Women's Euro 2025, a first for the Welsh Dragons, opponents of the French team

The Welsh women's footballers have been waiting for this competition for a long time. The Dragonnes, who will face France on Wednesday, July 9 at 9 p.m. in St. Gallen, for their second match of the Euro 2025 group stages, are participating in their very first major tournament in Switzerland. "Even when I was a player, this qualification was our goal," recalls Laura McAllister, who was captain of the national team from 1993 to 2002. "It's a historic moment; it took time and a lot of work to get to this point."

To appreciate its magnitude, we must go back more than a hundred years. In 1922, the Welsh Football Association (FAW), like its English neighbor, banned women from playing football, keeping them off the pitch until 1970. In 1973, a national team was created amidst the total indifference of the institutions.

In 1992, Laura McAllister and two other players, Michele Adams and Karen Jones, sent a letter to the FAW requesting recognition. They were received by Alun Evans, the general secretary at the time. "We didn't expect anything from this meeting because nothing had been done for women's football until then," recalls the woman who is now a member of the executive committee of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) . However, their request was successful: a year later, the national team was officially affiliated with the Welsh federation, which opened the doors to qualifying for European and world tournaments.

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