Women's Football: A Showpiece Occasion
As the profile of women's football continues to rise across the world and in England especially, sports presenter Jacqui Oatley speaks to Andy Greeves on the eve of another big fixture for the sport - the SSE Women's FA Cup Final between Chelsea Ladies and Notts County Ladies.
Despite kicking-off at midnight on Wednesday July 1, nearly two million people in the UK stayed up to watch England's semi-final clash with Japan in this summer's FIFA Women's World Cup. Such viewing figures are a further indication of the growing rise of the women's game in England, as has previously been covered by Soccerphile.
Another sign of its popularity will be evident this Saturday when a Women's FA Cup Final will be staged at Wembley Stadium for the first-time. Broadcaster Jacqui Oatley will present the BBC's live coverage of the match between Chelsea and Notts County on what will be an historic occasion in North London.
Jacqui herself knows about creating a piece of football history herself, having become the first female commentator on the BBC's Match of the Day programme, overseeing the Fulham-Blackburn Rovers Premier League encounter of April 21, 2007.
"People have called for Wembley Stadium to be the venue for the (Women's FA Cup) final for years but of course the Football Association has wanted to guarantee the interest and a good turn-out prior to staging the game there," says Jacqui. "With the attention around the women's game on the back of the FIFA Women's World Cup, they couldn't have chosen a better year to stage the final at Wembley. 25,000 tickets sold a fortnight prior to the game and the hope is now for an even bigger turnout."
In 2008, a crowd of 24,529 supporters saw Arsenal beat Charlton Athletic at Nottingham Forest's City Ground in the Women's FA Cup Final. There was a similar attendance the following year at the same venue for the Gunners' victory over Charlton and 23,291 saw them beat Sunderland in the final of 2009 at Derby County's Pride Park.
But as recently as 2013, just 4,988 fans were at the Keepmoat Stadium for another Arsenal Women's FA Cup Final win, this time against Bristol Academy. The performances of England's national team alone at this summer's FIFA Women's World Cup, where they finished third, have guaranteed a good - potentially record breaking - crowd for Saturday's final.
"It (the FIFA Women's World Cup) was a fantastic tournament and of course England's display was incredible… they've (the Lionesses) have really captured the public imagination," comments Jacqui. "The best thing about the World Cup was the main topic of conversation during and after it has been football. With the tournament being expanded to 24 teams, the hope before a ball was kicked that all the nations would be relatively strong and there wouldn't be one-sided matches to justify that expansion. What was got was a highly competitive tournament with great football and the only really one-sided game was Germany beating Ivory Coast 10-0! (June 7 in Ottawa).
"What's important is that people are really now getting to know the players. As coverage of the game continues to grow at a rapid rate now, it will be great when not only are the England players household names for football fans in this country but when we learn about overseas talents too, in the same way coverage of things like the UEFA Champions League allow us to do in the men's game."
There are certainly no shortage of well-known names on show in this year's FA Women's Cup Final, with no less than four players for each side having been included in Mark Sampson's England squad for the recent World Cup. Amongst them are Notts County defender Laura Bassett, who had the misfortune to put through her own net in stoppage time at the end of the Lionesses' semi-final match against Japan. It cruelly sealed a 2-1 victory for Japan.
"Before the dreaded own goal, I was chatting off air with the pundits Rachel Yankee, Natasha Dowie etc and we were all saying how delighted we were that she'd be given the opportunity," recalls Jacqui on Laura Bassett's performances at the World Cup. "The fact that horrendous freak of nature happened (the own goal) was just terrible, terrible bad luck. She deserved all the good will that came her way after that. She totally endeared herself to everyone with an interest in England women's football with her performances in that World Cup long before that own goal. It doesn't change the way anyone things about her now."
Another star of England's World Cup campaign was Fran Kirby, who had recently moved from Reading to Chelsea. Nursing an injury in the run-up to this match, the 21-year-old forward has the potential to light up Wembley Stadium for this big final if she is fit in time.
"She (Kirby) had a fantastic World Cup and her development can be aided at Chelsea with a manager like Emma Hayes and players around her like Ji So-yun and Eniola Aluko," reflects Jacqui. "We can't expect too much, too soon from her. She is a very grounded player and it's important for her not to feel pressure. She is surrounded by big-name players at Chelsea of course, so that will help take some of the attention away from her which is good."
Fans in the UK can watch the SSE Women's FA Cup Final between Chelsea Ladies and Notts County Ladies on BBC One on Saturday 1 August from 2:45pm (kick-off 3pm). Tickets for final are still available at ticketing.thefa.com.
© Andy Greeves & Soccerphile.com