Let this be the beginning, not the end. Mark Sampson’s rhetoric in the wake of England’s defeat by Japan has particular resonance: “They have really inspired a nation back home and deserve to go back as heroes.”
That was a phrase markedly similar to the one adorning every venue during the London Olympics three years ago, when many of these players were first exposed to a wider audience under the Team GB banner.
London 2012 was supposed to “inspire a generation” but statistics investigating public participation in sport have repeatedly measured a disappointingly diluted impact.
Laura Bassett and her team-mates will not feel like it today, given the painfully cruel exit endured in Edmonton, but their run at this tournament can prove a positive catalyst for the future of women’s football in this country.
There is no guarantee it will, however, as the flawed London 2012 legacy has proved. Many references have been made in recent days to the revolutionary effect of England’s men’s performance at Italia 90 and whether this Canadian campaign will equate.
But Italia 90 alone did not morph men’s football into the colossus it is today. It took the vision of those individuals who formed the Premier League to transform the religious biennial devotion to a team into a weekly Saturday sermon.
The saturation coverage of men’s football today makes it harder for women’s football to find its niche but the FA must now drive the growth of the Women’s Super League, only in its fifth season. The standard must improve to draw in bigger audiences — last season’s WSL figures were below Conference levels — but this is a sport that is maturing and to do so effectively, greater investment is required to improve facilities and coaching.
This tournament has shown England to harbour great talent and great characters housed in a refreshingly visceral sport free of the ugly excesses often engrossing the men’s game. The component parts are there to build something special and lasting. There is no time to waste.
