Having heard the FA talk about the great opportunities available to girls today, I was particularly keen to find out where Faye’s football journey began.  “I remember growing up with football really, as my dad and brother both played.  At school I used to play in the playground with the boys.  I was probably the only girl in the school that would play so you feel like a bit of a tomboy and very different from the other girls.”  I suggest that this must have been a big thing for a young girl to deal with.  “Yeah” she replied, “I had to pick up the courage to be able to say “can I come and play?” but I think it helped me get the right mentality [to play football at a high level].  You know if you really enjoy something enough you’ll pursue it.  That was just one little hurdle to get over.  You had to otherwise you just wouldn’t play football.”

But with kids being kids, surely she used to get some stick from the boys she asked to join in with?  “My main memory was that I was always accepted.  Once the boys realised I could play, I was just like one of them… it wasn’t a problem.”  No doubt it didn’t take long for the boys to realise that this particular girl could more than hold her own.  As Faye describes, she used to some off the pitch “with bruises on my legs as I’d get stuck in just as much as the boys!”  The boys she refers to here are her brother’s team mates, who Faye trained with when she was 11 or 12, despite being a lot younger than them.  “I was competing with boys two and a half years older than me and holding my own in training”, she told me.  Despite the obvious ability that she displayed at this age, she was still unable to play matches.

Then came the moment that started the ball rolling for Faye.  At 13 years old, her mum took her to a session at a local leisure centre.  “It was very focused on boys” she said.  “I happened to be the only girl and one of the coaches was a female who coached in a local team.”  This coach asked Faye to play for her team and you can still hear the thrill in her voice as she recalls the story.  “I was like “Yeah, great!  At last, actually someone who has a girls team.” The move to Horsham is Faye's highlight of her time in grassroots football.  “When I realised that Horsham Ladies existed, that there were other girls out there who wanted to play, it made me feel less alienated.  That was a good time.”  It got better for Faye, who was drafted straight into the reserves and then fast-tracked into the senior team at the age of 14.  This must have been quite a leap, I suggest to her.  “Well, our oldest player was 36!  I got away with it because I was tall for my age, but it was still a big gap.”

Once involved in a proper women’s club, things moved pretty fast for the new recruit.  She stayed at Horsham - which later became Three Bridges – from 13 until the age of 17 or 18, by which time she had been in the first team for three or four seasons.  While playing for Horsham in the National League Southern Division at the age of 16,  Faye was selected for England, becoming the first female to be called up for the national squad from outside the top flight of women’s football.  It was all a bit of an eye-opener for Faye: “I went along to a training session and there was Marianne Spacey, Gill Coultard and Hope [Powell] was in the squad.”

This in-at-the-deep end approach is another leap in Faye’s career that wouldn’t happen today.  Recruited through the FA’s Centres of Excellence – there are 52 centres in the country – today’s top girls will represent England at under 15s, under 17s and under 19s level before reaching the senior squad.  As Faye points out, young players today “know the whole environment and they are not overawed by the players there,  that’s not an issue.  They are used to the set-up, what it’s like to train twice a day when you go away, things like that.”

In 2006/07 there were over 8,300 affiliated teams with over 147,000 players, treble the numbers from 2000/01.  So with more females now playing the game and more coaches working in the game – over 15,000 registered female coaches this year is an increase of more than 30% on 2006 – more players are bound to filter through the system, meaning that the Centres of Excellence are picking up a good standard of player and are able to work with them from an early age.

The current success of the England women's team, Faye tells me, "has to be because of the set-up and the fact that the younger players are coming through with a different mentality in the way that they understand the game and what they want to achieve."

I assume that Faye must be very proud of being involved in the national team for such a long period of time and seeing this change in mentality.  “Yeah, definitely” she says.  “This is the best phase of women’s football there’s ever been in this country.  Saying that though, I think when Hope was a player they got to the World Cup in 1995, but after the our previous attempt at the Euros [in 2005] we felt we’d progressed and then in the World Cup we’ve done better and now we’re looking forward to the Euros again [in 2009].”

