Hey, How’s Tricks? It’s SK76! (Editor’s Letter)

Jen O’Neill opens with the good news: momentum carried over from the summer into higher attendances, better football and fuller coverage, headlined by a record WSL crowd of 47,367 at the Emirates for the North London derby and 11,137 at Bramall Lane for a Sheffield United Championship fixture. The tone then hardens. She contrasts that progress with the men’s World Cup in Qatar and with two examples of abuse and poor governance, the Yates report into systemic sexual and emotional abuse in the NWSL and the jailing of a former Canada and Vancouver Whitecaps coach for offences dating to 1988, saluting the players who spoke out and demanding safe reporting routes. She closes by welcoming the legacy projects finally recognising earlier generations, and by thanking the retiring Jill Scott and Ellen White.