BBC Radio documentary honours women who fought for right to play football

Now, 50 years later, a new BBC local radio podcast looks back on that first ever official women’s international football match – Scotland v England - and how it paved the way to where we are now.

‘My Moment in History: Kicking Off the Women’s Game’ explores the historic match which took place in Greenock on 18 November 1972, a five-goal thriller in which England came from behind to win 3-2.

Available on BBC Sounds, the programme looks at the sexism and discrimination the team had to fight against for the right to play the game they loved. This included a lengthy battle to compel the FAs of England and Scotland to overturn what was effectively a ban on women playing that had existed since 1921.

It looks at the wider impact of this match and how the Lionesses’ Euro 2022 glory and the future of the Scotland team, who only narrowly failed to qualify for next year’s World Cup, would not have occurred without the pioneering work of the women of 1972. Across this five-part series, host Anita Asante, who won the Champions League with Arsenal and was capped 71 times by England, hears the memories of the women of 1972 and speaks to present day stars to get their thoughts on how that inaugural match helped shape the women’s game.

“The women of 50 years ago were the pioneers of our game,” said Anita. “They were so honest, so determined and they only had one thing in sight and that was to play football by any means possible.”

Guests include two trailblazers of the women’s game who were on the side lines in Greenock that day in 1972 – Elsie Cook and Patricia Gregory.

Elsie was the first secretary of the Scottish Women’s Football Association and would later go on to manage the team. “I was a football suffragette,” she says. “The male attitude at the time was that the place for women was at the sink and not on the pitch.”

We also meet players like Wendy Owen and her England teammate Jeannie Allott who remembers, “I always hitch-hiked from Crewe to London [for training]. There was no money. I had no choice.”

Other guests include current England and Manchester City defender Esme Morgan, former England and Manchester United goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain and Calum Best – son of football legend George – who recently took over as chairman of Dorking Wanderers FC Ladies.

Chris Burns, Controller of Local Audio Commissioning at the BBC said: “This is a spine-tingling look at the fight for a rightful place for the women’s game.

"Sport is so important to all local communities and this looks at the heart, talent and determination nurtured in back gardens and on football pitches across of England to get to where we are today.”

‘My Moment In History: Kicking Off The Women’s Game’ (5 x 15 minutes) is a BBC England production for BBC Sounds.