{"id":237704,"date":"2025-07-04T15:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T15:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/237704\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T15:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T15:15:10","slug":"asante-wales-at-the-euros-can-have-similar-public-impact-to-lionesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/237704\/","title":{"rendered":"Asante: Wales at the Euros can have similar public impact to Lionesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Former England star Anita Asante believes everyone in Wales can be inspired by the performances and progression of the Cymru at the Euros this summer, even Lioness fans.\u00a0<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n Wales are making their tournament debut in Switzerland and face their neighbours England on\u00a0Sunday July 13th.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n And just like the Lionesses Euros win in 2022 helped women\u2019s football across the UK explode, so too can Cymru\u2019s major championships bow in Wales.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAny player across the UK can take a lot of inspiration from the Welsh players and the English players,\u201d she said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cTheir stories are interconnected, a lot of us have experienced similar journeys and that is what it is all about.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWales is in a different period of time in terms of their development and growth overall within the game, but they have broken that first kind of challenge to get to a first major tournament which is probably the hardest step. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cNow they have done that, they have got the foundations in place, it is now how can they push on again. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cLots of young players will be familiar with the likes of Jess Fishlock, Hayley Ladd, Sophie Ingle and Ffion Morgan because they have played for WSL clubs.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey are players they have naturally gravitated towards anyway because they love their character, their style, their personality, which goes along way into impacting young girls.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Having represented England 71 times, Asante now lives in Wales, and her daughter is half Welsh, although she jokingly admitted she may need to cross back over the border when England play her adopted country.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The former defender was speaking at the training base of Gwalia United, a Welsh club playing in the English system who have benefitted from \u00a320,000 of National Lottery funding\u00a0from Sport Wales.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The Football Association of Wales has also received significant National Lottery support from\u00a0Sport Wales\u00a0for their grassroots women\u2019s and girls’ football programmes.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Over \u00a3300,000 of National Lottery funds was invested into FAW projects and initiatives in the 2024\/25 season, with the FAW able to double its investment in women\u2019s and girls\u2019 football with National Lottery support.\u00a0Additional National Lottery funding from Sport Wales includes \u00a3750,000 for the development of the National Football Centre in Cardiff and \u00a3250,000 for the Elite Centre in Wrexham (Colliers Park).\n<\/p>\n

\n And Gwalia United player Cori Williams-Morris hopes the investment will only continue as Wales gain tournament experience and England push for more trophies.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n She added: \u201cFrom a Welsh point of view it is the grassroots side of it.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe more investment for Wales getting to a tournament will only better the younger teams of Gwalia which over time will help the first team.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are a bit of a mix being a Welsh club playing in the English system. With both Wales and England being there is the best of both worlds for us.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe get the support from the FAW but also get the benefits of playing in an English league and the money and the funding that come from England doing well in major tournaments as well.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n To support the legacy of the women’s Euros the FAW are running free coaching workshops in July for people interested in getting into coaching and to help those already involved develop.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n It is part of Chwarae FOR HER, a week-long celebration that runs\u00a0from the 5th\u00a0of July\u00a0until 13 July that highlights the power of football and aims to inspire women and girls across Wales to get involved.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The National Lottery’s ongoing investment\u2014with players raising \u00a330 million weekly for good causes throughout the UK\u2014ensures that Wales’s Euro 2025 debut is just the beginning of the story.\n<\/p>\n

\n Thanks to National Lottery players, over \u00a36bn has been invested in grassroots sport\u00a0over the last 30 years, helping the FAW double its investment in women\u2019s and girls\u2019 football. Programmes like BE.FC and Huddle are driving unprecedented growth, as well as The National Lottery-funded Performance Pathway, all contributing to Wales Women\u2019s first ever major tournament qualification at this summer\u2019s EUROs.\u00a0For more information on how you can get involved in coaching and all FAW programmes and initiatives, visit:\u00a0www.https:\/\/www.fawcourses.com\/category\/football-for-her<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England star Anita Asante believes everyone in Wales can be inspired by the performances and progression of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-237704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114795624745670698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}