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Wales are hoping to have 20,000 girls playing grassroots football by 2026
Wales appears to have found a winning formula with its slogans.
The Wales men’s team achieved their first major tournament appearance in 58 years in 2016, propelled by the “Together Stronger” mantra, which helped Chris Coleman’s squad ride a wave of momentum to the European Championship semi-finals.
Nine years later, Wales’ women are making history, reaching their first major tournament with their own ethos: “For us, for them, for her.”
Honoring the trailblazers of women’s football (“for them”), who paved the way for today’s players, is a central focus of this Wales squad, as is recognizing the need to grow the game and improve it for future generations (“for her”).
“The amount of sacrifice from players who have come and gone to get us into this position, it is hard to sum up with words how important they’ve been,” vice-captain Ceri Holland says.
“For us it is a lot more than a slogan, it is what we try and embody,” Wales captain Angharad James adds. “It really means a lot to us.”
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For us. For them. For her
Wales’ current squad benefits from a full-time manager, equal pay, facilities, and support staff with the men’s side, and their own kit. However, this was not always the case for a country that Football Association of Wales (FAW) technical director Dave Adams admits is “playing catch-up” in terms of equal opportunities for female footballers.
The squad includes several players, such as defender Rhiannon Roberts, midfielder Rachel Rowe, and forward Kayleigh Barton, who spent most of their careers as amateurs. Rowe worked in a prison, and Barton trained to be a plumber when they began their international careers.
After several near misses in major tournament qualifications, Wales’ success in reaching Euro 2025 via a play-off win over the Republic of Ireland brought players not just pride, jubilation, and euphoria, but also relief.
“When you want to achieve something and you get to do it with some of your very closest friends, there’s really no comparison to what that feeling is, like at all,” reflects Jess Fishlock, Wales’ record appearance-maker and goalscorer, who has been an international for over 20 years.
“With how many players we have that have been here for so long that have been there together, sometimes you just feel like you play with your mates. It was definitely a different type of feeling for sure so because of everything that you’ve been through, all the battles, all the near misses, when the moment finally arrived was it as good as you’d built it up in your head to be? I think honestly, yes.”
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The path to progress for Welsh women’s football has been anything but smooth.
In the 2020s, Wales’ attendances are far from the levels of 100 years ago, when women’s international matches regularly drew crowds of 30,000 to 40,000.
The Football Association banned women’s football for 50 years, and Wales women did not have an international side again until 1973. This team was not affiliated with the FAW and was run by volunteers. It was not until 1993, following a campaign by some Wales players, that the women’s side played its first “official” match.
To say women’s football was not the FAW’s priority would be an understatement.
In 2003, Wales was drawn to play Belarus, Israel, Estonia, and Kazakhstan in Euro 2005 qualifying. Rather than face the costs of arranging the trips, the FAW withdrew Wales from qualifying, as it was cheaper to pay a fine of 50,000 Swiss Francs.
Former Wales captain and UEFA executive committee member Laura McAllister, one of the architects of the team’s legitimate status, believes that knowing this history has been a burden for the players.
“When you haven’t qualified that’s a huge weight on your shoulders for everybody,” she told BBC Sport Wales.
“Those players really feel it because they’re so emotionally connected and they know what it means because the careers of almost all of them with the exception of the very young players in the squad has been a battle.
“All of those girls know what we went through to get the team started and to play against teams that were a much better resourced than us. But we had to start somewhere, and they feel a great debt to that, which they want to repay.
“But I know they feel that emotionally. And I guess that’s an added pressure, isn’t it? When you know you’re not doing it just for yourself and your family and your friends and the fans, you’re doing it for the generations who came before as well. And all credit to the girls for thinking like that.”
When Wales finally achieved major tournament qualification, many of these trailblazers, such as cap centurion Helen Ward, were in the room celebrating with the players in Dublin.
“It was brilliant. Such a great night. One of the best ever,” Ward recalls.
“I think it was about four o’clock in the morning before I got into my bed in our hotel. The FAW, fair play to them. They opened it up to friends and family, so all the girls had their family there. They were all still in full kit. The drinks were flowing, the music was on, everybody singing, having a great time.
“And I was just really, really fortunate to have been invited to be part of that and spend some time with the girls that obviously I spent so many years playing with and to sort of feel a little small part of it and just enjoy in their success, like celebrate with them and celebrate them for what they’ve achieved.
“And that’s why this is such a special story because everyone who’s played for the team going over three decades and more you’ve always been that close and everyone’s been in on that journey. To finally achieve qualification after all those years that’s why it’s so amazing, isn’t it?”
The FAW recently presented “lost caps” to 70 players who were awarded caps retrospectively from the period of 1973 to 1993, when Wales’ international games were unrecognized by the association.
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Growing the game for the next generation remains a priority for the FAW staff and the current Wales squad.
Since launching a strategy to improve female participation in football in 2021, participation has increased by 45%, with 15,898 women and girls participating in football during the 2023-24 season.
The FAW reports that investment in women’s and girls’ football in Wales has increased by over 250% in the past four years, while the national side’s average attendance has risen from 1,800 to 5,370.
However, despite tangible progress, there is frustration that crowd sizes are still far from those of Wales men, with sold-out signs at the Cardiff City Stadium for every men’s international.
The discrepancy is so large that Wales women’s manager Rhian Wilkinson has suggested that Wales is ‘culturally behind,’ with fewer than 500 Wales fans in Dublin to witness Wales making history.
However, having sold one of the largest ticket allocations for Euro 2025, the hope is that many Wales fans will become dedicated supporters of the women’s team following their first major final appearance.
“I think we need to recognise that the profile of women’s football in Wales and in Europe isn’t where it should be,” McAllister said.
“We know that the crowds that turn up for the women’s games are nowhere near the crowds that turn up for the men’s games. And all credit to Rhian Wilkinson for making the point that I think Welsh fans have to have a look at themselves as well. You know, we’re either the Red Wall that support Cymru whenever and wherever they’re playing, or we’re not.
“And, you know, I think fans need to just ask themselves why they’re not coming to the stadium necessarily to support the women’s team. We need to look at how we attract male fans and different fans to the stadiums because we’re attracting lots of children and families, but we want the fan base to be bigger and broader than that.”
While everyone would welcome increased support for the Wales women’s team, the passion of the fans, sometimes dozens, sometimes hundreds, who have followed Wales across Europe and beyond in recent seasons, is undeniable.
Haley Evans, founder of FE Wales, a group for female Welsh fans, says numbers are improving and hopes the Euros will ensure that some fans become lifelong supporters.
“I remember our first trip around six years ago to Italy, it was myself, my partner and Megan Wynne’s (Wales midfielder) parents… things have come a long way since then.
“Our home attendance is nowhere near where it should be, if we are going to be brutally honest about things. Hopefully the Euros is the catalyst for improvement.
“Hopefully this will be the moment.”
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