The physical demands on the players are increasing yet, as the game is yet to turn professional, they still need to train around full-time jobs.  “We’re working full time jobs around trying to be professional [players], but we're not getting paid for it and that’s very hard.”  Of course, male professionals train for two hours a day and then get to rest outside of training meaning that they are in peak physical condition for their matches, a point not lost on the England captain: “It’s annoying when our game gets compared to that because that’s what we have to work with.”

So how far off is a fully professional women’s game in England?  “I think that’s a little way off yet” Faye tells me.  “It’s positive to see how the game has grown over recent years.  People’s perception is changing massively and the feedback from the World Cup is that people from outside are starting to see the game, which goes to show the power of the media.”  Indeed, recent viewing figures have made positive reading for the FA.  England’s World Cup quarter-final against the USA attracted more viewers than the crucial England v Samoa match at the Rugby World Cup.  On the domestic front, last season’s TV audiences for the FA Cup and League Cup finals were at a record high, as were attendances at the games.

As Faye points out, however, capturing people’s attention is just the beginning.  “Once you’ve got people’s attention it’s then making sure that the quality is good enough for them to really want to start supporting it and come week-in week-out to watch you.  You can play in a World Cup in front of 30,000 and then a couple of weeks later play in a league game with only 50 people there, so [the challenge is] getting the league structure in which games are set so that people know they can get to them and a time when they are not focused on the men’s game.”

This, of course, points to the much-touted idea of a women’s summer league.  “It’s been talked about for a while” says White, “but I can see it taking time to get it right.  There’s an argument that you only do it when you can do it properly or do you start if off and see how it develops and grows?”  The obvious argument in favour of a summer league is that it will not be in direct competition with men’s league football, a point that White feels strongly about.  “I think you need to take it away from the focus of the men, because I’m convinced that in a country of fanatics, football is 24-7 now, we’re just not going to compete when the men are playing.”

Undoubtedly, the men’s game rules the roost and the Premier League is the staple of the average football fan’s diet, but is this because the game is historically played by men or because the quality of men’s football is better?  Faye compares the difference in the games to that of tennis. “The women’s game is not as fast and quick but it still has its attraction and its draw.  There are more rallies in women’s tennis and the skills level are very high, which is similar to football.”

Of course, having one team dominate the women’s football landscape to the extent that Arsenal have can not be healthy for the game either.  Faye told me that “financial support” for other clubs is the only way to try and bridge the gap.  “They need the ability to attract players so that the best players get spread out, but with the amount of girls playing the game now there have to be some good young players coming through.” 

A widely competitive and fully professional women’s game may yet be a long way off, but Faye is confident that the game is heading in the right direction.  “With the Centres of Excellence, they [The FA] now have in place a clear pathway for how to develop through the game.”  A similar pathway didn’t exist for her as a girl, so she firmly believes that, for the FA to get things right, “it’s all about the opportunities to play.  There are loads of girls out there who just want to play week-in week-out.  It’s about the opportunity for girls to find local clubs.”

As the interview draws to a close, I ask Faye her thoughts on the European Championships in both men’s and women’s football.  Euro 2008 is just around the corner, but Faye admits she hasn’t really followed it now that England are not in it.  “I will watch it, but I don’t really have a preference who wins now because I want England in it!”  As for the women’s version, happening in summer 2009, her answer is a lot more clear cut.  When asked who is going to win, her reply to such a blatantly leading question is encouragingly confident. “England!" she says.  "We’re going to play Germany in the final and beat them!”

Were this to happen, Faye White’s football journey from the days of kicking around on the playground with the boys would be well and truly complete.

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England’s remaining Euro 2009 qualifiers

Czech Republic v England - 28 September 2008

Spain v England - 2 October 2008