Women’s sport facing 10-year setback

‘Invisible summer’ could cost decade of progress Calls for parity with men in plans to restart at elite level

The Government and major governing bodies have been warned that a decade of progress in women’s sport is at risk if they do not urgently address a virtually invisible summer of competition.

While Premier League football will come back next month and men’s rugby and cricket are finalising plans to return, women’s football, rugby and netball seasons have been cancelled.

Women cricketers and hockey players are also still waiting to see what is left of scheduled internationals. There has been no elite women’s team sport since March 14 and, with the size of a broadcast deal seemingly the key to whether a sport resumes, there is no immediate prospect of a return.

In Germany, by contrast, the women’s Bundesliga resumed yesterday and there are plans in the United States for women’s football to restart next month.

Stephanie Hilborne, the chief executive of Women in Sport, said: “We are already seeing worrying patterns emerge and a potential scenario where women’s sport returns to being undervalued, underfunded and invisible.

“The cancellation of these competitions not only affects the athletes, coaches, staff and volunteers that work within them, it disappoints thousands of fans who would have watched games on TV and online.

“Most vitally of all, it gives totally the wrong signal to women and girls who might have been inspired to start playing sport. It is the visibility of women’s sport that helps to inform the expectations that girls have for their lives. We face a summer where women’s sport will almost be invisible.”

With the Premier League set to dominate the broadcast schedule, there is mounting concern that the lack of visible elite women role models will have a detrimental effect. Maggie Murphy, general manager of Lewes FC, said that women’s sport had “missed a huge opportunity to open up to huge brand new audiences” this summer. Other leaders and campaigners have called on decision-makers to adopt a “parity principle” and to always consider the consequences for women’s sport when they decide which competitions to salvage.

Women’s rugby was dealt a further blow this week when, with the Premier 15s season having already been declared void, sponsor Tyrrells announced it would be ending its sponsorship. Investec, whose sponsorship has been crucial to women’s hockey, is ending its nine-year partnership.

Around half of netball’s operating income is at risk and it was decided this week that it was not financially viable to complete the Superleague, which was declared null and void.

Rugby league is the only sport to have received a government bailout loan, and the men’s game is planning to resume Super League this summer.

Lisa Wainwright, the chief executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, called for equality from governing bodies in how men’s and women’s sports were treated.

“If you are going to make a decision in elite-level sport, there should be the equal-level principle decision in the women’s game,” she said. “Parity of decision-making is absolutely critical. If you look at the trends of us doing well in elite competition and the profile in the media, participation starts to consistently increase as the role models come through. There will definitely be an impact if we don’t have parity in terms of access to competition at an elite level. It will be a real shame to lose that last 10 years of progress.”

Women in Sport has been writing to governing bodies to urge them to make their community programmes for women, as well as their elite women’s game, central to crisis recovery plans.

Research by the Youth Sports Trust has already demonstrated that girls are disproportionately affected by an inactivity crisis among young people, and that a gender gap which is already evident by the age of seven only widens through adolescence.