Hello dear readers! How are things!? Last time out on the blog I wrapped up yet another Washington trip which has featured quite heavily on the blog over the years so it’s quite nice to have a few non-Washington posts coming up. First up: Sheffield!
2022 was a very busy year but this was one of those trips which I’d half-committed to quite far in advance and as a result, ended up being a bit more costly than it probably should have been. Looking back at exactly how much I spent (£425 hotel & £63 trains) I’m amazed I didn’t just sack this trip off but I guess it speaks volumes for my excitement for the weekend away.
Back in 2022, England were hosting the Women’s football European Championship and as a big football fan it was incredibly appealing to go to an international tournament on home soil. More to the point, it felt like a really seismic moment within women’s football.
Tbis isn’t exclusive to football, there has been a growing momentum behind women’s sports on the whole in recent years with a bigger and bigger appeal to many different sports with a number of rising sports stars paving the way for future generations. Maybe moreso with the power of social media but female athletes are becoming bigger household names:
Emma Raducanu, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, Caitlin Clark, Ilona Maher & Ellie Kildunne are just a few names that instantly spring to mind outside of the football world but in England, football is the big sport and you could already feel that momentum growing in the domestic league.
Football has always been a hugely popular sport in England and football history buffs will know that there was a time that was true of women’s football too. With the men away at war (WW1), popularity in the women’s game flourished and continued to even post-war until the football authorities imposed a ban in 1921 on women’s football. Our bruised male egos couldn’t allow a world where the two could possibly co-exist.
The ban on women’s football stood for roughly 50 years.
I don’t want to bore you to death but it’s good for you to have some context behind the history of women’s football. It’s fascinating and shameful in equal measure.
Some further context is necessary. A watershed moment, I believe, came in 2018. England were the only European country that officially put in a bid to host Euro 2022. The ONLY country interested in hosting the biggest sport in the world?
Another turning point in 2018 saw Manchester United (one of the world’s biggest sports teams) reintroduce a women’s football team having previously disbanded, whilst Tottenham (another of England’s biggest clubs) also stepped up their efforts to promote their women’s team in an effort to join established women’s football clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.
2019 saw Manchester United and Tottenham both promoted to England’s top football league as the league expanded from 11 to 12 teams. A cynic might suggest that that expansion probably doesn’t happen if benefiting smaller football clubs than those two but that couldn’t possibly be me! A football cynic? Never!
I promise I’m getting to the actual trip soon but 2019 saw efforts stepped up further. It was probably the first season that started to resemble something of a professional set up and with an international tournament arriving imminently, the game was being heavily promoted.
In 2019 I attended Tottenham v Arsenal in what was, at the time, a record attendance of 38,262. It was a landmark moment and you could really see and feel the momentum growing behind women’s football – particularly in this country. Attendances have since gone on to even bigger heights, with the record attendance now standing at over 91,000 for games in Barcelona.
Women’s football was evidentally on the up. You could see the demand growing, you could see the standards improving and that brings us back to the summer of 2022.
I knew I wanted to go to at least one game, maybe more but at the very least one. Unfortunately I knew 2022 would be a busy year and would strip me of the opportunity to go to any midweek games so my only requirements were to go to a weekend game somewhere in the country and preferably to a stadium I hadn’t previously been to before.
Sheffield’s “Bramall Lane” ticked the right box and on the 9th of August 2021, I blindly booked myself a ticket unaware of which teams I’d even be watching the following summer. That was a concern for a later date, as was my accommodation and travel. My main concern was saving for a wedding – this Sheffield weekender was not a concern whatsoever.
That was probably a mistake. By the time this trip rolled around, I’m not really sure I could actually justify it financially. Sometimes you’ve just got to say no to things but who wants to say no to the fun things, right!? Say yes to all the trips!
Leaving my planning to the last minute meant I paid the price – literally. It was so fucking extortionate going to Sheffield for a weekend at the last minute, particularly in a city hosting a big international event.
Financial irresponsibility aside, you don’t regret it do you? I know that’s probably not the moral of the story I should be sharing here but I had a bloody good weekend.
I caught the train from Peterborough up to Sheffield on Friday night. By the time I’d arrived in Sheffield there wasn’t time to do much of anything – other than get lost.
Honestly, I don’t know what it is about Sheffield but I just can’t seem to get my bearings with that city. I’d been there a couple of times previously so thought I had a vague idea where I was going but absolutely not, I never know where I am in Sheffield. We have a little “in joke” within the family where all roads lead to Sheffield but I swear, on a personal note I’d still struggle to find my way around if that were true.
Fortunately the next morning I had myself the guide of a local. Well, a local of sorts. A friend of mine, Jenny, moved up from Peterborough to Sheffield and meant that I had a friend that could actually stop me from getting lost.
We spent the morning wandering through the city whilst Jenny showed off the “sights” and relayed her new-found knowledge of Sheffield. The highlight for me was undoubtedly the Peace gardens next to Sheffield’s town hall and also the indoor Winter garden which was beautiful. It was nice to wander and catch up with a friend that I hadn’t seen this side of Covid.
