Lioness World Cup final to bring new era for women’s sport in UK

The Independent

Lioness World Cup final to bring new era for women’s sport in UKSource: Original

Transcript

00:00 The legacy that this England team are creating is outstanding.

00:03 While the Lionesses have immeasurably raised the profile of women's football,

00:14 viewing numbers and the amount of pubs around the country showing the games

00:18 is still far behind the men's.

00:21 But the Neti Collective are out to change that.

00:24 They're a group aiming to make women's football more visible

00:27 with the mission of getting more pubs to show more games.

00:30 So Neti started about five weeks ago

00:34 and we are a group of seven mates

00:37 and it kind of transpired from the Euros.

00:40 And we found it really frustrating that we couldn't find anywhere

00:43 to watch the Euros all together.

00:45 There were a couple of like watch parties and things like that

00:48 that were in East London, but not overly close to us.

00:51 So, yes, it's them.

00:52 We've been hosting like watch parties, getting the word out there

00:55 that each of the pubs is playing, that we're going to keep going and keep growing.

00:58 And hopefully every pub in London will be playing women's sports.

01:03 Showing women's football for us was just a no brainer.

01:05 We're all about big screen sport and we would show everything

01:08 from the Tour de France through to the cricket,

01:11 obviously football and obviously women's sport as well.

01:14 The 2022 Men's World Cup final brought in 1.2 billion viewers worldwide.

01:21 But the women's 2019 final reached only 260 million.

01:25 These numbers are set to change, however, with FIFA reporting

01:29 that the 2023 tournament sold a record breaking 1.5 million tickets,

01:35 eclipsing the 1.3 million tickets sold in 2019.

01:39 So proud.

01:42 It's just been the growth of the game and there's still so much more to come.

01:46 It's just been massive.

01:48 I guess I just wish I had the line.

01:50 This is what I was growing up.

01:51 I guess the sport at school, all I had was netball and rugby.

01:55 And I didn't particularly like either of those sports.

01:57 Having the women win football creates this kind of ripple effect

02:02 so that you can do it and you can do it.

02:04 It seems like an option.

02:05 Yeah, it seems like an actual option.

02:07 Yeah.

02:08 Oh, you just feel like the energy to want to do it yourself, to be part of it.

02:12 Like, I think that's like just connected to sport.

02:16 I think that's what wasn't there when we were growing up,

02:19 was that like you connected to men's sport.

02:21 Yeah.

02:22 Inspiration for young girls.

02:25 Yeah.

02:25 It's showing girls and women and everybody, like, it's such a safe space to go.

02:32 And just even if you want to play football just friendly,

02:35 or you want to make a brick and cut stick, there's so many options out there now.

02:38 I can't imagine as a young child watching that and not feeling inspired.

02:41 I think it's really special.

02:43 And I think there's only upwards to go.

02:45 The Lionesses may have lost the final,

02:47 but the lasting impact on women's football has been immeasurable.

02:50 And the sport's popularity is only set to grow.

02:54 (applause)

Category

Transcript

Recommended