Trailblazers 🔥

Like most people I am inspired by people in any field who created their own pathways. The people who have looked at a situation that never previously existed and brought that situation into being.

Looking back to my childhood, there was almost zero interest in women’s sport. In 1970, the F.A. finally lifted the ban on women playing football on any of their pitches after 50 years of sexism and misogyny. Of course, that meant that in the UK women’s football was starting all over again. The disinterested mass of the public either ignored these young women, denigrated them or belittled their skills and achievements. They carried on playing in the face of all this. Then in 2022, the Women’s European Championships took place in the UK and the magnificent Lionesses won the tournament. Their league, the WSL, went from strength to strength and I started to go to the Emirates to watch the Arsenal Women’s Team 5 or 6 times a season. Every player on the pitch stands on the shoulders of those trailblazers as they often acknowledge, but they have become the trailblazers for a new generation as they become ever more skilful and successful. Our Lionesses got to the final of the 2023 World Cup and retained their European crown in 2025. They have made the game a true part of the national psyche and they are continuing to build on their amazing achievements.