Former England Captain Calls for WSL Expansion

Former England captain Steph Houghton has called for more teams to be added to the Women's Super League [WSL] to increase competitiveness and continue the growth of the game.

Houghton, who was inducted into the WSL Hall of Fame on Monday, believes that adding more teams will make the game even more exciting and give more clubs the opportunity to play at the highest level. She also admitted that more growth is still needed despite the advancements made already.

“I think we have a lot more to do, which is pleasing, but at the same time, I think sometimes I'm frustrated a little bit, I'm not going to lie because I don't want us to be stagnant. I don't want us to be kind of in that zone where everything's the same, and that's okay,” said Houghton.

Fellow inductee Alex Scott echoed her former teammate's comments, believing that there is still further need for the game to grow. She also wanted to make sure the next generations understand what it took for the game to get to where it is now.

“I think it's great that we're still honouring those that push the game forward for our generation before we were even doing it now for the generation that, when they go into academies and when they're being signed at whatever age, they're going straight into a professional environment, which is incredible,” said Scott.

“That's on us as broadcasters to either show those stories or to write about it in a way that this younger generation care about it and understand the fight and the struggle and it wasn't always about selling out the Emirates and that being great.”

Houghton, who represented Arsenal and Manchester City for a decade, shares a podcast with former Arsenal and England men's player Ian Wright, where the duo have addressed several challenging issues in the game. The former Man City captain believes that it is essential for her to use her platform to continue to strive for the game to be better.

“I've got a lot of friends that are still playing. I've got ties to a lot of different clubs. But I think for me, I think the podcast is about probably highlighting the issues but also the strengths of what we have as well,” she said.

“I think we need to be honest, we want things to be better, we want things to be moving on. We have to talk, we can't just make change and by going around it, doing it behind everybody's backs. We need to have that open conversation.”