station Women’s football teams sent good luck messages to the Lionesses.

The Hercules aircraft flies a wide variety of operational missions including the delivery of humanitarian aid, with the ability to airdrop a range of stores and can operate from natural surface landing zones. To conduct these missions, it is vital that Hercules crews are highly skilled in low-level flying. Recently the aircrafts have been supporting NATO exercises in Eastern Europe, airdropping stores for the troops on the ground.

The Typhoon Fighter Ground Reconnaissance Mk 4 (FGR4) is the RAF’s fourth Generation Multi-role combat aircraft. The Typhoon provides Quick Reaction Alert with Crews on 24/7 readiness in defence of the UK, and the aircraft has been flying daily NATO air policing missions in Eastern Europe.

Meanwhile our Scottish Government is also keen to be associated with sporting success:

SUPPORTING THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES

Athletes representing Scotland at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games have the full support of the Scottish Government, according to Culture Secretary Angus Robertson.

Speaking ahead of arriving at the 2022 Games, Mr Robertson said he hoped Team Scotland would be inspired by their record success at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and looked forward to supporting those hoping to bring medals home in badminton, boxing, table tennis, lawn bowls, gymnastics, basketball, swimming and mountain biking.

The week also marks one year to go until Scotland hosts the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships.

Mr Robertson said: “Scotland is fully behind all those representing our country at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and I want to offer my best wishes to competitors from across the Commonwealth taking part in this year’s games.

“The 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow was a superb, inspiring and enriching event for us all and I hope that many of the athletes competing in Birmingham will draw on that inspiration – including inspiring those Scottish athletes to bring medals home.

“Major events enrich our cultural and sporting life, and the start of Birmingham 2022 also coincides with a countdown to the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships. From 3-13 August 2023, Scotland will host the biggest cycling event ever held with 13 World Championships combining into one mega event – so let’s capitalise on the excitement of this year’s Games and look forward to the Championships next year.”

Sports Minister Maree Todd said: ““It has been a pleasure to be at the Commonwealth Games to welcome the athletes competing on behalf of Team Scotland. Seeing their dedication and hard work paying off as they participate at this sporting level is inspiring.”

During her time in Birmingham, Ms Todd has officially opened Scotland House, the Scottish Government’s Games base, and has attended the opening ceremony of the Games.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf will be at the Games next Saturday (6 August) to catch some of Team Scotland in action, as well attending the launch of Athletics Trust Scotland’s campaign to transform lives through the power of athletics at Scotland House.