WHAT A SHOT! FOOTBALL TEAM HONOURS HISTORIC PICTURE
EVERY football team needs a group shot – but a Birmingham women’s team has taken a trip down memory lane.
Saltley Stallions Womens FC were chosen to recreate the first ever recorded photograph of a women’s football team, as part of a photo series from The National Lottery to celebrate the upcoming 2022 Women’s Euro’s.
The Stallions, who train at Greenlane Playing Fields, was created by Obayed Hussain and Yasmin Nessa following demand from Muslim women in Inner City Birmingham to have more opportunities to be involved in football.
Since 2013, the club has received almost £40,000 in funding and support from The National Lottery – and to celebrate the impact the club has made on its local community, players were invited to join footballer and singer-songwriter Chelcee Grimes for a team photo paying homage to the trailblazers of the women’s game.
The original image features one of the first known women’s teams, The British Ladies’ FC, which was formed by captain Nettie Honeyball, who is widely considered a pioneer of women’s football and the early feminist movement.
Their first game was played in Crouch End, North London, in front of a crowd of 10,000 people.
In the original match, the players wore buttoned-up blouses and billowing bloomers, in line with the Radical Dress Movement for reforming the dress standards of women. Players would have only owned one pair of boots, which had to be heeled to ensure they weren’t considered to be breaking the Victorian standards of decency.
Fast forward over 125 years and the women’s game couldn’t look more different.
Over the last ten years alone, National Lottery players have helped invest over £50 million into football in ways which benefit the women and girls’ game. This investment includes funding specific programmes as part of the Women’s Euros legacy, as well as supporting the sport’s return after Covid-19 and other initiatives to inspire females to play the game.
Yasmin Rahman, one of the Saltley Stallions, said: “Recreating this photo is an amazing experience, putting a modern twist on such an important image that represents where the game has come from.
“When I was younger, I never had the opportunity to play in a women’s team, I was used to being the only girl in a boys team.
“For me as a Muslim girl in a male-dominated environment, I am so happy to have that safe space where I can just play football and I am so passionate about getting as many people to participate as possible.”
Chelcee, who has played for Liverpool, Fulham and Mersyside Ladies said: “Hopefully these images will capture people’s imagination ahead of the Euros. Nettie Honeyball and her team were true trailblazers of their time.”