Former Lioness Jill Scott is helping girls have equal opportunities in football after Jarrow pitch is named in her honour

Jill 36, was part of the England team which won the Euro 2022 trophy at Wembley Stadium.

And after calling it quits on her playing career, her involvement in the sport is far from over.

In February, Sunderland-born Scott officially opened the pitch named in her honour at Perth Green Community Centre, Jarrow. This is one of 23 sport facilities set to open across the UK close to the hometowns of the 23 Lioness’ who won at Wembley.

Speaking to journalists, she said: “Girls’ and women’s football is now going to take priority on those pitches. I turned up to open this pitch and I thought, ‘Oh, it’s going to be just a little pitch or whatever’.

“It’s like a half-a-million-pound investment. I nearly came out of retirement!”

The pitch named in Scott’s honour boasts floodlights and 3G pitches and was jointly funded by the government, the FA and the Premier League’s Football Foundation.

Women’s football had been steadily building for years but the Lioness’ victory skyrocketed the game into unprecedented levels leading to fundamental changes at each level of the game.

This week saw her the addressing the audience at Women in Football’s Be Inspired conference.

She said: “What I love about girls’ and women’s football, it’s been a tough journey but I feel like we’ve really built the structure as we’ve gone, and sometimes [before] if someone just gets you in any sense and puts you [up] there, you are going to fall through the cracks in the foundation.

“Whereas I think we’ve got these real, sturdy blocks now. We’ve got the Euros, we’ve got the academies, all that stuff. So I just don’t want it to go too fast yet.

“Obviously we always want better. You get a nice car, you want a better one, you get a nice house, you want a better one, but I think we have to make sure that we are facilitating those girls in a safe space, and on the back of the Euros each of the 23 players have their own football pitch in their area, which is brilliant.”

Just one day after that historic Wembley victory, Scott and her team-mates decided to write a letter, addressed to then-Conservative leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, demanding all girls would get the chance to play football at school.

The Government then announced an unprecedented package of measures that will see schools told they must deliver a minimum of two hours of PE each week, girls and boys should be able to play the same sports in lessons and clubs.

Scott said: “I fell in love with football at school. And I was very fortunate that we had the girls’ football team, but I think without that support I wouldn’t have gone on to have the career that I’ve had.

“The fact that [they were] taking away a potential dream from a little girl really struck a chord with me. So it was fantastic work from [England captain] Leah [Williamson] and Lotte [Wubben-Moy],” said Scott, before quipping: “And I could go and take the credit!”