Football chiefs target second trophy triumph for Lionesses as part of new women’s game strategy

THE FA says a second major trophy win for the Lionesses is one of the top targets of its new women’s and girls’ game strategy. 

The four-year plan, announced today, comes just over two years on from England’s historic Euros triumph.

Next summer Sarina Wiegman’s players, who became the first England side to reach a Women’s World Cup final last year, will begin their quest to be crowned Euros champions once again.

The Lionesses are one of nine sides who have automatically qualified for next year’s contest in Switzerland which starts on July 2.

As part of its ‘Reaching Higher strategy’ the FA outlined achieving another major tournament triumph as one of four strategic priorities. 

Football chiefs also hope England can achieve World Cup glory in Brazil in 2027 after falling to a narrow 1-0 final loss to Spain in the last tournament in Australia last summer. 

And senior officials in the governing body insist meticulous preparations are being made to support the endeavours of Wiegman’s side. 

Kay Cossington, FA Women’s technical director said: “We talk about the top end of this. 

“We talk about how to look at the next four years for our senior team.

“For 2025 with the Euros and for 2027 in preparation for the World Cup, our planning is absolutely meticulous.

“It’s about understanding and recognising, for us in tournament football when we’re preparing for European Championships and World Cups, what’s really important.

“What are the bits that we’re going to go after, and how do we effectively prepare putting 23 players in a squad in a tournament to perform.

“That’s our job as a collective system. 

“How can we help players and staff to perform under the greatest amounts of pressure?

“We have to be really, really clear and super explicit about what we do and what we don’t do, what’s going to make the boat go fast and what’s going to sink the boat,

“Also the bits in between are what often cause the most amount of noise, the most amount of stress and sleepless nights.”

The release of the FA’s new strategy comes hours ahead of the young Lionesses battling Spain for a place in semi-finals Women’s Under-17 World Cup in the Dominican Republic.

The match is due to be streamed live on BBC iPlayer and Fifa+ from 10:45pm this evening. 

The winners of the clash, which commences at 11:00pm UK time, at the Felix Sanchez Stadium in Santo Domingo, will face North Korea this Sunday. 

And Cossington says the FA’s aim is to continue developing its “playing, coaching and operating curriculum” to support young players rising through the ranks to be able to perform on the biggest internationals stages. 

She adds: “Our blueprint for success is what we call a playing, coaching and operating curriculum on how we want to do things across all of our age groups. 

“This is so that systematically, we are developing players’ readiness to be able to cope under the greatest amount of pressure in a senior team game.

“Many of the senior Lionesses talk about the importance of tournament finals. 

“For the next four years for us, it’s important that we regularly get our teams to tournament finals.”