Fara Williams details key changes to continue England and World Cup legacy
Fara Williams has no doubt that Women's World Cup glory for the Lionesses will inspire the next generation - but has demanded help from the powers that be.
Sarina Wiegman and her players have enjoyed a remarkable few years, beginning with last summer's incredible triumph at the Euros on home soil. They are on track to go even further by winning the World Cup this month and face co-hosts Australia in a mouthwatering semi-final on Wednesday.
Williams knows all about success too, having enjoyed more than 18 years as an England player that ultimately saw her retire as the most-capped Lioness of all time with 172 appearances. During an illustrious club career, she played for Chelsea, Charlton, Everton, Liverpool, Arsenal and Reading and won plenty of silverware including two WSL titles.
The 39-year-old Londoner - who collected an MBE in the 2016 New Year Honours list - is now a well-respected pundit and has starred for the BBC during their Women's World Cup coverage this summer. Having cemented herself as one of the biggest names in women's football, Williams has linked up with Sports Direct on a project to help change how football is represented online following the finding that 44 per cent of fans think women’s sport should be better represented in the media.
Speaking to Mirror Football, she explained how the foundations of the women's game, beginning at the grassroots, must change - and that should start now. Williams said: “For me, if the women’s game is to live up to what the Lionesses want and what women want in terms of inspiring a new generation of players, I think that the foundations of the game needs to be improved. I’m talking grassroots, I’m talking from the age of 10 to 16, that needs to become a little bit more professional in terms of giving them more opportunities to train.
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"Currently our RTCs (Regional Talent Centres) or Centres of Excellence - the academy part of the women’s game - they train twice a week for two hours per session which by the time they get there, get themselves sorted, they are probably only getting a few hours contact time.
"If you compare that to the boys academies that are training every day, six times a week, there’s a huge difference in that. If our game is to remain stable and we do allow the younger generation to dream of becoming a professional footballer, they need to start down there and maybe make that a bit more professional rather than the top down which is what we are currently doing. That’s only because I’m a coach so I like seeing the game at both ends.
Fara Williams made 172 appearances for the Lionesses (Getty Images)"I’m one of those 'tell me, show me' people, I think it’s alright saying you want to inspire the next generation. But if we don’t start to do stuff at the lower end, there won’t be a next generation of players that are able to achieve what the Lionesses have done now.
“It needs to be done - but I think it's needed a change for a while. When you go online and type in women’s football, the demand has never been as big as how it is now. We want to make a change and give equal access or opportunity to people - but that’s not just women’s football, that’s women’s sport in general."
Williams is a big advocate of social media, with her personal Instagram account boasting almost 100,000 followers. The Lionesses have an ever bigger audience, with their Instagram account followed by just shy of one million fans, while their Twitter account has 500,000 followers.
The former midfielder - whose last England game was in 2019 before officially hanging up her boots two years ago - understands how important social media is nowadays and added: “Loads has changed, there’s been a huge change... I think back to when I played in terms of social media and being able to go on to it and obviously give people access and interactions - it probably wasn’t as big as it is now.
"When I played, fans couldn’t get as close as they can now to players, it’s a huge platform for us to push our game and interact with fans so I think social media has played a key part in helping grow the game. There’s some good and bad that come with that - we all know that - and obviously we are trying to fight that online abuse as well.
"We want to cut out the bad when we can, but we understand that it’s going to be there. I think it’s a modern-day thing for people to get news and interact and, it is probably the biggest platform (social media) for people to access the women’s game.”
In terms of the Lionesses at the World Cup, Alessia Russo guaranteed they would finish no lower than fourth in the 2023 tournament when her second-half goal completed a 2-1 comeback against Colombia in Saturday’s quarter-final to set up Wednesday’s meeting with co-hosts Australia.
Third place would see England equal their best-ever finish from eight years ago in Canada and Williams is hopeful that they can follow up their Euros success with another historic triumph. Millions are expected to tune in to watch the semi-final - with this tournament being shown in the UK on terrestrial TV via the BBC and ITV - and the former Lioness has hailed the support.
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England are on track for Women's World Cup glory this summerShe added: “We have obviously seen what the Euros has done for the women’s game and the changes that they made in doing that. By winning the Euros last summer, what they achieved from that was already a huge step in progress in terms of inspiring the next generation of females and young boys to get involved in football in particular but sport in general.
"The positive impact that sport can deliver for young people in terms of mental health... Who knows if they win the World Cup where they will take the game and where they can take women’s sport because it is something that’s never been achieved before, so what comes with that nobody knows. I think visibility is the most important thing, whether that be through mainstream, broadcasters or social media platforms.
"Now I think the kids have that opportunity to dream big and achieve whatever they want to. Obviously there is a platform, there’s visibility, there’s now role models, female role models, that these young girls can inspire to be like. It’s definitely important that we continue to show these women in the right light and allow for young people to see what they are doing and inspire to be like them.”
Sports Direct is working to improve representation of football fans through its Equal View campaign, launching on the 24th August via Getty. Share your equal view of football on social with #SDFutureFootball.
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