Just four of the winning Euros 2022 Lionesses team have been awarded New Year honours - and fans are furious.
Beth Mead, Lucy Bronze and Ellen White have been handed gongs for their role in the Lionesses’ first major trophy, the first for a senior England team since the men won the World Cup in 1966.
Williamson gets an OBE while her three team-mates get MBE’s. Others including Chloe Kelly, scorer of the winning goal in extra time in the 2-1 win over Germany in July, are left empty handed.
Kelly's celebration taking her shirt off was one of the most iconic moments of the tournament - almost overshadowing the fact she was celebrating the winning goal - yet she wasn't given an honour. And without her goal, would we have even won the Euros?
Well, fans are taking to Twitter in fury asking why the whole team wasn't honoured, raising eyebrows - and questions - as to how much the women's team has to do to be put on the same pedestal as the men's team.
@KatMcD86 said: 4 New Year Honours (one of those honorary) for the #Lionesses following their Euro 2022 victory. Can't understand why all weren't afforded the same recognition when its a team sport, in stark contrast to the England Cricket team in 2005 where all those men got honours.
@daleskeg: How do only 5 of the Lionesses get new year honours. They should all get them. It’s a team sport.
@RedBasford: Why have only 4 of the victorious Lionesses been rewarded in the New Year honours list? If you're going to have these trinkets then all of them should be honoured. If it had been a men's team they'd all be rewarded!
@jane_kjane: Very disappointed for the Lionesses in the New Year’s Honours List. Happy for those receiving honours, but for me it should be all or nothing. It’s a team game, they won as a team, they should all receive honours.
The chairman of the honours sports committee Sir Hugh Robertson said the selective approach had been taken to avoid “carpet-bombing” the squad.
He was asked why more of the Lionesses squad had not been recognised.
"The approach that we've tried to take with this is when we have these events there is a danger in sort of carpet bombing the entire squad because then you get people who've done five minutes on the pitch and get an award.
“So what we’ve tried to do is stick to the principle of the honours which is to recognise excellence and to recognise extraordinary contributions.”
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