Such was the magnitude of the tournament, Jenny would also be attending her first ever football match this evening as Sheffield welcomed the Netherlands and Sweden women’s teams to Bramall Lane. One other notable sight on our morning excursion was seeing the wave of Dutch orange and Swedish yellow spreading across the city as more and more fans flocked in to the city.
It’s quite bizarre but one of the things I always associate with international football tournaments is the colour of the fans in the stadiums and it was just really cool to see more and more orange and yellow throughout Sheffield as the day progressed.
Jenny had some things to do before the football so we went our separate ways and said our goodbyes. I went in the search of lunch and found a nice pub to grab some grub at. It was a lovely summer day so I made time for a little solo-exploring afterwards before turning my attention to some pre-match fun and meeting up with a friend.
A friend of mine from London, Natalie, was pretty much attending as many tournament games as humanly possible. With the exception of games kicking off at the same time, she’d arranged to go to a game every day throughout the tournament and I think this would already be her fourth game of the first weekend of the tournament – bonkers!
We went and had a couple of pre-match pints at a quiet little pub near my hotel. After a couple of beers and a catch-up we wandered over to the stadium together. Jenny had kindly pointed me in the vague direction of where I needed to go and the closer we got, the easier it was to just follow the orange and yellow.
Bramall Lane is one of the old-school English stadiums, retaining the character and history you lose with newer stadiums. It was nice to tick off another stadium on my list and better yet, I’d be catching up with another friend.
I’d mentioned earlier that I’d blindly bought my ticket for the game. I didn’t know which teams would be involved at the time of buying a ticket so I was pleased after the draw to learn the two teams participating would be the Netherlands and Sweden – two of the better teams.
Sweden was particularly significant because I then extended the invitation to my friend Sarah, of Northallerton fame, who I mentioned in a recent blog-post was a lover of all things Sweden (hence the Abba themed birthday party!).
“Hey, I’m going to be in Sheffield for the Sweden game.. you should come!”
I was due to be sat on my own but Sarah popped down from Northallerton for the game and unluckily for her, but luckily for me, Sarah’s sister couldn’t make the game so I ended up nabbing her ticket and sitting with Sarah and her dad to enjoy the game.
We were unsurprisingly sat among the lively Swedish supporters who made a good racket, aided by a strong first half performance from the Swedes. The game finished 1-1, a fair result with Sweden having the better of the first half and the Dutch responding with a good second half performance.
More interestingly was the attendance – 21,342. This has likely since changed but I think at the time was another record – the biggest crowd at an international tournament for a game not featuring the hosts. The England games were unsurprisingly all sell-outs but 20,000+, predominantly women and young girls, here to support this game-changing tournament in Sheffield for two foreign nations – wow!
I can’t say that, at the time, I was familiar with too many of the players. Arsenal’s (now Man City’s) Vivianne Miedema was undoubtedly the highest-profile player on display and one I was looking forward to watching again but it’s really interesting to look back at the two teams that day and realise how many players have since gone on to have a good career in English football.
It was a significant tournament in women’s football and one I found to be quite emotional. I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with football, more often than not I loathe it, but it’s quite sad how many are turned away by the culture of it in this country.
They’re fundamentally the same sport but men’s football and women’s football are so different culturally. By all means hate the sport itself but it does sadden me that for a lot of people it’s that uncomfortable and often intimidating culture that is the bigger issue and the real reason that people “don’t like football”.
I’ve heard too many stories of women feeling invalidated when it comes to men’s football because of lazy stereotypes or worse, suffering the sexism within the sport. So it was quite heartwarming to see first-hand how transformational this tournament was for women’s football.
England went on to win the tournament. It wasn’t really a great surprise, the hard work of the last few years had paid off and I think they were overwhelming favourites to win the tournament on home soil but it was a seismic moment nonetheless.
Football has been such a big part of my life and I think knowing that this tournament had introduced and welcomed a new audience of supporters to the game made me feel warm and fuzzy. I can’t even imagine what it meant for girls and women, generations and old, who now had a trailblazing generation of heroes to fall in love with. It was hard not to be swept up in the emotions of it all.
Post-game, myself and Natalie reunited and walked back in to town to chat and enjoy a couple more beers. It was the perfect way to round off the day.
The next morning I again met up with Natalie for a quick drink before she headed onwards for yet another game in nearby Rotherham, whilst I waited for my train home to Peterborough. Before my train I had time to go and get myself lost one final time in Sheffield as I seeked out a pub to grab a Sunday roast dinner.
I eventually found somewhere suitable, enjoyed the food and then wandered back in the vague direction of the train station to catch my train. I definitely did not have the money to justify this trip but I’d spent the weekend catching up with a few friends, watching football and enjoying a few beers along the way so what does it matter, right?
P.S – please don’t sell your house and book a round-the-world cruise on the back of reading and making light of this financial irresponsibility!
Anyway, all in all it had been a lovely weekend and the bank balance eventually recovered. 2022 was a year filled with many memorable moments and this weekend was definitely another one to remember.
Until next time!
Jason
Jason likes to travel 