Government and football authorities urged to formulate plan for return of women's game

The Government and the football authorities have been urged to immediately formulate a plan for the return of women’s football and explain how the Premier League will financially help the wider football pyramid when it returns.

Telegraph Sport revealed fears on Friday that a decade of progress in women’s sport was at risk ahead of a virtually “invisible” summer when the return of the men’s Premier League is now set to dominate the broadcast schedule.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden responded to mounting concerns on Saturday by acknowledging that “visibility matters” and said that he would be “working hard” to ensure that the momentum in women’s sport was not lost. He also said that a firm condition of the Premier League’s return was that the financial benefits “would be shared throughout the football family”.

It remains unclear, however, whether that will involve any significant new money being distributed to women’s football or further down a professional and amateur pyramid that is currently fighting for its survival.

There has been no elite women’s team sport since March 14 and, with the size of a broadcast deal seemingly such a key driver in whether a sport resumes, women’s football, rugby and netball have all had their domestic league seasons cancelled. Women's cricketers and hockey players are also still waiting to see what is left of scheduled internationals.

In Germany, by contrast, the women’s Bundesliga has already resumed and there plans in the United States for women’s football to restart in June. Coronavirus testing for the female players in the Frauen-Bundesliga was helped by a solidarity fund that was paid for by some of the richest men’s clubs.

Stephanie Holborne, the chief executive of Women in Sport, warned last week that the wrong signal was being sent to girls who might take up sport this summer. “It is the visibility of women’s sport that helps to inform the expectations that girls have for their lives,” she said. Hilborne said that it was “great news” that Dowden had now signalled his commitment to women’s sport but stressed that the government “needs to show leadership here as the market isn't working on its own”.

Alison McGovern, the shadow sports minister, highlighted the context of how women’s football was previously banned and then serially underfunded. “You can't ban people doing a thing for 50 years, underinvest for many more, then expect this generation of women players to generate income as if this never happened,” she said. “We urgently need a plan from the Government, the FA and the Premier League.”

Former England international Alex Scott has been asked onto the government’s ‘Cultual Renewal Taskforce’ and she has pledged to voice her concerns for women’s sport and grassroots football. Scott said that it was a “worrying time” and that a plan needed to be made now for women’s sport.

Damian Collins, the former chair of the DCMS select committee, has also written to Dowden to warn that there may only be weeks to save professional football "as we know it" in the UK. “If nothing is done to provide financial support to football, clubs with old and famous names will almost certainly go into administration within weeks,” said Collins. “More communities will go through the agony that Bury suffered last year and see a beloved cultural and sporting institution taken from them.”