Debbie Bampton MBE

An interview with the holder of six FA Cup winners’ medals, player-manager of Croydon’s Doubles in 1996 and 2000, who played in Italy in the late 1980s, captained England at their first World Cup in 1995 and became the first female footballer named on the Queen’s Honours list. Bampton recalls lasting seven minutes of the 1996 final through a calf injury while Hope Powell played 90 with a hamstring problem, and beating champions Arsenal on their own ground to take the league through Brenda Sempare’s goal. She remembers Croydon as a second family, the Hunt twins packing bags for away weekends, and the 1984 Euro run. She explains that Powell repeatedly urged her to take coaching badges, says football has been her whole life, and describes her father still refereeing at 84.