Inside the Lionesses' World Cup base: From Yorkshire Tea to Nike craft stations

FROM ENGLAND'S BASECAMP- A painting of all 23 Lionesses as children in football kit adorns the wall of England's base camp, an ode to the players' grassroots beginning, reminding them of where they first started as England opened the doors to their basecamp for the very first time.

"It feels like Lionesses, and it feels like us"

- Kay Cossington, The FA

A giant balloon wall replicating an England flag welcomes those into the section of the Crowne Plaza hotel separated for the exclusive use by the Lionesses as their base during their time in Australia.

Never before have the FA opened up access to see inside basecamps for either the men's or women'smen's teams. 10,551 miles away from Wembley, they have created the optimal 'home away from home' for the 23 players and 30 members of staff in partnership with Nike.

After searching the 'length and breadth' of the country, the FA settled on the Central Coast to set up their base for the remainder of the Women's World Cup - team was originally staying on the east coast until their first game in Brisbane. And from the entrance to the secluded section of the camp, England have fully taken over, adorning the walls, stairs and hallways with positive imagery, quotes direct from the players. There is even a special Harry Ward commissioned piece of all 23 players illustrated as children as an ode to why they wear the badge.

"The significance of this painting is everything that we've been trying to do for many months and years, which is around connecting us back to our history," Kay Cossington, the FA Women's Technical Director, said as she led a tour around the basecamp an hour north of Sydney.

"It's about connecting the players back to their grassroots clubs, and it's also honouring how important grassroots football is to the journeys of our professional players, and I think we all fell in love with this painting when we first saw it."

Anja van Ginhoven, the FA Women's General Manager, added, "It's also a constant reminder, asking yourself the question, 'Why did I actually start playing football?' Because that little girl just loves the game," adding more meaning behind the painting that the FA staff have quoted as their favourite thing in the basecamp.

Adding personalisation to nearly every element of the 4-star hotel, including the coffee, a state-of-the-art machine that prints pictures on the tops of the player's drinks with edible ink, the on-call baristas revealed they have made nearly 40 cups this morning alone.

Downtime has been a main focus of FA's initiative, something van Ginhoven said was player-led consideration.

"It’s not our choice to do it like this; it’s a constant conversation with them [the players]. ‘How can we optimise your downtime?’ ‘What do you want to do to switch off?’" she said, revealing that the creative activities are what the players love most during their time away from training or meetings.

Kitted out with a Nike-sponsored craft area, where players and staff alike can paint by numbers, make bracelets and draw, among other things. In the meal room, a large bag of Yorkshire tea takes stock in the top corner, while the whole space is decorated with similar red and white quote panels, seeing staff and players intertwine, operating as one unit.

Naming various rooms after legends of the women's game, the 'Scott' room is an ode to Euros legend Jill Scott became the home of the player's game room. Lighted with calming blue LEDs, the players can choose between playing video games, watching television or playing ping pong to keep them entertained away from the football pitch.

In a polar corner of the game room, Ash Barty's autobiography, Emily Henry's Happy Place and the entire Harry Potter collection make up some of the makeshift library whilst the wall behind, decorated with outlines of doodles is free to be coloured in as a de-stressing activity.

Four floors up is the home of Lionesses Down Under the FA's daily live show hosted by Jill Scott and Kyle Walker and their personal diary room, where fans are able to keep up to date through social media while the team lives Down Under.

As much of the tournament focus, a plaque acknowledging the traditional landowners lay on display as the FA continue the importance of being connected to the culture as a key focus of their time in Australia. On matchday two against Denmark, the captain will wear the armband for aboriginal people.

Despite the team consistently moving around for the tournament, it was imperative to have one longer-term base. Logistically, it was impossible to make a home of several places throughout, choosing to focus their efforts on making a single home that they would use throughout the entire tournament. FIFA would only offer the basecamps for the initial group stage; the FA decided to front the cost to keep the base for the entire time they are Down Under.

But the timeline of this project far pre-dates the arrival of the Lionesses in Australia on 5 July.

In a process that began back in December 2021, discussions began with FIFA after previewing all the options of all the possible available basecamps. Of course, not knowing which group England would be drawn in then, Kay Cossington had a list of first choices for different possible places the team could have ended up. This was their first choice if they were drawn in Group D.

The FA team came over for the first time after confirming selection with FIFA in May 2022. From that point, they started to build the camp, learning from the time the team spent the at the Lensbury Hotel during Euro 2022.

Cossington described the advancement as 'night and day' compared to the original basecamps that were in use in the earliest days of her 18-year tenure with England.

"I've seen it grow and evolve incredibly, but this, I truly feel, has gone another step, another level, another mile, and I think that's again testimony to how the game has grown," she said with pride, describing the effort that has gone into creating the camp.

"The home Euros was probably one I really remember vividly. We never had anything like this; we did the best we could with the resources we had at the time. You were printing things off yourself and putting them on doors, the banners, the pop-ups; you’d carry them around with you."

As the Lionesses campaign continues, currently with one win under their belt after a 1-0 victory over Haiti, the Terrigal base, an hour north of Sydney will play home to the Lionesses for the rest of their time in summer tournament, facing Denmark in the next group game on Friday.

READ THE LATEST LIONESSES WOMEN'S WORLD CUP 2023 NEWS HERE