Karen Carney claims women's football is not built on 'solid foundations'

Karen Carney has urged the Government and football's elite clubs to increase their investment into the women's game after warning the sport is not build on solid foundations.

Carney was asked on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football about how the growth and development of women's football could be maintained after England reached the World Cup final.

The Lionesses were ultimately beaten 1-0 by Spain in Sydney, just one year on from being crowned as the European champions.

Carney warned that the success of the England team has given the impression that women's game was in a 'lovely and glossy' position.

The former England international, who chaired a review commissioned by the Government, believes more investment is required into facilities and at the lower levels of the pyramid.

‘Players in the Championship still on £5,000 and working to do full jobs – so that when you play quality opposition just the level of competitiveness isn’t there the minimum standards and the facilities are not good enough,' Carney said.

‘Female players being treated as second-class citizens. That’s not my opinion, that was told to me throughout this whole review.

‘There are still some real big foundations that we need to fix, the Lionesses in the top part of the pyramid are thriving but the pipeline, you know the academy deficit, it's 88million for boys, but 3.25million for girls.

‘Some parts of that pipeline in academies isn’t funded so there’s a large group of girls that aren’t getting any funding to get to the next level.’

Carney insisted that with the right investment the women's game could become a billion pound industry within a decade.

The former England international called on the Government and clubs to help fund investment to fix the existing issues within the game.

'You know everyone has a responsibility. The Government does, clubs do, everyone has a responsibility to help with the investment of the women’s game really,' Carney said.

'It’s a start-up business. If I went to a certain programme and said how many millions of people are watching this, this is a great return on your investment as a business, and something will come in the long term.

'People laughed at me when I said it could be a billion pound industry in ten years time they really did but when there’s millions of people watching it there’s not something quite right in the planning.

'But there’s appetite and conversations and it’s going in the right directions.

'But there is still that Instagram versus reality and we need to fix that for the sport to really thrive because its built on sand still.

'It’s not built on solid foundations. One part is thriving, that’s the Lionesses, but the rest needs significant help.'