W is for Women’s football, a subject that’s certainly topical as I post this, with England’s Lionesses poised for the semi-finals of Euro 2025. One of the characters in Foul and Fair has some dismissive remarks to make about women’s football (which certainly don’t represent the views of the author), prompting someone else to point out that England’s women have been more successful than their male counterparts in recent years. After writing that scene and then signing off the proofs, I realised that if Gareth Southgate could lead his side to victory in Euro 2024 it might make my book feel dated even before it was published. While Steve the football fan was disappointed by the 2-1 final defeat to Spain, Steve the writer allowed himself a secret sigh of relief.

I’ve never been directly involved with coaching a girls’ football team, although in the after-school clubs that I lead for Foundation Sports, I have coached several girls alongside boys. My experience of girls playing in boys teams at grassroots level – there were several who played against the teams my two sons played for over the years – was that beyond the youngest of age groups, if a girl was out on the pitch, it would be a huge mistake to assume that she would be a weak link in the opposition. More often, she was one of the stronger players (partly because, prejudice being what it is, if she wasn’t that good she wouldn’t be given the chance to go toe to toe with the boys). Either way, one of my central beliefs about coaching is that football is for everyone and everyone should be given the chance to play the game.

At one point I started writing a sequel to Foul and Fair, focusing on the team that James’ daughter Poppy started playing for at the end of the book (okay, so that’s a plot spoiler, but not a massively significant one. I can live with it) but somehow the story wasn’t coming together. I’m not sure that I’m likely to return to it, but I do have an idea for an unrelated story about women’s football sitting in my ideas folder waiting for the chance to tug on my sleeve and demand my attention. Its time may yet come.