Carol Wilson (footballer)

Carol Wilson (born June 1952) is a British former amateur footballer. She captained an unofficial England women's national football team — calling themselves the "British Independents", now known as the "Lost Lionesses"^[2][4] — in 1971, including at the 1971 Women's World Cup in Mexico.

Early life

Carol Wilson grew up in

At the age of eighteen, in the RAF, Wilson would spend lunch playing five-a-side football with male colleagues, and they often had the courts to themselves; a girls' football team played next to them one time, with a scout watching that game. The scout instead took interest in Wilson, and afterwards asked a senior officer to speak with her. She was invited to trial in Luton,^[2] then to join Harry Batt's team in the Sunday league,^[5] and, not long afterwards, to join an unofficial England squad being put together to play FIEFF 1971 Women's World Cup qualifiers in Sicily and, if successful, the tournament finals in Mexico.^[2] Wilson was granted leave from the Ministry of Defence to play, but told she could not tell people her role and had to pretend to be a teacher from Liverpool.^[5]

She captained the side for all of her known international caps, starting with the qualifiers:

She recalls the response to the team in Mexico to be like that received by The Beatles in the United States during Beatlemania; crowds greeted them at the airport, supporters threw gifts at the team bus, and, when they left, were told they had won the hearts of Mexican people.^[2][4] The team's first game was against Argentina, who played viciously, and Wilson injured her foot but played on;^[4] she would play in the next game, too.^[3] The attendance for the Mexico vs England game at the Estadio Azteca was reported as around 90,000.^[2][3] It was more violent than the first match, with one player reporting the score line as "Mexico 4 – [England] 1 broken leg, 1 broken foot, 3 strained ligaments, 1 cartilage, 1 badly bruised shoulder & various other bruises, cuts, bumps and knocks"; the broken foot was Wilson's, though from the Argentina game. She and seven other members of the team went to hospital and, due to the altitude, most of the team were treated with oxygen after the match. The Mexican fans still adored them, and the Mexican team held a farewell party and formed a "guard of honour" as Wilson and Yvonne Farr returned to the hotel with their legs in plaster.^[4]

Ultimately, the England team came sixth of six in the finals. Their team was the only non-professional side, all under 24 and mostly teenagers, and,^[2] due to the injuries, featured some Mexican substitutes in their last, hastily-arranged, play-off match (one of whom, Cecilia Gallegos, would play for England again).^[4][3][8] The British press were negative about the competition, both England's defeat and the injuries sustained, arguing that women should not play football. After some time, a local Luton paper did report on the affection Mexico held for the girls, though the spread did focus on them as female objects of desire and mocked the concept of "a female Arsenal".^[4]

The Women's Football Association (WFA) did not support professionalism of women's football, nor did they want manager Harry Batt to take his scouted teams to the World Cup, blacklisting his family and teams;^[4] with this, the FA ban on women still in place,^[2] and her new husband making her feel humiliated for playing, Wilson did not continue to play and did not talk about football again for years.^[5] She later admitted that she would have liked to play professionally abroad or for England again.^[2] The WFA were in the process of establishing a formal England women's team during 1971, which would debut the following year.^[4]

Later life

Wilson went on to work in logistics for Wincanton plc. She and her 1971 teammates held a reunion in 2019 and started a petition to have their team officially recognised by the FA.^[2][1]

References