Whatever happens on Sunday, the Lionesses may just have changed football, and a lot else besides, forever
But relativism is not important here, anyway. The Lionesses have made us think to the future, not the past. They have encouraged us to look at our national game in a new way. They have brought an uninhibited joy, and a pride untainted by chauvinism to the quest for glory which contrasts sharply with so many overwrought and overpromised World Cup campaigns undertaken by our men. In so doing, they will unquestionably inspire the impressionable next generation of sports women, and possibly men.
No one can gainsay, either, the significance of their success in providing an example of inclusion and tolerance missing from the sport at top level: several of the Lionesses are openly gay while still not a single Premier League footballer has yet come out as gay, defying the statistical logic. And look at the crowds who watched the semi-final in public places. So many children and young women, not just boozed-up men, intoxicated by the sort of pure delight that only sport can deliver.
It is such a powerful, uplifting sight, and the Lionesses have forced all of us traditional football fans to question the shibboleths of that most exclusive of male strongholds, professional football. Maybe this will even pave the way for the first permanent female manager of a Football League club. Certainly, Sarina Wiegman, manager of the Lionesses, would do a better job than many men who currently occupy that role.. It is recognising a powerful agent of long-awaited change, in football and in wider society, which is why it’s disappointing that Prince William and Rishi Sunak won’t be going to the final. And don’t worry about comparisons with 1966. Whatever happens on Sunday, the Lionesses may just have changed football, and a lot else besides, for ever.
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