THE NARRATIVE AROUND WOMEN’S FOOTBALL IN WALES HAS CHANGED

Photo by Lewis Mitchell [lewismitchellphoto.photoshelter.com]

Megan Feringa

Michele Adams is not the kind of woman to remember things falsely. More importantly, she is not the kind of woman to be convinced that she has remembered things falsely. 

When none of her fellow teammates recalled Wales Women’s trip to Luxembourg, the ex-international did not abandon her position. For years, she remained steadfast in the face of ubiquitous doubt. 

Because she was there. 

Wales played Luxembourg. 

Adams did not dream it. 

Wales Women did, in fact, travel to Luxembourg to play a football match. The problem, of course, is that historic records for Wales Women exist largely within the genre of oral tradition. A quick Google search is pretty useless.

So when Adams recalls when Wales Women finally received official recognition from the FAW in 1992, that “no one cared”, it is not the sort of throwaway comment you take with a pinch of salt. You take it as historical fact.

Wales Women played their first international fixture in May 1993. Six months later, Paul Bodin missed his penalty. In 1985, Wales Women did not, technically, exist. Joe Jordan’s hand, unfortunately, did. In 2003, Wales Women were playing football matches. Good luck trying to find any historic records, match reports or evidence of it. 

The point of this exercise is not to draw antagonising parallels with the men’s game. It is to emphasise a shift. 

That last night’s heartbreak loss in the final minute of extra time registers on the same Richter scale of emotion as Romania '93, Scotland '85, Russia ‘03 and the like is important. It is evidence that Wales Women have opened and closed the latest chapter of one of the most extraordinary Welsh sporting stories: a team which hardly registered a heartbeat of recognition at its origin coming to create something inspiring, powerful and normal for a nation.

It has become vogue to talk about the recent success of women’s football around the world as relishing its reclamation arc, as if reaching this point had some narrative guarantee. In fact, many of the players would argue that they knew, at some point, change would arise.

But for so much change to be concentrated into a single campaign is remarkable and frankly inconceivable. 

Wales’ first home match saw 1,700 fans file into Parc y Scarlets, a number that, at that stage, was emboldening. By the last home match, more than 15,000 filed into Cardiff City Stadium. At this stage, it felt almost natural. 

So too, on the pitch. Wales might have entered Stadiom Letzigrund as the underdogs on paper last night, but there lingered a sense that Wales could come away not only with the necessary victory, but the necessary two-goal margin. After scoring the opening goal, for 20 minutes, Wales looked like they might just do that. It was not fanatical to believe Wales belonged at this level. They looked the part. It is why a suckerpunch at the death after nearly 90 minutes of an almost unrecognisably frenetic and passive performance felt deadening. 

To refrain from picking the bones out of a result that, on a footballing basis, should have better is inherently dangerous. 

There is also the risk of being insensitive at flapping wildly at the bigger picture, when generational figures like Helen Ward, Natasha Harding, Sophie Ingle and Jessica Fishlock have likely seen their final chance at a World Cup, and first-ever major tournament, slip away. 

But a difference exists between blind cheerleading and necessary reflection, and the morning after a night of bleak disappointment, it is worth reflecting on the progress, before dealing with the more delicate step of pushing forward.

This campaign has hinged on the concept of inspiring the next generation. To say that Gemma Grainger’s side gripped the imagination of the country would be an understatement. Across Wales, young girls saw footballers who they could identify with not only playing the sport they love but being comprehensively and rightfully encouraged to do so from every corner of the country. 

The impact of that visibility has the potential to be tectonic in terms of trajectory. But it requires work. The legacy of “inspiring a generation” can often be a message that sporting fans implicitly accept without considering the machinations of it. 

Funding at grassroots level, more support for girls-only clubs and a systematic change at the top of the game are critical if any significant change is to occur. At the moment, no women sit at board or council level within the FAW. That dearth in powerful positions poses a direct threat to any powerful work done at pitch-level. 

The football might be over for now, but the stage is set. The imperative to progress the women’s game in Wales is non-negotiable, but what that progress looks like, the various directions it takes and how the changes are implemented are questions whose answers could define whether the next campaign ends differently. 

For now, however, a moment to reflect. 

As Switzerland celebrated on the pitch, a smile sat on the face of captain Sophie Ingle. The steps taken in this campaign have been exponential. And while major tournament qualification has long been the goal for Ingle, Fishlock and the other senior players, the bigger goal was bringing Wales Women into this vein of normalcy. By that appraisal, they have achieved wild success. 

Many fans have begun to feel that something is stirring within the women’s game in Wales. For the players, it has always been stirring. It is just that now others are beginning to take note. Continuing to do so could prove the difference between this campaign and the next.