A Pride of Lionesses - An Evolution

 

Dick Kerr’s Ladies Football Team, Preston 1920 Pic: Preston Digital Archive

 

Christmas Day 1917 is seen as the date when women's football started in earnest in England. With League football suspended due to the Great War and most men being in uniform, the women of a munitions factory in Preston, Dick Kerr & Co Ltd, decided to provide some much needed entertainment and raise money for charity by staging a football match. It became so popular that on Boxing Day in 1920, Dick Kerr's Ladies beat St. Helens Ladies 4-0 at Goodison Park in front of a crowd of 53,000 with some 10.000 being locked out.

The original Belles in 1969

 

Formed in 1969 as the Belle Vue Belles by a group of young, ambitious women who were selling draw tickets on the terraces at Doncaster Rovers FC and one of the most successful Women's Football teams and one of eight founding teams in the FA WSL in April 2011. Doncaster Belles in April 2013, after one league game, were relegated to a lower league. What could have been the cause of such an act that in any other walk of life in Britain would be castigated? Money of course; Football and money.

The Football Association announced that, as part of an FA WSL restructure and expansion, Manchester City would now replace them in the top tier.

This was the first season in which Manchester City have fielded a women’s team in national women’s competition, and the team is set to finish mid-table in the second tier. 

It would appear that financial stability rather than on the field achievement was more important in this day and age with City being owned by one of the world’s richest men, Sheikh Mansour, while the Belles are not. The FA might have had a very good alternative reason, but stated that it could make no further comment while the Belles were appealing against the decision. 

Belles manager John Buckley described the situation as "the most farcical thing I've ever heard," while chairman Alan Smart publicly ridiculed the FA for relegating the club after one league match thus rendering the 2013 season as meaningless. The club appealed the decision and had the support of rival clubs with Arsenal Ladies' Vic Akers describing the governing body's actions as "morally scandalous."

At the televised 2013 FA Women's Cup final between Arsenal and Bristol Academy, a planned demonstration by Belles fans was disrupted by stewards, claiming to be acting on behalf of the F.A. seizing a banner, flyers and a Bell. They would have taken match tickets too but by this time a crowd had gathered, including Belles coach John Buckley who persuaded the stewards to at least allow them to watch the game.

All of the confiscated items were handed back after the match, except for the banner which, the fans were told, was being retained as "evidence", of what, they were not told.The fans seemed genuinely bewildered at the heavy-handed treatment of their peaceful protest.

 

England Squad 2022

 

Women's Football had long been desired to be promoted and accepted as a credible participation sport as it was in the USA where TV shows are littered with scenes of Women's Football as the perfect participation sport. A cruel irony then that it was the 1998 BBC drama series 'Playing The Field' that made the breakthrough in the UK.  Inspired by Doncaster Rovers Belles and written by Kay Mellor it ran for five years until 2002, starring James Nesbitt and Ricky Tomlinson amongst other well known actors. A cultural legacy that meant little in those days in the face of business has now resulted in England Ladies becoming UEFA Women's EURO winners in 2022 defeating Germany at Wembley 2-1 in extra time.