Earlier this month, The Athletic investigated whether England’s European Championship success in 2022 had been a catalyst for meaningful change in grassroots women’s football in the UK.
In this article, we assess the state of the semi-professional game in the country and whether the Lionesses’ achievements have helped drive change for players outside of the Women’s Super League.
Bustling crowds queuing to get through turnstiles, fans buzzing around refreshment and merchandise stalls. This wasn’t Chelsea’s Kingsmeadow or Arsenal’s Meadow Park, the home of the Women’s Super League’s elite clubs. It was The Dripping Pan, Championship side Lewes Women’s stadium, in the hour before their FA Cup quarter-final tie against Manchester United in March.
It wasn’t just fans packed in to watch this game — the BBC cameras were spread across the ground, too, for what was the biggest tie of the weekend. Lewes put on a festival-like event for supporters and used the game as an opportunity to raise awareness of their ongoing campaign to get equal prize money in the Women’s FA Cup. The match drew the club’s record crowd of 2,801 and the relentless marketing and community engagement paid off.
A few years ago, Lewes would have only dreamed of having a crowd of that size….
