As the men’s England and Wales football squads land in Qatar ahead of the World Cup 2022 tournament, four of the original lionesses from the winning 1972 women’s football team joined Good Morning Britain today live in the studio.
Goalie Sue Whyatt and players Lynda Hale, Morag Kirkland and Pat Davies spoke to hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley, and revealed they didn’t call themselves Lionesses back then.
Richard asked: “How did you feel watching today’s Lionesses, did you get a chance to go and watch any of the games?”
To which Sue revealed: “No, we weren’t invited and we couldn’t get tickets.”
Susanna interjected: “Hang on a minute, you guys have completely broken the mould. You broke the glass ceiling of football for women. You played the first womens’ international after the ban was lifted, surely that is a moment for you to be celebrated as the Lionesses play at Wembley?”
Sue continued: “No, we were an afterthought, after that. We’ve been invited a lot since, but I have to say I did email and say, ‘We were the originals, is there any chance at all of a ticket?’ And I didn’t even get a reply.
“I actually emailed part-way through in fairness, but it was all sold out well in advance.”
Susanna added: “It shouldn’t have been down to you to have to email.”
Lynda then commented: “I think it’s still very male dominated. The people who run it above, it’s all male…”
Susanna also spoke about visiting girls in secondary school who play football as part of being Patron for her football Club, Crystal Palace. She asked: “Is there enough support for girls playing football now?”
And Morag answered: “I don’t think so and again, I think that needs to be looked at.”
Reminiscing on their win against Scotland in 1972 after the ban on women playing professional football was lifted, they said: “The politics of football didn’t have anything to do with us, because all we wanted to do was play football.”
GMB, weekdays from 6am on ITV
