Having been capped for England 93 times, former Doncaster Belles winger, Sue Smith, has a vested interest in the national side's chances next year - not least because she’s friends with half the team. The retired player now works as a pundit, talking about the EFL on Quest and regularly appearing on Sky’s Soccer Special, helping to shake up the often all-male environments.
Here Sue shares her hopes for England and for Women’s football too...
Sue, what do you make of England’s chances now that we’ve had the World Cup draw?
It’s really interesting because before the draw happened a lot of us were thinking ‘I hope we don’t get Scotland’ because we know each other so well. It would be great if we could both qualify - we don’t want to put each other out.
England really believe they can beat anyone now, and that’s a credit to the managers they’ve had recently. Now, with Phil Neville, he’s taking them to the next level and giving them the advice that he’s had from being a player. The team seem to be enjoying their football so much. My only concern is the absence of Jordan Nobbs as I think they’ll miss her quality and energy on the pitch
Things have changed since we beat Scotland at the Euros. Shelly Kerr has got them playing really well and they’ve seen the return of their most influential player in Kim Little. Scotland have progressed of late, I think it will be a really tough game. Argentina, we should beat convincingly, but Japan will be a tough game. They knocked us out in the semi-finals in Canada, and even though they’re not playing as well, they’re still a top-quality side. England have the quality to get through the group and go through as the group winners.
It has just been announced that England will be hosting the Women’s Euro 2021. Is this a turning point for the women’s game in the UK?
I hope so. There’s been so much progress over the last ten years, and now we have so many teams who train and play full-time, that the competition at the top end of the league is huge and it’s never been like that before. If we can go to the World Cup and win it, I think that will be a huge turning point. We just need to try upping the attendances for week-to-week games. People come out for England or FA Cup matches, but not for others. I know that’s being worked on but it’s something that desperately needs to be addressed.
Does the PFA have a part in growing women’s football?
They’ve been absolutely brilliant. When they came on-board, we didn’t have any support - players didn’t even know what they should be doing or if they should be asking for money! It started with England - the PFA would help organise your playing contract and money situation, and now they support a lot of female footballers. It's so good having them there and being able to call them if you have an injury, or if you need a new pair of boots, or if it’s something else like education or support with mental health - whatever the issue the support system is there. They’ve been a great help to me and a lot of other players.
This summer we saw female pundits during the Men’s World Cup coverage. Is it important that we’re focusing on women being involved in football off the pitch too?
It has gradually been going that way. When I first started, it was like I was a female football player, so I could only talk about female football, I wasn’t allowed to talk about the men’s game. I’m very much of the opinion that if you’re good at what you do you should be able to do it whether you’re male or female - it shouldn’t matter. I’m happy for male ex-footballers to speak on the women’s game, I think they offer a different perspective
Finally, if England does make it to the final who would you like to see them play?
France would be amazing. To play France in France, in the final - what an atmosphere that would be! Imagine the coverage and everything we would get from that, it would be great.
Jill Scott celebrates scoring her side's second goal with team-mates during the FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying match against Wales.
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