Swelling in Leeds United Women’s crowds next season is the big hope the team have off the back of England’s Women’s Euro 2022 title. The country has been celebrating since Sunday after the national side defeated Germany at Wembley to keep the big prize in England.
After years of fighting for greater exposure and bigger crowds, the Lionesses have delivered the kind of championship and platform which could transform the women’s game. Leeds United Women will play in National League Division One North once again next term, and defender Rebekah Bass has opened up on just what the national success could do for the Whites.
“From Leeds United men, we get quite a lot of fans coming to watch us and we played at Elland Road a couple of months ago and the crowd we got then was brilliant,” she said. “For the guy fans coming to watch, they’re going to bring their kids, they’re going to come and enjoy themselves.
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“Women’s football is not like it used to be. It’s grown. With a lot of teams playing more, the tempo’s got quicker, the technicality of the game’s got a lot better, so people enjoy watching it.
“For us, as Leeds United Women, it’s absolutely brilliant taking that to the next step for us. Our season starts in two weeks and all we want is for people to come and watch us.
“If the men are playing away from home or they’ve played the Saturday and we’re playing the Sunday, we’re only at Tadcaster, we’re not too far away. If you want to get your football fix, come down and watch us.
“I’m not going to say we’re close to the men by any stretch of the imagination, but we’ll put the graft in for the shirt. We enjoy playing football and that’s all it’s about.”
Bass was with the rest of her team-mates at Elland Road on Sunday watching the Lionesses as they saw off Germany 2-1 after extra time while Jesse Marsch’s side played Cagliari. She was blown away by the reaction inside the ground once the winner was struck in the capital.
“It’s absolutely massive,” she said. “It’s nice to see so many men watching the game and while the game was on we were sat in one of the boxes and saw so many people watching the game on their phones.
“As soon as England went 2-1 up the whole stadium erupted. They were all singing it’s coming home and five years ago that would never have happened.
“It’s unbelievable and such a pleasure to be here and see how far women’s football has come over the last couple of years.”
She added: “I’ve played football for 24 years as a female footballer and never did I imagine it to be like this. Even looking at social media or the people you walk past in the street, you see them saying the women are doing well and they could bring it home.
“It’s nice to see people are seeing it as England and not just the women. People are going to bring football home, not just England women are bringing it home.”
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