2012 was a historic year not only for women’s football but also British football as a whole as Great Britain competed at the London Olympics. Buoyed on by all the hype, I reached deep into my pocket and bought tickets for all four of GB women’s matches in Cardiff, Wembley and Coventry.
This wasn’t just a fantastic week of football but a critical turning point in the progression of female football, providing a platform to broadcast the games to an audience on a huge scale. 70,000 fans crammed into Wembley Stadium to witness Steph Houghton’s strike topple the mighty Brazil.
The recent news that the FA has dropped plans to send a men’s and women’s team to compete at the Rio Olympics next year has disappointed a large number of football fans and players.
Speaking to the BBC Sport website, Manchester City striker Natasha Harding expressed her anguish. “Being Welsh and maybe having an opportunity to represent Great Britain at an Olympics would’ve been a dream. Now that’s been taken away.”
The FA’s of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland failed to agree to the English FA’s plan to recreate the momentous squads of 2012, that both reached the Quarterfinals of their respective tournaments.
Ultimately the decision seems to boil down to a lack of unity and openness between the home nations. In an interview with the BBC, the FAW president Trefor Lloyd Hughes argued, “we’re supposed to be one, working together, for the game of football”.
There is also a fear amongst the other home nations that they may risk losing their individual sovereignty in international football, although no such threat appeared following the London Olympics. Once again it’s an example of men in suits putting their politics first.
The 2012 adventure was treated as a ‘one-off’ at the time, but no one could have foreseen the support and momentum that the two generated, particularly on the women’s side, the crowds and the excitement levels were unprecedented.
It is a real shame then that the governing bodies have been unable to reach an agreement on this occasion. As the women’s game continues to progress internationally, the 2016 Olympics would have provided another stage for the likes of Harding and Scotland’s Kim Little to show off their skill and develop the game globally.
