‘why are we allowing girls to get bullied for their passion within the sport they love?’
Lila Crocker, a Year 9 student at Heath Lane Academy, silenced the room with a moving speech at a recent Paul Canoville Foundation event at Stamford Bridge at which Fair Game CEO Niall Couper was attending as a changemaker. Below is the speech she gave…
FOOTBALL is loved by most people all over the world. Yet, women and young girls struggle to put their emotions onto the pitch due to judgement. Therefore, women’s football should be promoted more across the United Kingdom. Football. The sport that is discriminatory towards girls and women. Enough is enough. Today, in the world of sport that we live in, we have forgotten about the achievements that women in sport have earned.
Why do we insist on making fun of women’s football? Why have we divided sports into a hierarchy? I will tell you why. Society is promoting women’s sports in a negative way which puts down women’s self-confidence. Women are only trying to speak up about their hobbies and to get young girls to do so. Girls’ confidence in the sport they love is being destroyed because of gender expectations. This needs to stop. Imagine. Imagine being a young girl who quits the sport that they love due to comments from her classmates. This is unnecessary. For a myriad of reasons, a young girl’s confidence and passion is valuable. It is obvious that the effort that is put into the sport as well as the talent in women and young girls has amazing potential; but what is perhaps less obvious is the outstanding struggles of self-confidence and anxiety. Is it worth it to bully a young girl for her passion just for a little laugh with your friends? Nevertheless, we continue to trap all women and girls in cages full of bullying, pressure and anxiety.
Consider. Just consider for one moment the concept of Sky Sports Halo. Sky Sports, so many people all over the United Kingdom use it to watch the sport they love. Sky Sports introduced a partnership with a brand called Halo. Most people ignored the partnership at first, but no one knew what they were hiding. They made a new social media page. Sky Sports Halo. A video was posted on 11th November 2025. The text on the video changed from normal black to pink. The bio on this account quoted “Sky Sports little sis.” People knew what was going on. Sky Sports Halo was being discriminatory towards women because they thought women didn’t know how to play football. Some people thought Sky Sports Halo was doing the right thing by trying to promote women’s football. I am not so sure. Guess what? So many people saw the fact Sky Sports did this, the account got taken down due to the negative publicity of the account on all social media platforms. Did you know 20,000 girls play football in Wales? Amazing!
In conclusion, I maintain the stance that women’s football should be promoted more across the United Kingdom. Women and young girls play football for a beneficial future, so let’s get rid of this idea that women can’t play football. It’s a sport for everyone and it should be inclusive. Today it takes one minute to stop girls from getting bullied for playing football. In our world of excess, we have forgotten the simple building blocks to a young girl’s life and confidence. Enough is enough. So why are we allowing girls to get bullied for their passion within the sport they love? Why are parents denying a girl’s passion because apparently it’s not a sport for them to play? We must unlock these cages full of bullying, pressure and anxiety before it’s too late for a whole generation.
Thank you for listening.
