Explore game-changing football moments captured by Nick Potts
Women’s sport is growing at such breakneck speed that advertisers are now clamouring to secure lucrative media spots around the games.
In the UK, the Women’s Euros topped the TV audience record for 2022 with 17.4 million viewers; this is just the beginning of the snowball effect. Now that England are champions, the knock-on effect in the UK will be felt for generations to come.
There are a multitude of reasons for this success. Being a decent and successful football team certainly helps – men’s team take note. But I think what people saw and felt connected to is the team unity, the collective effort, and the lack of egos.
It all seemed to come together to create an unbreakable spirit coupled with skill and flair – that backheel goal by Russo was cheeky, eh?
I spoke to who had a pitch-side view of the history-making team to find out what he saw.
MY: Hi Nick. You’ve been covering football games since the 80s. How were the games in the women’s Euros? You must be buzzing?
NP: The women’s game is a breath of fresh air, it really is. There’s a nice atmosphere at women’s football.
We live in a different era these days in terms of how it was in the late-80s and early-90s. I’ve done [men’s] games where there’s been trouble, and what have you, and it’s not a particularly pleasant situation. It was a horrible situation back then.
It happens very rarely these days and the demographic of the crowd have changed in some ways, for the better, but they must not price people out of the game. TV wants grounds to be full so there needs to be a balanced pricing.
When you go to women’s football, there’s minimal segregation. I saw pockets of German fans in with the England fans but no-one’s going to bat an eye. I said this to the FA. I think a lot of people welcome the inclusivity of women’s football.
MY: How do you handle the pressure of photographing a Euros Final? This is probably the biggest moment in English football since 1966. Does that weigh on you when you’re pitch-side?
NP: There’s more pressure on it when England are playing, especially because PA is a UK-wide agency.
But I can cut that out. I’ve done FA Cup finals, Champions League finals, World Cup finals over the last ten years so it’s not a new experience for me.
I’ve also been lucky to have covered quite a few big World Title Boxing shows where sometimes I’m friendly with the boxer and you have to cut your emotions out of that otherwise you’ll lose concentration. You have to be neutral. Certainly, I’d never turn up in a football shirt!
MY: Sports photographers need to capture all the important moments in a game including goals, tackles, and celebrations? But is there anything you look for specifically that would make a great football picture?
NP: The number of great football pictures out there, when you consider the number of games that there are, is not that many. The picture of Chloe Kelly running away in celebration is, definitely to me, an iconic picture which was taken by Joe Giddens at PA.
For a great sports picture, I’m looking for the goals, I’m looking for colour. But I’ve got to capture the biggest moment of the game whether it’s the winning goal or the defining moment. The story of the game is more important than a great picture. I’ll also look for symmetry where I can.
MY: I think many fans could see the unity and camaraderie in the team. You had a good view of the team being pitchside. What did you see in the team that made them so successful?
NP: They believed in the plan. And they played the same starting team through the whole tournament.
They also listened to the manager and had a collective confidence as a team. If one teammate believes in another teammate, you’re onto a winning formula.
That’s what the role of the manager is, in any walk of life. To create a sense of togetherness.
MY: Everyone’s now talking about how this achievement will have a huge knock-on effect for grassroots football not just in the women’s game, but probably in the men’s game too. Over the years that you’ve been covering football, what has been the biggest change to the women’s game that you’ve noticed?
NP: The first women’s game I covered was around 1998 when it was still an amateur game. The women in the game back then were fairly small, and now you look at some of the players that played at the Euros, they are genuine athletes.
Everything’s got better, everything’s moved up. That comes from full-time training.
Players that I used to cover even ten years ago would have part-time roles within a football club. And that was only if they were a big enough player at the club. The rest of them were sports teachers or personal trainers or whatever.
The whole game has completely moved on and accelerated in the last five years. I think that the women’s game now, at the top end (Champions League and International) is more interesting than men’s Championship football.
The men’s game in England, in the lower leagues, while better than it was, tend to work on hitting long balls into strikers, and women don’t do that very often. They tend not to hit 60-yard balls every time, so they have to play within smaller spaces. So the football they play is more interesting to watch in that way.
The Dutch wiped the floor against them [England] in 2019 where they just passed them off the park because England basically kept on giving the ball away.
They’ve learnt that now, first under Phil Neville and now under Sarina Wiegman [who was the manager of the Dutch team in 2019].
MY: Where do you see the women’s game going from here?
NP: The Chelsea women’s team play at Kingsmeadow in Kingston upon Thames. Chelsea now own the stadium but there is probably enough interest now in Chelsea Women to build more seating capacity up from just under 5000, and then move some games to Stamford Bridge more regularly.
MY: Everyone’s been saying that the advertising and sponsorship money is going to start rolling in, especially in the UK.
NP: I just hope that women’s football doesn’t run too quickly. There’s a few things that you worry about – 6:45pm kick-offs on a Sunday aren’t great for younger fans but there’s always competition for TV slots.
MY: And lastly, how has photographing football changed over the years?
NP: They sadly don’t tackle. In the men’s game, it’s become almost a non-contact sport in the Premier League and Champions League. I’d like it if it was a bit more physical. Strangely, the women’s game is more physical maybe because they don’t have VAR and maybe this encourages more tackles.
I celebrate when I get a tackle picture in men’s football! Tackles make pictures. You look at Rugby Union and Rugby League, they make great pictures. The bravery and physicality of it; that’s what’s been sadly lost from the men’s game at the top level .
And I know the game has moved on and it’s a lot faster now but when you hear pundits say on TV that there was contact and he’s entitled to go down, it’s really tosh. It gets heard by the kids and then they act what they see. Sadly, it making diving almost normal and very hard for the officials.
MY: Is that kind of gamesmanship as prevalent in the women’s games?
NP: It’s not yet but it could be. And that would be the biggest disappointment. That’s the bit that I’m hoping won’t creep into the women’s game.
Explore game-changing football moments captured by Nick Potts