​Gayle Parr, 49, says she has only recently been able to play football in a team [BBC]A year after watching the Lionesses lift their 2025 Euros trophy, Gayle Parr says reflecting on the moment feels bittersweet, as it is a reminder of the opportunities she never had.The 49-year-old loved football as a child but, she says, like many women her age, she was excluded from playing because of her gender.The Lionesses’ success has improved equal access to sports for girls in schools and created thousands of football teams as a result.But Gayle, who has just started playing for a senior women’s team, says she feels like she is part of a forgotten generation of women’s football.’Football’s not for women’Gayle was born in Nottingham in 1977. It was the year Star Wars premiered in cinemas, the twin Voyager space probes were launched, and just six years after the Football Association (FA) lifted its controversial 50-year ban on women’s football.The sport was rebuilding for women, but Gayle remembers the sexism that stopped her playing in a team.She recalls people telling her “football’s not for women” and that “they should be stereotypically in the kitchen doing the dinner”.In her 20s, Gayle played for a senior women’s team but she says this stigma made her turn to other sports.”There wasn’t that support for women playing football, whereas badminton was seen for everybody,” Gayle said.As of last season, Nottinghamshire had 47 grassroots senior women’s teams, compared to 244 senior men’s teams.Ravenshead Reds launched its first women’s team in 2025 – 50 years after the club was set up.Gayle joined the club and has not looked back.”I still feel that same passion when I go on the pitch as I did when I was seven, eight, nine, kicking a ball about on the street.”Girls aren’t just on the sidelines watching their big brother, they’re actually playing,” she said.Megan Worley, 28, says she was disappointed when she could not find a team to join as a teenager [BBC]Teammate Megan Worley, born in Mansfield in 1998, says she is part of a generation where it was more acceptable for girls to play football.”Getting into football for me was playing in the garden with my brother and then starting out for a team he used to play for,” she said.Megan said everything changed when she turned 12 because FA regulations at the time in 2012 meant she could no longer play in a mixed team with boys.”Having my brother have ample teams, he used to play in Saturday and Sunday teams and then I wasn’t able to find one… [it] felt disappointing,” she added.By the age of 18, she says she was still struggling to find a team.Now part of a senior women’s team for the first time, Megan hopes the next generation will not face the same barriers.Chairman of Ravenshead Reds Kevin Pinner launched the senior women’s team after the Lionesses’ success [BBC]Kevin Pinner says when he launched the senior men’s team at Ravenshead Reds in 2008, he never imagined he would be running women’s teams too.”We are ve