Ian Gwyn Hughes looks ahead to the event in August, which has a higher profile than ever.
Last week the England senior side bowed out of the European Championship in Sweden with a 3-0 defeat to France. The side only picked up one point against Russia and were also well beaten by Spain. This lead to widespread scrutiny of the England Women’s teams by pundits and press alike.
In the past it is fair to say that whilst such failure would have been acknowledged, there would have been very little discussion.
This time it was very different. The tournament has been covered extensively on the BBC and England’s failure has been seen by a wider audience and has been scrutinised by various pundits, many calling for a change.
Quite rightly over the years there has been the call for more funding in women’s sport and in women’s football in particular. Huge steps have been taken over the years with the development of the game. The new leagues, more funding, the higher profile reaching a high point last year at the Olympics with record crowds stadiums across the UK.
Unfortunately the higher profile comes at a price. More scrutiny and more criticism. This led to the England coach having to defend her position and maintain that she feels she is the right person to lead England forward right after the final whistle after the defeat to France.
Immediately she took the initiative and looked forward to the UEFA U-19 Women’s Finals coming here to West Wales and to the next World Cup qualifiers when England will be in the same group as Wales.
The message is clear then that England will be coming to the tournament with a point to prove and to show everyone that England do possess young, emerging talent.
The European Championships in Sweden have shown what a difficult task Wales face in their group.
Wales open the tournament v Denmark in Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli before playing England at Richmond Park in Carmarthen.
But without doubt the team in the group will be France who are Wales’ opponents in Haverfordwest. They have shown in Sweden that they have huge strength in depth at all levels with so many of their players play full-time and the game benefitting from having so much investment, leaving even England lagging behind.
We were fortunate enough to witness the French at first hand not too long ago at Parc y Scarlets. Wales started brightly in the game but the French showed their class that night and why they are quite rightly rated as one of the best in world football.
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