What is so great about football?

The comeback of women’s football

Women’s football has grown quickly in recent decades. More than a hundred years ago, it was also very popular in England – but only for a short time during World War I.

Many men went away to fight, so women took over their jobs in factories. They worked long hours every day, and they were looking for something fun to do afterwards. Some women began playing football. They formed teams and played matches often.

In England, there was no men’s League Football because of the war, and people missed going to football matches. At the same time, military hospitals needed money to help injured soldiers. So, women’s football teams were asked to play games to give people something interesting to watch, and to raise funds for the hospitals.

Soon, people began to take women’s football seriously. Newspapers wrote that the matches were exciting and the players were very good. In 1920, 53,000 people came to watch a women’s game at Goodison Park in Liverpool, and thousands more could not get into the stadium.

But only one year later, the Football Association banned women’s teams from playing in its clubs’ stadiums. According to the Football Association, “the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.” Some people think that the real reason was money. After the end of the war, (men’s) League Football had started again. Maybe the Football Association was worried that people would be more interested in women’s matches than in men’s matches. 

This decision made it much more difficult for women to set up matches. Instead of stadiums, they played in public parks. The ban did not stop women from playing but the sport became much less visible.

The ban lasted for about fifty years. In 1971, the Football Association finally allowed women to play on official pitches again. Interest grew slowly, and in 1991 the first FIFA Women’s World Cup took place. 

Today, women’s football is very popular. Women’s and girls’ teams in England have more than doubled between 2016–17 and 2023, going from about 5,600 to over 12,000 teams. In the top English league, more fans are going to matches. In the first round of the 2025–26 season, over 95,000 people went to the games. 

A hundred years later, women’s football has once again become a major sport.