Jump to navigation Jump to search For more in-depth, england v russia women’s football general, information see Football in England. Women’s football has been played in England for over a century, sharing a common history with the men’s game as the country in which the Laws of the Game were codified.

Although women’s football was originally very popular in the early 20th century, after an almost terminal decline it has only been since the 1990s that the game has seen a large increase in female players, as well as in spectators, culminating in England hosting the Women’s European Championships in 2005. It is impossible to say at what point women began to play football, just as much of the history of the men’s game is uncertain. As football developed from a disorganised village sport into a codified game with more spectators than players at the end of the 19th century, women’s football similarly developed. In this period, it was not only Helen Graham Matthews leading the way for women in football, however. The budding interest in football amongst women may initially have been seen as a benefit by football clubs. In 1885, seeking to curb the more boisterous behaviour of male spectators, Preston North End began offering free admission to women in the hope that their presence would restrain the men.

As the First World War began in Europe, women’s football games began being played for charity, their profile helped by the way that, when women started to work in the munitions factories, they also began to be invited to join the remaining men’s kick-arounds outside working hours. After the First World War the idea of women’s international games emerged. In 1921, however, as war faded into the background, there was renewed concern about the presence of women in football. For several decades this decision meant that women’s football virtually ceased to exist. Today, the FA directly runs the top women’s competitions.