Northern Ireland Women v England (12/04/2021)

GOOD EVENING Welcome to the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park for this historic occasion: a completely sold out stadium to see our senior women’s squad take on England in a FIFA

Women’s World Cup qualifier. Of course, this isn’t the only time we will face England this year - we will meet again in our final group game of UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 in Southampton on 15 July. It is fantastic that we have managed to fill the National Football Stadium for this match and I know that many of you may well be here for the first time to sample and enjoy the atmosphere in the Fan Zone and the stadium itself. We certainly hope you will be enthused to come back again. I’d like to take a moment to reflect on how far we have journeyed in recent times as far as the women’s game is concerned. Back in 2017 we hosted the UEFA Women’s Under-19 Euro finals in Northern Ireland and this helped to ignite the passion we see today. Fifteen games played over 12 days across Belfast, Lurgan and Portadown between the elite women’s youth teams of Europe showed us that we could achieve more in women’s football and we have made huge strides since then. In tonight’s squad we have Megan Bell, Abbie Magee and Emily Wilson present from our 2017 squad, while Louise McDaniel is also part of our full time training programme. The highlight, of course, has been our qualification for this year’s UEFA Women’s Euro in England in July. Having beaten

Wales to second spot in our group behind Norway, we then beat Ukraine home and away to take our place in what will be a huge tournament this summer. Although we are the smallest nation to qualify, we are leaving nothing to chance in our preparation for these matches. Since January we have been operating a full-time training regime for a squad of 22 players here in Belfast and we will do our country proud when we step on to the pitch this summer to play Norway, Austria and England. identified the growth of women’s football in Northern Ireland as a specific pillar to build upon over the coming five years. That focus has included recruiting Angela Platt to our senior leadership team as our first ever Director of Women’s Football and Angela has a wide remit covering not just international football but the domestic game as well, and the player pathway. I hope that you enjoy tonight’s game as a member of the Green and White Army and that you will be back again soon! We’ve also refreshed our corporate strategy in recent times and have

PATRICK NELSON CHIEF EXECUT IVE IRISH FOOTBALL ASSOCIAT ION

IRISHFA.COM

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