England Women start their European Championship campaign against Scotland in Utrecht, Holland, on Wednesday evening.
The game is being televised live on Channel 4 at peak time, therefore giving more valuable exposure to the Women’s game and on a different platform to the BBC where it can usually be found, although as an aside I find the choice of Clare Balding to host the coverage slightly strange when there are many excellent female broadcasters out there whose main focus is football.
England are one of the favourites to lift the trophy and hand a boost to the FA Women’s Super League which kicks off its new season in September, the era of ‘summer football’ having ended and a winter schedule having being introduced for the 2017/18 season.
Helping the national team and those clubs in the Champions League are the headline reasons for the change but, on an everyday level it is also hoped that a more regular schedule of matches throughout the season will lead to an increase in attendances.
The WSL features regularly on these pages and our Twitter feed, matches are affordable to watch and provide a family-friendly environment in which to do so.
But the 2016 season was a disjointed affair with a ‘feast or famine’ schedule of games which sometimes saw teams play two home matches in quick succession and then have a long gap until their next one.
I’ve just finished reading Carrie Dunn’s excellent ‘The Roar of the Lionesses’ book which, for all of the England stars on the front cover, covers many aspects of the Women’s game and the challenges that it faces to build on the huge strides made in recent years.
Positive headlines from Euro 2017 will certainly help in that regard.
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