Women were banned from football in 1921 but with England’s lionesses’ rip-roaring semi-final win against Sweden in the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 tournament equality is a goal within reach, says Mickey Ambrose

Georgia Stanway scored an extra-time 30 yard stunner against Spain which sent the 28,000 crowd home very happy in this riveting game which saw the Lionesses progress to the semi-finals.

England’s Alessia Russo’s swivel and shot against Northern Ireland in the 5-0 thrashing is now the second best goal of the tournament for me, following Stanway’s stunner in this pulsating tournament.

The demolishing of Norway 8-0 caught everyone’s attention with Beth Mead scoring a memorable hat-trick as England ran riot to win Group A, with a record-breaking win.

They produced a potent attacking master class to breeze past Norway and made a huge statement of intent with the biggest win in finals history. It is clear they mean business because with Russo’s goal, which reminded me a bit of the master Denis Bergkamp’s – his turn and finish against Newcastle United was out of this world. This brought the Lionesses within touching distance of the finals.

And they are making history in the process.

All of this is a far cry from when the Football Association (FA) banned women from playing the game in 1921 – even though, even in those days, they were playing in front of record crowds of 50,000 plus. The FA at the time claimed: “the game of football is quite unsuitable for females….”. What a cheek! A bunch of snobs if you ask me.

Another sporting body the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) banned women from attending the Annual Football Awards.

But on Monday 9 November 1998 Rachel Anderson, Britain’s only woman football agent, took on football’s authorities and launched a legal battle accusing the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) of sex discrimination because they banned her from the PFA Awards Dinner at the Grosvenor Hotel in London.

At the time Rachel represented West Ham legend and hard man Julian Dicks who had invited her to the PFA Awards Dinner but she was shown the door because it was a men-only policy back then and It did not matter if women were connected to football or not.

In fact the previous year Rachel was asked to leave the dinner by PFA officials after she was accidentally allowed to attend – even former Liverpool and England player Michael Owen’s mum was barred which meant she could not see her son collect the PFA Young Player of the Year 1997-1998 while he was at Liverpool.

Mickey Ambrose is a former Charlton and Chelsea player who lives in Stratford

It is great that women’s football has not only taken off but is excelling with record crowds. But I am afraid to say we still have a long way to go in other areas of football in this country which is governed by the FA and this is why myself and Nigel Fletcher founded The People’s FA. The People’s FA vision is equality for all in English football.

Our mission is to change the governance structure, composition, and representation of the FA because it is outdated and does not represent the people and the fans. The FA was formed in 1863 and for the past 159 years its governance has barely evolved and yet the game and the society it represents has changed considerably. To learn more go to thepeoplesfa.com

Mickey Ambrose is a former Chelsea and Charlton player who lives in Stratford

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