Arsenal and England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy has praised the government’s announcement to support girls’ football with a £600m funding package today, (8 March) after months of campaigning for equal access to sports.
“Imagine how many future Lionesses you could pick out in every playground across the nation with every school now offering equal access to football. Well, that is now the reality the Lionesses squad of 2022 dreamed of,” Wubben-Moy wrote in response to the government’s announcement in an open letter for BBC Sport.
Sport England announced in a statement on 8 March, International Women’s Day, that it would invest in schools across the country to ensure that “girls and disadvantaged pupils” would be given equal access to sports facilities.
The investment will “set out that offering girls and boys the same sports, where it is wanted, is the new standard,” the statement said. Sport England also pledged to make two hours of PE a week part of the curriculum.
A former pupil at Stoke Newington School, the UEFA Women’s Euro champion began her campaign days after lifting the trophy at Wembley in August 2022. She wrote to the then Conservative Party candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, asking them to consider making investment into girls’ football in schools a priority.
Wubben-Moy, who grew up in Bow in East London, was signed by Arsenal when she was 13 years old. The 24-year-old is now a regular in both Sarina Wiegman’s England and Jonas Eidevall’s Arsenal teams.
In her open letter for the BBC, she explained that her childhood experience of travelling long distances to get to training influenced her decision to begin the campaign.
“Having witnessed it first hand, I know this necessity to travel has already ended so many young players’ careers in London and perhaps stopped many more from ever beginning. This is one of the reasons I so strongly believe in the need for girls’ football at every school across the nation.”
England captain Leah Williamson recognised Wubben-Moy as the driving force behind the change. She said: “On behalf of all the Lionesses players, we’d like to thank our teammate Lotte Wubben-Moy. We couldn’t be prouder to stand alongside her and we all look forward to seeing the impact this legacy creates.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Last year the Lionesses’ victory changed the game. Young girls know when they take to the pitch that football is for them and, thanks to the Lionesses, they too could be a part of the next generation to bring it home for their country.”
