After the women’s world cup, the next goal should be our own Match of the Day

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/09/womens-world-cup-england-hope-powell

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In Edmonton, Canada, where I’m currently based, a crowd of 53,000 saw a football match on Saturday. This would be a big crowd for any game in any league in the world; but this was for a women’s match – the opening game of the World Cup – and it was a record audience for a women’s game in the country.

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It was a fantastic start for the tournament, and was the clearest indication yet that there is huge and growing interest in the women’s game. All the games are broadcast live on TV and they are all heavily promoted. Across the country, the tournament is advertised on the streets and in the shops, on TV and radio stations – it’s being talked about all the time, so there’s a lot of awareness.

Today England, the team I managed for 15 years until 2013, kick off their first match, against France. As in Canada, all games are being screened live on television (tonight’s game will be on BBC2); Germany, France and several other countries are broadcasting all the games live too.

This tournament will be another major stepping stone in bringing the women’s game to more fans around the world. When I think back to when I first started out in the game, playing for the Millwall Lionesses in the 1970s, it seems as if the game has finally got the recognition it deserves. As a young girl I had to pay to play the game. Now women at the top level are professional and are paid to compete – their efforts and skills are at last being rewarded.

Canada hosted the under-20 women’s world cup in 2002. The tournament changed the perception of women’s football in the country and they’ve been building on that ever since. Much work has been done promoting the sport, and several legacy programmes have been developed to get more girls involved and reach communities that haven’t been reached before, such as indigenous people. They’ve been pushing boundaries, changing perceptions and increasing participation rates, as they bid to be the number one women’s team sport in the country, ahead of ice hockey.

It’s a little known fact that in England women’s football is already the number one female participation team sport, with more women and girls playing football today than netball and hockey. Barriers to getting young girls involved aren’t anything like they used to be. We now have role models, players can earn enough to play as a full-time job. The obstacles to playing and earning a living have been eradicated. Personal sponsorship and team sponsorship have changed dramatically. Agents have come into the game. Everything has changed since I played.

Progress can be seen by the number of spectators too. Having women’s teams affiliated to the traditional men’s clubs such as Arsenal and Manchester City has really helped. The FA’s Women’s Super League is now broadcast on BT: the fact that a commercial broadcaster wants to televise WSL is significant and gives the game a new level of prominence – it proves there’s a real appetite for it. Investment is more than it’s ever been. On every front things have improved – and men are watching the game as well as women, boys as well as girls.

Despite this, there are still areas where I’d like to see changes. We still need more women leaders in the game, both on and off the pitch. In this world cup, of the 24 teams, there are only eight female coaches. There are many women who are now qualified to coach. I’d like to see more of them stepping up and being given a chance. I’d also like to see the women’s game being broadcast in all European countries.

Ultimately, while this tournament will be a great celebration of the progress made in the women’s game, it’s what happens after the world cup that matters. Will we get to see more of our domestic matches?

This may depend to some degree on how far England progress in the tournament. I hope they’ll get beyond the group stages – today’s game against France will be very tough, because France are one of the world’s best teams. But even if England lose they should be able to qualify by doing well in their other group games against Colombia and Mexico. After that, it will be the luck of the draw, but they’ll be hoping to get to the quarter-finals, to equal their best-ever performance.

One thing I’d love to see in the long term is the women’s game broadcast weekly in the style of Match of the Day. Our game still needs to improve but this would be a great long-term target: to see Liverpool and Sunderland women’s teams every week, in addition to their men’s matches. To see the goals of Eniola Aluko and Jodie Taylor alongside Diego Costa and Harry Kane. To see them in the goal of the month competition – maybe scoring a screamer like Stephanie Roche did last year to become runner-up in Fifa’s award for 2014.

It’s clear that the women’s game is on the rise. Who knows, by the time the next tournament kicks off in France in 2019, these dreams may have become a reality.