My First World Cup: The forgotten story of the English teenagers at the Mexican Mundialito
Long before millions across the globe could watch, or football’s governing bodies would even put their names to the event, Women’s World Cups were a regular occurrence.
Following the first unofficial World Cup in Italy in 1970, known as the Coppa del Mundo, a series of tournaments known as the Mundialito were staged over the next two decades before FIFA became involved and organised the first official Women’s World Cup in China in 1991.
Just seven teams, including England, took part in the 1970 tournament, and although many European football associations still did not recognise the women’s game, 50,000 people were present to see Denmark defeat the hosts 2-0 in the final.
Mexico beat England in the third-place play-off and finished the competition as top scorers having seen off Austria 9-0 in the quarter-finals. That success, coupled with the vibrancy and popularity of Pele’s Brazil winning the 1970 Men’s World Cup in Mexico, encouraged them to host another iteration of the women’s competition in 1971.
Just six teams were involved due to issues of travel and cost, and with teams forced to play on consecutive days in the sweltering summer heat in Mexico City it was hardly the height of professionalism.
The Netherlands had lost to France in a qualifier for the tournament that is now considered the first FIFA-recognised women’s international match, but neither side were aware that the outcome determined who went to Mexico. The Dutch launched an appeal but to no avail.
Yet crowds at what became known as the first ‘Mundialito’ were impressive. 100,000 people attended the opening match between Mexico and Argentina at the historic Azteca Stadium and even more managed to squeeze in for the hosts defeat to Denmark in the final.
In Britain, women’s football had just emerged from a 50-year ban. The Women’s Football Association was set up to try and provide structure and stability as suspicion from traditionalists remained rife.
Women’s football had enjoyed an immense level of popularity in the early 20th century. With young men fighting in World War One, matches between women’s teams drew large crowds and this new version of the game began to build momentum.
However, just a year after the Football League resumed in 1919, the Football Association banned clubs from letting women play on grounds belonging to league clubs and outlawed referees officiating matches between women’s teams. The FA declared that “football is quite unsuitable for females”.
The success of the English men’s team at the 1966 World Cup, coupled with changes in wider society, meant there was an increasing desire for the women’s game to return. Whilst the WFA was established to enable this, the organization was keen for progress to be steady and calculated.
But one man had greater ambition than allowing women’s football to find its place. Harry Batt was the manager of Chiltern Valley Ladies, and he saw the potential for the game to expand and evolve.
He was the driving force behind an unofficial England team taking part in the Coppa del Mundo, and a year later he was in charge of the 14 players, most of them teenagers, who made the trip to Mexico.
“It was incredible,” says journalist Ian Youngs, who managed to track down the players who represented England in Mexico for a story in 2019. “The players were used to playing in front of tiny crowds – if you can even call them crowds – on public pitches, and then they go to this event halfway around the world where they were met by crowds at the airport and 100,000 people in the stadiums.”
Youngs took an interest in the story when Chris Lockwood, who represented England at the tournament as a 15-year-old, appeared on a Danny Baker radio programme in 2019. With the Women’s World Cup in France just around the corner, he made it his mission to reunite the ‘Lost Lionesses’ and tell their story.
“Chris said that as they got off the plane there were photographers waiting,” he continues, “she thought there must have been someone famous on the plane. And then the players realised it was all for them.
“For them it was a massive surprise and a massive culture shock because they had never come across anything like it before.”
The England side lost all three matches they played at the tournament, including group matches that were played on consecutive days against Argentina and hosts Mexico. Whilst the environment they were playing in was alien, the English players were also not accustomed to some of the tactics employed by their opponents.
“It’s quite amazing that some parents let their 13-year-olds go to Mexico, and I got the impression that in some senses it was quite an overwhelming experience,” says Youngs. “In terms of the matches it was quite challenging because they weren’t quite at the level of some of the countries and they learnt some harsh lessons in terms of dirty tricks and things like that.”
The physicality of their opponents came as a surprise to a team of adolescents in an unfamiliar environment playing against sides with greater international experience.
Batt was joined on the touchline by his wife June and 10-year-old son Keith, who both helped him run the team. They encouraged him to take the players off during the 4-1 defeat to Argentina in the opening game due to the aggressive nature of the contest.
The manager relented, but told reporters afterwards: “We tried to play clean English football, but things didn’t go to plan… The girls were hacked to pieces. It was absolutely diabolical. They came after our blood.”
Following that bruising introduction to the tournament, the English players had less than 18 hours to prepare for their next game against hosts Mexico in front of almost 100,000 people at the Azteca.
Mexico were billed as clear favourites given how England had performed in their opening game, and pre-match entertainment that included a motorcycle stunt display and a football match between singers and actors whipped the home crowd into an even greater frenzy.
Although the English players had been popular during their time in Mexico, it was clear that the home crowd were only backing one team on the day.
It took just three minutes for England to fall behind, and soon the demands of trying to play two games in two days in the sweltering summer heat took their toll. One player suffered a broken leg and seven others were later treated in hospital as Mexico eventually ran out 4-0 winners.
This meant the tournament was over for England in the group stage, with an unplanned 5th/6th place play-off against France scant consolation for the physical and emotional toil the players had been through. However, a lack of success on the field did not dull the sense of achievement among the trailblazers.
“I’m sure they would have loved to have won but the experience was what really stood out in their memories,” says Youngs.
Although Batt and his players had created lifelong memories, they would not be returning to a hero’s welcome in England.
The WFA had been resistant to a team being sent to Mexico, and although Batt’s side wore a traditionally English white strip at the Mundialito they were in fact officially registered as ‘British Independents’ and they did not have the Three Lions on their chest.
The newly established governing body wanted an England side to begin competing once it had established a greater degree of organisation and control over the women’s game, meaning Batt’s incessant ambition to grow the sport caused friction.
He was a maverick, utilising a network of contacts across the world to ensure his players could be involved in burgeoning tournaments such as the one in Mexico.
However, the WFA did not support his plans, blacklisting both Batt and his wife before the tournament in Mexico had even begun for promising players “a place in the England team” and for using headed paper declaring himself the “England manager”.
“The players couldn’t really understand it,” says Youngs. “There was resentment that the women’s game had been suppressed for so long.
“They were quite angry about how he [Batt] was treated. He’d had this ongoing difference of opinion in terms of methods with the people who trying to run the WFA.
“As far as the 1971 players were concerned, they absolutely loved Harry and owed a lot to him. They felt that he had been harshly treated after what he had tried to do for the women’s game in this country.
“But I think there are two sides to that story. The WFA were trying to get things off the ground in a more structured and professional way.”
Although some of the players remained in touch following their remarkable experience in Mexico, it took the best part of 50 years for them all to come together once again.
It was only through the work of Youngs in 2019 that they were all eventually reunited on The One Show. “The BBC somehow managed to track down the last one or two members of the squad,” says Youngs. “They did a lovely piece getting all of the players back together and back in touch.”
Even though it took the best part of half a century for the team to be truly recognised, their place in the early years of progress in women’s football in England cannot be overlooked.
“I don’t want to overstate it but they certainly played a part in the wider story of women’s football being brought back to the place it deserves,” says Youngs. “There was a long path from 1971 up to now involving a lot of different players and managers. But they did their bit and deserve recognition.
“It was a small but relatively important moment in the history of British women’s football, and definitely one of the most incredible stories.”
