Clubs hope to boost sport’s profile further after World Cup surge in popularity as tournament opens in England this week
Naomi Short has been playing football on and off for nearly 30 years and cannot wait for England to host the Euros this week, but she’s even more excited that her 13-year-old daughter will witness the biggest ever women’s sporting event. “It’s brilliant – they’ve got the future I probably would have wanted,” she says.
Short, 45, plays for Longford Park Ladies FC in Manchester, a grassroots team that was set up by mothers five years ago to train alongside their children when there were hardly any teams around for women who just wanted to play for fun.
