Less than a month ago, England’s women were hoping that a successful run in the World Cup in Germany will have made them household names and elevated women’s football in this country.
Well, arguably it has, but probably not in the way the Lionesses were expecting.
Despite a commendable showing which culminated in a dramatic exit at the quarter-final stage, all their efforts have been somewhat overshadowed by a row that is threatening to do some serious damage to the women’s game which is just beginning to find it’s feet in this country.
If the action passed you by, England were knocked out on penalties by France, with injured Kelly Smith, vice captain Casey Stoney and Karen Carney all converting spot kicks, before Claire Rafferty and skipper Faye White missed to send the French through.
All very English, but that was just the start of the drama.
As the teams were preparing for the shoot-out, television footage appeared to show manager Hope Powell asking for penalty volunteers and being met with a lukewarm response from her no doubt exhausted players.
This is something which Powell has since confirmed. And confirmed in a big way.
England’s coach of thirteen years is quoted as saying: “Three times I had to ask (for volunteers) before anyone stepped forward. ‘Where are you?’ I was thinking.
“Then a young kid (Rafferty) is the first to put her hand up. And Kelly Smith is dying on her feet but she stepped up and took one. You’ve got to want to take a penalty, but other players should have come forward and they didn’t. That’s weak, it’s cowardice.”
Of the ten outfield players that finished the match, the five who didn’t take penalties were Jill Scott – who had already scored from open play in normal time – along with 95 cap midfielder Fara Williams, striker Ellen White, and substitutes Anita Asante and Steph Houghton.
Predictably, Powell’s quotes have not gone down well with those players or their team-mates since they returned home.
Jill Scott’s defiant Twitter message read simply “We win as a team…we lose as a team………………………”.
Other players used similar ways to voice their displeasure at the comments, while Lianne Sanderson, a member of the England squad for the last World Cup in 2007, went one step further, tweeting: “Wow just goes to show peoples true colours when pressure’s on and people don’t take responsibility. We live in a blame culture”
The ‘take responsibility’ part of that tweet would seem to focus very much on Powell, who many believe is using the penalty row to mask some fairly dubious substitutions that were made during the game itself.
With England 1-0 up and ten minutes away from their first ever semi-final, Powell decided to replace both her vastly experienced full-backs – Alex Scott and Rachel Unitt – with Rafferty and Houghton, who have less than 25 caps between them.
She made her third and final substitution on 84 minutes and therefore was unable to replace Smith, who by Powell’s own admission was ‘dying on her feet’ during extra-time.
As the tournament itself continues a few hundred miles away, the drama on this side on the Channel is unlikely to die down either.
Powell had already given a big hint that she was considering stepping down from the role that she has occupied since the late 1990s, and with this latest, unexpected turn of events, it would appear that her departure day has now got a whole lot nearer.
