page_title: Women's football in England
section_title: Towards the top
hierarchical_section_title: Women's football in England / History / Towards the top
caption_attribution_description: England Women's before the international friendly against USA.
context_page_description: Women's football has been played in England for over a century, sharing a common history with the men's game as the country in which the Laws of the Game were codified.
  Women's football was originally very popular in the early 20th century, but after being banned by the men's Football Association caused a decline it took until the 1990s for the game to see a large increase in female players, as well as in spectators, culminating in England hosting the Women's European Championships in 2005.
context_section_description: The women's game in England took a hit following the 2012 Olympics after England was unable to advance from the group stages at Women's EURO 2013 in Sweden, which led to Hope Powell's departure as manager and the appointment of Welshman Mark Sampson. However, England then gave the women's game a boost that may be even bigger than the Olympic boost when they stunned many both at home and abroad by finishing third at the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada. Along the way, they beat Norway for their first knockout stage win and then host nation Canada in front of a capacity partisan crowd in Vancouver. Following a devastating loss in the semis against defending champion Japan after a Laura Bassett own goal, the team rebounded to beat Germany for the very first time in women's football after a 1–0 extra-time win in the third-place game. It meant that England had finished as the top European team at the World Cup and had recorded the second-best World Cup showing by any England senior team behind only Sir Alf Ramsey, Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore's England men's squad famously winning the 1966 World Cup as hosts.
  It was announced that the 2015 Women's FA Cup final between Chelsea Ladies and Notts County Ladies would be held at Wembley Stadium for the very first time.
caption: England women's team in February 2015
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