‘Women need to be taken seriously’: Beth Mead sickened by US abuse report

Beth Mead has said the Lionesses are in contact with the USA team about how they will show solidarity with players in the US after the publication of a report that found sexual misconduct and emotional abuse to be “systemic” there.

Mead, announced on Thursday as England’s player of the year, said before Friday’s meeting of the European champions and world champions at a sold-out Wembley: “I was quite sickened when I found out. It’s a worldwide problem. Women need to be taken seriously a lot more. I’m proud of the victims that stood up. People need to start doing better.

“We’re in contact with the USA team and some of the players. We are working on something on our support of them.”

England’s manager, Sarina Wiegman, said her first reaction to the report was that it was “horrible and unacceptable”. She said: “I feel very sorry for all the victims and it should stop immediately, of course. I think it’s a worldwide problem still. It’s time we will step up and stop these things.”

Mead believes England players feel more empowered to speak about off-field issues they did in the past. “We feel we have a good platform to make a difference,” the forward said. “We wrote the letter [to the Tory leadership candidates] about [equal access to] PE in schools. We want to use our platform for the greater good of the women’s game and women’s sport in general.”

Friday’s friendly will be the teams’ first meeting since the SheBelieves Cup in March 2020, when the US won 2-0, eight months after they knocked England out of the World Cup semi-finals in France.

“We took [the semi-final defeat] hard but it’s made us more hungry and motivated to prove ourselves against a world-class American team,” said Mead. “We’re looking forward to seeing where