Pitch battle
Threat to Lioness legacy as cuts kill off footie fields
CALIFORNIA is today braced for aftershocks from its biggest earthquake in 20 years.
The 7.1 magnitude quake damaged buildings, power lines, water mains and started fires from broken gas pipes on Friday night.
It hit the town of Ridgecrest near Death
Valley but was strong enough to create waves in Los Angeles swimming pools 125 miles away. A 6.4 quake came hours before. THE England Lioness team’s huge boost to football is being wasted because of Tory austerity cuts, Labour warned yesterday.
Thousands of school football pitches have disappeared as funding is slashed and sports fields are sold off to developers.
Figures released by Labour Deputy Leader and Shadow Culture Secretary Tom Watson show that 2,500 grass pitches have vanished under Coalition and Tory governments since 2010.
Even as girls in playgrounds up and down the land copy Ellen White’s goal celebration from the England World Cup run, the facilities to bring on the next generation of Lionesses are being lost for ever.
After the team’s heartbreaking semi-final defeat by the USA attracted the biggest TV audience of 2019, with 11.7million viewers, midfielder Jill Scott said: “We want to leave a legacy for all the young girls wanting to play football. That’s what it’s all about.” But in January 2010 there were 2,488 fewer school-owned grass football pitches in operation than the 36,589 in use in June 2010.
Women’s football stalwart Edie Coates, who has spent a decade developing female
talent at Hartlepool United Women, said: “Houses are being built where school pitches were and that’s not good for the kids.”
Tom Watson said: “The Women’s World Cup has inspired millions across the country and many young girls will have seen themselves reflected on the global football stage for the very first time. That’s why it’s such a travesty that we’ve lost nearly 2,500 grass pitches from our schools because of senseless Tory austerity.
“If we want to encourage the next generation of footballers, they need pitches to play on.”
Edie Coates added: “We’ve had two girls move to Hartlepool from Coventry and Birmingham recently who didn’t have any football pitches at their old junior schools.
“The Lionesses have done us so proud. But if that’s going to be turned into a positive for the next generation, then there needs to be more funding.”