The Lionesses celebrating their win
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)The Lionesses have urged prime ministerial candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to ensure girls have the ability to play football in PE lessons.
The players, who emerged victorious at the Euro 2022 championship after beating Germany 2-1 on Sunday, urged the candidates to ensure the win was “just the beginning for women’s football”.
In an open letter signed by the squad, the team said that they were asking the candidates to create “real change in this country” in promoting women’s football.
They said: “We want every young girl in the nation to be able to play football at school.
“Currently only 63% of girls can play football in PE lessons. The reality is we are inspiring young girls to play football, only for many to end up going to school and not being able to play.
“This is something that we all experienced growing up. We were often stopped from playing.
“So we made our own teams, we travelled across the country and despite the odds, we just kept playing football.”
"We see this as only the beginning."
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) August 3, 2022
An open letter from our #Lionesses... pic.twitter.com/Ty9kA7zgGa
Some schools do not provide girls the opportunity to play football during PE lessons, with guidance only suggesting that schools must provide “comparable sporting activities” between boys and girls.
The letter urges the politicians to commit to all girls having a minimum of two hours a week of PE, and to invest in and support female PE teachers saying “their role is crucial”.
“We have made incredible strides in the women’s game, but this generation of school girls deserve more,” said the Lionesses.
“They deserve to play football at lunchtime, they deserve to play football in PE lessons and they deserve to believe they can one day play for England.
“We want their dreams to also come true.”
Their plea to the Conservative leadership candidates comes as Labour’s shadow education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, wrote to the Education Secretary demanding an ‘Equal Access Guarantee’ for school sport to help cement the Lionesses’ legacy.
Ms Phillipson said that after the Lionesses’ win the Government needed to “secure that legacy and deliver equal access to sport for women and girls”.
The women’s England’s team made history with their victory on Sunday night, after becoming the first senior England side to win a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup.
They toasted their success with a packed-out event at London’s Trafalgar Square the following day in front of around 7,000 fans.
