A TEENAGER who successfully petitioned Nike to sell Mary Earps replica shirts appeared on TV show Lorraine to discuss the company’s u-turn decision to put them on sale.
Nike confirmed that they would make a “limited” quantity of shirts available to buy following fan backlash during the tournament.
Over 152,000 people signed 16-year-old Emmy Somauroo’s petition for Nike to put England’s Women’s goalkeeper shirts on sale after the manufacturer confirmed they would not be available to buy during the World Cup.
Earps, 30, said in an interview with The Guardian prior to the World Cup that Nike’s decision not to make the shirt available to buy was “hurtful” and “a very scary message that’s being sent to goalkeepers worldwide that “you’re not important”.
Emmy, told Christine Lampard that she felt she “had to do something” after reading Earps’ interview prior to the World Cup detailing her disappointment at the shirt not being on sale.
Emmy said: “I think after we read the article [in which] Mary spoke…about how upset she felt herself…we felt like we had to do something.
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“I like to show as much appreciation and support to the players who are making the women’s game what it is today, and to think that Mary wasn’t able to see our support, without her fans in the stands wearing her shirt…made me upset to think she’s felt left out.”
Emmy said she wanted to do something to “show how everyone’s so proud of” Earps’ achievements.
Earps was in the team of the tournament for England’s Euro 2022 victory and won the golden glove at this year’s World Cup.
It was not the first time Emmy has campaigned for women’s football.
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She successfully engineered a campaign to allow girls at her school to play football after they had previously been banned.
Asked what she would like to see from Nike now, Emmy said: “an apology for Mary would be nice.”
She also added that she would like goalkeeper shirts for all national teams manufactured by Nike to be made available.
Nike’s announcement yesterday said: “Nike has secured limited quantities of goalkeeper jerseys for England, US, France, and the Netherlands to be sold through the federation websites over the coming days, and we are also in conversations with our other federation partners.
“We recognise that during the tournament we didn’t serve those fans who wished to show their passion and support to the squad’s goalkeepers.”
“We are committed to retailing women’s goalkeeping jerseys for major tournaments in the future.”
A similar statement was made after the women’s Euros last year but the manufacturer failed to deliver on its promise.
Earps was desperate to find a solution to the shirt row during the tournament and even offered to help pay Nike to fund production herself.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
