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Girls team excited as Lionesses start Euro 2025

Molly Smith
BBC News, North East and Cumbria
BBC Three footballers stand together wearing blue and red striped football tops. They all have dark hair which is tied back and they are standing at the edge of a football pitchBBC
Some of the Cramlington United Tigresses have been playing together since they were seven

Players in a girls football team say they are excited about competing in a tournament at the England teams' training base on the same day the Lionesses start their defence of the European Championship trophy.

Cramlington United Tigresses, from Northumberland, will compete in the ESF football festival at St George's Park in Staffordshire on Saturday.

The club has gone from having two teams to 22 in the space of five years.

Coach Nicola Barbour said there had been a big increase in girls wanting to play since England won the title at Euro 2022.

Cramlington United qualified for the tournament after finishing second in a tournament in May.

The competition will feature the best teams in their age division who also won previous ESF tournaments.

St George's Park, near Burton, is the main training base for England's 24 different teams and has become the home of English football development.

The England women's team play France in their opening fixture of Euro 2025 on Saturday night.

A women who is smiling with dark brunette hair, wearing a black puma jacket with the crest of cramlington united on the left hand side of the jacket. Her background is a green field with trees in the distance.
Nicola Barbour said playing in the tournament was a "huge opportunity" for her team

Ms Barbour said: "There has been a huge increase in girls wanting to take part in football after the Euros.

"When the club was first formed in 2010, there were two girls teams and we now have 22 from under sevens right the way up to women's teams."

She said the tournament was a "huge opportunity" for the team.

"This is a grassroots team that would never get the chance to play at St George's Park where England train, so it's so exciting for me and the girls," she said.

Libby, 14, said: "I'm really excited, it's such a big experience for us.

"I'm really nervous to be in that setting and playing in such a well-known place, but I know that the team are going to do well."

There are now twice as many registered female football teams in England as there were seven years ago, BBC analysis in 2024 found.

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