‘We shouldn’t compare women’s football with the men’s game’, says Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman
SARINA WIEGMAN insists comparisons between women’s and men’s football needs to stop as the women’s game continues to grow.
And the England chief, 54, paid a moving tribute to her late sister who passed away ahead of her leading the Lionesses to Euros glory last summer.
The Netherlands-born head coach has been reflecting on her journey and the experiences within football in her new book “What it takes”.
Speaking to Jake Humphreys on Wednesday during a High Performance talk about her book, Wiegman said: “We should not compare women’s football with men’s football.
“In other sports we don’t do that and it’s remarkable that we always do that in football.
“I think that has to do with history, too. It’s similar in England and in the Netherlands that it was seen as a male sport rather than a female one.
“But now that’s changed and it’s cool for women and girls to play football.
“I’ve heard so many stories also of not only young girls, but after the Euros, adult women who’ve returned to playing football again, or started playing and that’s really nice.
“So yes, please stop comparing women who play football and men who play football.”
In her book Wiegman reflects on how her late sister Diana encouraged her to drive the Lionesses to European Championship success.
Her sister passed away three weeks before the start of the tournament last July.
Wiegman told reporters: “In May [2022], that was when they said she didn’t have long to live.
“We’d had so many conversations and we made that such a valuable month that when she passed away, of course it was really really sad.
“But she also told me ‘you have to go and be successful there and go and do everything and I’ll be there’.
“She wanted me to be the best. She was so close to me, I was so connected to her in that period that I just went and I enjoyed it.
“Yes I had moments when I was sad, sometimes I was just in my room and I had some little candles so I could just have those moments.
“But I was really focused on the Euros, you want to be successful even more.”
Since the September 2021 start of her Lionesses reign Wiegman has steered the team to a European Championship win.
This summer saw the team reach the World Cup final for the first time ever before falling to a 1-0 defeat to Spain with Mary Earps winning the tournament’s Golden Gloves.
Since then her team, who have lost just four times during her reign, have fallen to two defeats at the Women’s Nations League,
She hopes fans will turn out in force to cheer the Lionesses on when they face the Netherlands at Wembley on December 1.
Wiegman said: “We have to win. It’s even more competitive because I know everyone so well, and it’s my country.
“It’s at Wembley and hopefully it’s sold out again. I think we’re going in the right direction.
“It’s just a big game. I’m really excited for it.
“I hope that the fans will make a difference for us as they have done before. We know what we have to do.”
Away from the dugout and following the Lionesses’ push for equal access to football for girls and boys in schools, Wiegman hopes to use her platform to improve equality in the sport.”
She added: “Whether it’s the women’s game or women in society, you have to work harder.
“That’s why we have projects to get the position of women in football, and also women in general, to a better level.
“I think that will keep on going because there will always be things in society that need to be addressed.
“Football is the biggest sport and the top level players will always be an example and will always be influencers of football, and society.”