The executive has heeded the calls of the Lionesses after their ancient Euro 2022 win and dedicated to offering equivalent get right of entry to to all sports activities in PE for girls and boys, at least two hours of PE every week and a multimillion‑pound funding at school sports activities and after‑college actions.
The day after the Wembley ultimate, the Lionesses wrote an open letter to the Tory management applicants Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss laying out calls for which at the moment are being met.
Leah Williamson, the England captain, greeted the announcement – on International Women’s Day – by way of announcing “this is the legacy that we want to live much longer than us as a team”. She thanked her Arsenal and England teammate Lotte Wubben‑Moy for being “a driving force behind this transformational change”.
Williamson stated: “The luck of the summer time has impressed such a lot of younger women to pursue their pastime for soccer. We see it as our duty to open the doorways for them to take action and this announcement makes that imaginable.”
The plans set out to make the same sports available to boys and girls, where wanted, and a minimum two hours of PE a week up to the end of year 11. The government said more than £600m would be provided over the next two years to improve PE and sports in primary schools and up to another £57m to open more school sport facilities outside school hours, especially targeted at girls, disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs. Parity of provision for girls is to be rewarded with a Kitemark scheme.
Football statistics Association published last July showed 72% of girls play as much football as boys in primary school but that figure drops to 44% in secondary school and that only 40% of secondary schools offer girls the same access to football via after-school To install clubs as boys.
Wubben-Moy said: “By making football more accessible to millions of girls across the nation, we have opened a crucial door for the growth of women’s football and women’s sport as a whole. I am proud to be a part of something that will live on for generations to come. This is just the beginning.
The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, said the move was “breaking down the limitations some kids face to get right of entry to recreation and development at the Lionesses’ legacy to verify women have the similar get right of entry to to all their favourite sports activities as boys”.
Baroness Sue Campbell, the FA’s director of women’s football, said that “what has been introduced as of late is as essential as the rest that used to be accomplished at the pitch in the summertime”. She said: “A conversation led by Lotte Wubben-Moy and Leah Williamson on the bus from the Trafalgar Square celebrations today has delivered real change in society and the announcement is testament to their tenacity and excellent engagement with the government. The FA are as proud of them as we have ever been.”
Campbell stated the investment for the PE and recreation top rate, £22m for the varsity video games organizers community and bolstered steering and tracking of ways that cash is spent would have a “significant impact on participation and also the physical and emotional wellbeing of the nation’s children”. .