Faye White Exclusive Interview With OLBG

Faye White Talks to OLBG

Faye White, MBE, is a former professional football player who captained Arsenal Women in the FA Women's Super League and is the longest serving female captain of England to date. Faye was a commanding presence in the spine of the Gunners and the Lionesses line ups from the late 1990s until her retirement in 2013. A UEFA Women's Champions League winner, she won both League titles and the FA Cup across three different decades with Arsenal.

Here Faye talks exclusively to OLBG ahead of the Women's Euros 2022 final.  

Slow starts might cost England against frightening Germany 

Against Germany, a slow start may cost England. If you give their striker Alexandra Popp one chance, she’ll score. We know the Germans are good and you can’t afford to start slowly. I remember the chance that Sweden had against England in the first minute, and Germany would put that away.  We need to stop the crosses and stop the shots because Germany can be frightening. England can’t afford to give Germany those chances because they just need one chance. They are ruthless. 

Important to avoid the mistakes of London 2012 and build a legacy from the tournament.

We need to build a future for women’s football which wasn’t seen after the Olympics. It’s about getting people to go to the WSL games and raising the profile of them. I saw the young girl celebrating on the TV, and seeing some of the players cry made me emotional as well. 

You just think that she should have that role model like boys do and it’s about changing the views of younger generations, educating them and teaching them as they grow up. Every young girl should have the opportunity to play and the FA has highlighted the importance of it being in Primary school so that’s where a difference will be made. Some schools still don’t have girls football opportunities and this needs to change. 

Image: skysports

Midfield battle is key against the Germans

Keira Walsh in midfield will be key if England are to beat Germany. Germany has a strong midfield so Walsh will be vital. Whoever comes out on top in the midfield will go on to win the game. 

Captain Williamson is the ultimate professional and won’t fear Germany like we did

The way she holds herself and the way she plays is so calm. She’s down-to-earth, humble and is good at putting others first. She’s consistently performing at a good level and she drives the team on. When she does interviews and talks, she gives authority and calmness and she’s always had that throughout her career. I remember seeing her at the Arsenal training ground and thinking about how mature she is. It will be an honour to captain England at a home Euros and she’s lucky to be in a team with other leaders as well. 

Hopefully, she can lift it and I’m definitely going in with the feeling that we can, even though we are against a good German team. England are also good though, and they won’t fear the Germans as much as we did. 

Women’s football needs to be played in bigger stadiums from now on

This will be important for the legacy of the tournament. We need to focus on getting people to the next set of WSL games and future England games. We need to pick bigger grounds to have them in though. We need to be in the men’s stadiums as that’s what people want. With Arsenal, people don’t want to go to Borehamwood as only 2000 fans or so can get in. At some point it needs to make that step of playing more regularly at the bigger grounds. The FA and clubs need to look for ways of doing it in order to create a transformation. See OLBGs deep dive into the record crowds at the Womens Euros here.

From no one welcoming us home to 9 Million viewers on TV, the game has come a long way.

It’s exploded in the last 4 or five years which is great. When we lost to Germany, I remember seeing half a million people on the streets celebrating the Germans coming home, while when we came back there was absolutely no one there, even though we had gotten further than ever before. It was a bit disappointing as we thought getting to the final would profile the women's game and give it a bit more coverage. 

Now though, over nine million watched regularly over the last few games and this will be even bigger for the final I’m sure. Wembley will be full and it will be spine-tingling to see. I watched the game last night thinking it was always going to be Germany so if we beat them it would be so much sweeter.

Image: thefa.com

Former players are envious of the current England team and wish they could play

Of course, I would love to still be playing now. I was watching the game at the stadium thinking if I could play now it's more professional, how i would relish that.  I was always really professional when I played and I think I would have suited this new professional era. I've played against a lot of the current players and I would have loved to have played at this tournament. Training every day, playing games, I would have loved that. Equally though, I recognise that back then was my time, I had a good career which I appreciate and I have a sense of pride watching the team knowing that I helped pave the way. I’ve loved watching the players I know celebrate at full-time enjoying it with the crowds and hopefully this is now the new norm and becomes a regular occurrence.

A huge gulf in quality made 2009 a tricky match for us

The 2009 final was the biggest game of our lives. Of course we wanted to win it, but there was a huge gulf in quality between the two sides. It was just about putting in our best performance and while the score was 6-2 and looked like a thrashing, the support and finances their game had compared to ours back then was so different compared to now. Equally, we scored two goals against them which we had never done before, despite getting points off them in previous tournaments. 

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