It is concerning to see a number of women’s international football teams have had to take public stances before the World Cup.
Canada, Spain and France have all had problems to resolve before the tournament starts in Australia and New Zealand in July.
Overall, I think it’s a very clear picture that the growth of the game is moving forward. These are teams who have had a lot of success and from the outside, you would expect they would be supported and resourced at a very high level.
The players are ambitious and understand that playing at a high level, they have to be an advocate for the game. For players to feel they have to do something like this, it probably means they’ve spent time trying to amicably move things forward and it’s not really worked.
It’s something that needs to be looked at. The international game is the top stage; it’s the top competitions where we can showcase the game in its best light.
It’s pretty worrying when you see some of the top players may not be competing in these environments, because they don’t feel they’re supported to an appropriate level.
When you feel like there’s other people going through similar things, it does give you that reassurance that it’s OK to push for the resources and support you genuinely need.
Having been in America, I know a lot of the players in their national team that were involved in their fight. I know some of the Canadian players well too.
Those players are extremely hard-working and have knocked down a lot of walls to get the progress there’s been. You can’t dismiss that.
These are people who are resilient and understand the game has to grow. When people look from the outside and see players making this public stance, it’s easy to be dismissive or try to suppress the argument.
But it takes a lot of courage and bravery to fight for more. It’s not about expecting something unreasonable. It’s the feeling like you can’t perform at your best and you can’t accept that on the international stage.
Turning up to play for your national team, you would expect it to be the greatest experience, the greatest privilege. For a long time, these players have had to work hard and now they feel that those two things don’t align.
We shouldn’t dismiss how much courage this takes and be a little more open-minded. A lot of the time people focus on it being equal pay – it’s a much bigger picture than that.
For things to grow, it obviously takes money and infrastructure and that takes a bit longer to create a sustainable framework.
There are things that we can invest in and that are minimal that need to be provided. The demand placed on players at the top end of international and club level is very significant; it’s not just the volume of games they play in but the quality.
If you play in the Champions League, you probably are an international player and if you go to a major tournament with your international team, your schedule is significant.
You need to be in an environment, every single day, where you can look after yourself. Otherwise we’re going to end up ruining the game.
The best players want to be at the World Cup and I know if they’re willing not to be there, we have to find ways we can help and make sure resources are there for all teams.
FA Cup progress a great experience
Winning our FA Cup tie against West Ham on penalties last weekend really lifted everyone’s spirits.
We had a lot of travelling fans and that was nice as well, so they felt like they got a proper cup experience.
We’ve been in three penalty shoot-outs this season. I wasn’t involved in the one against Everton but I took one against Man United.
I hadn’t practised penalties through the week because there were a lot of players missing training who would have taken one. It was a shorter week because of the international window.
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When you walk up seventh, after a good five minutes watching everyone else take one, it is a little bit more nerve-wracking. But fortunately mine went in.
To get Manchester City at home in the quarter-finals is good. There’s still a lot of really good teams in the draw but since the turn of the year, I feel we’ve grown in confidence and momentum.
There’s a lot of big personalities in the dressing room that are pretty ambitious. It’s a good game to look forward to.
For a lot of players, when you know you’re playing the final at Wembley, it makes it extra special. It’s made the competition go up a notch in terms of prestige and it reflects how big a competition the FA Cup is.
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