A Long Road to Glory: The Lionesses Origin Story | Part Two
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back to It Was What It Was, the football history podcast hosted by Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper. In this second episode of a two-part special, we delve into the pivotal moments that lifted the 50-year ban on women's football in England. From the formation of the Women’s Football Association, to looking at the birth of the Lionesses and their first official international match. This episode looks at the pioneering women and their allies who revived the game in the 1960s, building grassroots clubs, fighting for recognition to pave the way for women’s football today. Tune in to hear all about the history of the women’s game.
00:00 The End of the Ban
00:28 Picking Up the Pieces: Women’s Football After the Ban
00:53 The 1960s Revival: Grassroots and New Teams
03:10 The Impact of England’s 1966 World Cup Win
07:54 Building a Movement: Key Figures and Early Clubs
10:56 Struggles for Facilities and Recognition
12:50 International Influence
21:22 The Formation of the Women’s Football Association
24:32 The FA’s Changing Attitude and Official Recognition
27:20 The First Women’s FA Cup and International Competitions
29:40 Tensions: Unofficial vs. Official Tournaments
36:52 The Lost Lionesses: Mexico 1971 and Unrecognised Pioneers
40:26 The First Official Lionesses Game: Scotland vs. England, 1972
45:44 Media Coverage and Social Attitudes
47:44 Timeline: From the First Match to Modern Success
50:08 Reflections: The Legacy of the Pioneers
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Football Association decree that, one, the FA Council's resolution of 1921 banning women's football be rescinded. |
| 0:16.5 | Two, that women's football teams may be allowed to use grounds under the jurisdiction of Football Association, and registered referees may be permitted to officiate at matches between women's teams. |
| 0:28.1 | Three, that the appropriate rules of a football association be amended accordingly. |
| 0:34.4 | Welcome to It Was What It Was, the Football History Podcast. I'm Jonathan Wilson. I'm with Rob Draper. |
| 0:38.8 | And those were the FA Council Minutes from the 19th of January, 1970, that brought to an end the almost 50 year ban on women's football on FA facilities in England. |
| 0:52.9 | So, Rob, in the first part of this two-parter, we looked at what happened immediately after |
| 0:57.2 | the ban, we looked at how women's football kept going, we looked at what you ludicrously claimed |
| 1:01.6 | was the first euros, women's heroes in 1957. |
| 1:04.9 | And today we're taking the story really from that tournament up to the first official in the women's game. |
| 1:12.4 | So today we're looking at the, what I was calling it, the birth of the lionesses, the origin story of the lionesses? |
| 1:19.4 | Yeah, because as I said in the previous episode, we're all delighted lionesses have won the years, |
| 1:25.1 | or those that are English. |
| 1:26.9 | I can't speak for our Scottish and Welsh and Irish listeners, of course, and Americans and other nations. |
| 1:32.9 | But we're delighted anyway that they won it. |
| 1:35.2 | But I think sometimes lost in celebration, people glibly talk about a 50-year ban. |
| 1:38.8 | And I hope in the previous episode we laid out quite how devastating that ban was, |
| 1:45.5 | that it reached beyond these borders and that it really did drive women's football into sort of cultural ghettos, where |
| 1:51.7 | it was very difficult to survive. And that's a huge missed opportunity. But there is a bit of a |
| 1:58.1 | renaissance in the 1960s. So I think that's what we're focusing on today, how the women's game revives itself, how we get to an official women's football association, how we get to the first ever official Lionesses games. Of course, as we've discussed, there are other games that claim to be England games or clubs |
| 2:18.8 | that go abroad representing England there's a Copa 71 which were briefly referenced in this |
| 2:24.1 | episode which is some people claim as the first world cup but we're going to get to the first |
| 2:28.8 | ever lioness's game and so it's kind of their origin story and putting their victory from a few weeks |
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