Women’s football here needs same investment as England’s lionesses, says former NI captain

The team, managed by Sarina Wiegman, beat Germany 2-1 after extra time in front of a record 87,000 at Wembley stadium.

Yesterday thousands of fans gathered in Trafalgar Square in London for a victory parade. England captain Leah Williamson joked: “I think we’ve partied more than we actually played football in the last 24 hours.”

Supporters hailed the victory as a “massive” moment, while the Football Association’s director of women’s football, Baroness Sue Campbell, said England’s win will make a “phenomenal difference”.

Here, Gail Redmond said that “clever investment” made by the English FA has paid off and that the focus should now be shifted towards the Northern Ireland team and what can be done at grassroots level here to boost the women’s game.

“They invested heavily in a top manager who is a proven winner, they’ve put everything in place to bring themselves to this level of success and left no stone unturned so it shows that the true success story is that when you invest, you can reap really high rewards,” she said.

Redmond said that in recent years there has been a real “culture shift” in terms of women’s football, not just on a national but a global level.

“If we can invest in women’s football, and the product is good, people will want to watch it and you have seen that from the last World Cup to this year’s Euros.”

Redmond said that the surge in support for women’s football has helped to “normalise” the sport for young boys and girls.

“You want to see a quality game of football and you’re seeing that now,” she said.

“Before there wasn’t the same investment or proper training available to female players but now we do, and now these players are reaping these rewards.

“With young boys now there’s nothing strange that women are coaches or footballers, it’s normal behaviour for that generation and it’s phenomenal, they know no different and that’s how it should be, and that’s true success there.”

The former NI captain said that her biggest hope going forward is to now see Northern Ireland receiving the same investment as the England team in terms of sponsorship.

“We were actually one of the first home nations to have our own sponsorship just for women’s football with Electric Ireland,” she explained.

"Scotland and Wales didn’t have that, so we know that if we keep pushing through now and getting that proper structure in place from the ground up we can get to that level,” she said.

“We have no professional football here, everything is very much in its infancy, but to get there we need to change structures at club level right the way up.

“Women were generally seen as a package along with the men’s team but now you are seeing more companies invest in women’s football elsewhere, and that’s where we need to be here."

In addition to increased sponsorship, Redmond said that the fans can also play a huge part in making this change happen.

“We need the fans to come and support the women’s team, so the same Glentoran fans, Linfield fans and Cliftonville fans all coming out to support them,” she said.

“We need to see that cultural shift to get the fans out to those games so it generates more money and we can see a brand develop as well.”

Redmond said that with this increased support and continued coverage, it will help to keep some of the homegrown female football talent here at home.

“We don’t want all our players leaving to go and play in England or Scotland, we want to have them here in a successful league here in Northern Ireland,” she said.

“We can do this but we need to make sure we are doing the right thing now and investing in what we have here.”

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