Project 2023: a five-point plan for boosting women’s football in England

In 2017 the Football Association launched its Gameplan for Growth for the women’s game. It was a strategy which set forth plans and targets for the development of women’s football from top to bottom. Three years on the FA had hit every target: doubling participation, doubling the fanbase, reaching the top three in the world in all England age groups and putting the senior England women’s team in good stead for the 2023 World Cup.

Now, we are two years into the new strategy, titled Positive Change. Already targets are being met, with England’s Euros success ticking off the ambition to win a major tournament. The momentum from that is still flowing and the World Cup, which will lift interest further, is only 10 months away. There is no better opportunity to accelerate the growth and development of the game, and to safeguard its future. But what are the key areas to address and what results should have been achieved when the 2023-24 WSL season starts next September?

Three days after England’s 2-1 extra-time defeat of Germany in the final of the Euros, the Lionesses came together and wrote an open letter to prime ministerial hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak urging them to commit to access to football for every girl in every school. The FA’s ambition is that this is achieved by 2024. However Truss’s promise to “investigate what prevents schools from delivering the recommended minimum of two hours PE per week” falls well short of a commitment to match these ambitions. Schools are chronically underfunded and putting the onus on individual schools is not enough. The government must be pressured into increasing support for school sports, without forcing cuts elsewhere. Truss is considering ditching the plan to introduce an