Analysis: When Ireland’s WNT meet Sweden tonight, they are meeting the first ever champions of the European competition in 1984
By Helena Byrne, British Library
Today the Republic of Ireland WNT take on Sweden at the Aviva Stadium in their third match in Group A3 in the UEFA EURO 2025 Qualifier. This year’s tournament is the fourteenth edition of the competition, which was launched in 1982. The Republic of Ireland has participated in the qualification rounds for thirteen of these tournaments but have yet to qualify for the finals. Meanwhile, tonight’s opponents, Sweden’s ‘Damlandslaget’ (women’s national team) won the inaugural title 40 years ago in 1984 and have competed in eleven finals. This article looks back at the origins of the first official European competition.
Women’s football has a long history and since UEFA mandated its members to recognise women’s football in 1971, many European countries have set up international teams. However, only competitions organised by UEFA or FIFA are regarded as being official matches. This means that the many previous European and World cups, including the 1970 and 1971 Women’s World Cup, organised independently by the Fédération Internationale Européenne de Football Féminine (FIEFF), are still considered unofficial.
It was the popularity of these tournaments from 1969 to 1971 that put pressure on UEFA to take notice of women’s football. A report presented at the November 1970 Executive Committee meeting in Paris stated that ‘It was decided to recommend the Associations to keep a watchful eye on the further development of ladies’ football in their country in order to avoid that wily business managers get a hold of it’. A UEFA Committee for women’s football was established the following year in 1971 and rules of the game were issued to all members. At the 1974 meeting, the Committee highlighted that there were still financial obstacles to the creation of a European competition for women. But this would be the last Committee meeting until it was finally dissolved in 1978.
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From RTÉ Sport, Eileen Gleeson and Caitlin Hayes speak to the media ahead of Friday’s Nations League clash with Sweden at the Aviva Stadium
During the 1970s there was a strong women’s league in Italy that wasn’t affiliated with the men’s governing body. An unofficial European Championship for women was organised in 1979 in Italy with twelve countries, which was another factor that put pressure on UEFA to organise an official competition. The Italian league called a European congress on women’s football on April 12, 1980 and invited European National Associations where women’s football was played. Not wanting to be upstaged, UEFA then responded by organising their own conference in Zurich at the earlier date of February 20, 1980.
But it was on December 2, 1981 that UEFA ultimately circulated the announcement of the first UEFA Competition for National Representative Women Teams. The letter stated that the competition would ‘extend over a period of two years and shall be considered as an experiment’. Sixteen teams registered for the competition, including Ireland. When forming the groups they took ‘into account economical considerations in order to reduce to a minimum the travelling expenses in the qualifying matches’.
Group One: Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden
Group Two: England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland
Group Three: Italy, France, Portugal, Switzerland
Group Four: Belgium, Denmark, West Germany, Netherlands
All teams played against each other twice at all stages of the competition. This meant that each country played one match at home and one away against each team in their group. The winners from each group then played in the semi-finals.
Once the groups for the competition were announced, the Women’s Football Association (WFA) wrote to all the governing bodies in their group to set up a face-to-face meeting to plan their matches for the first phase of the competition. For Group Two, Liverpool was suggested as an ideal location for the meeting as it was an easy location for everyone to reach from Ireland and Scotland. They all met on April 25, 1982 to plan their fixtures.
However, UEFA did not provide any funding to support teams that registered for the competition. As women’s governing bodies were run on a voluntary basis in Britain and Ireland, they had limited funding. They depended on sponsorship to run their events and play international matches abroad. When the competition was announced, all the governing bodies had to do a lot of additional fundraising to compete in the competition.
One mode of fundraising included players participating in various events in exchange for sponsorship from the general public. Footballers Linda Gorman (03:51:47) and Rose McCaffrey (04:06:23) ran in the 1983 Dublin Marathon to help raise money for the Ladies Football Association of Ireland (later Women’s FAI). The costs involved were very high. In fact, the Women’s Football Association (WFA) estimated that the overall cost could be £25,000 if they reached the finals. Adjusted for inflation this would be approximately £85,841.83 in 2024.
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From AP Archive, Sweden win the first ever UEFA women’s trophy on June 20, 1984 beating England 5-4 in penalties
Qualifying rounds were held were held between August 18, 1982 and October 28, 1983. When Ireland stepped onto the pitch for their first qualifying match against Scotland on September 19, 1982 they also made their official competitive debut.
The Republic of Ireland had some good matches during the tournament, winning both matches against Northern Ireland and drawing one against Scotland, but they lost to England. England were the strongest team in Group Two and won all their matches. The table finished with England top (12 points), followed by Scotland (7 points), Republic of Ireland (5 points) and then Northern Ireland (zero points). Only the top team from every group went on to the final stages of the tournament so the Republic of Ireland’s run in the first UEFA competition for women’s football ended in 1983.
Sweden, however, won the 1984 Women’s Euros in a dramatic penalty shootout against England.
Read part two of our look back at the first UEFA women’s competition here.
Republic of Ireland WNT v Sweden in Euro 2025 qualifying on Friday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on an extended Game On with 2fm.
Helena Byrne is a librarian that specialises in web archiving and an independent researcher focusing on the history of women’s football in Ireland. She regularly contributes history segments to FAI Women’s National Team match programmes and recently contributed to projects that celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the Republic of Ireland’s Women’s National team in 1973.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