Former Wales manager Jayne Ludlow believes the Football Association of Wales (FAW) women’s set up was not serious about qualifying for a major tournament when she was in charge, until the squad “shocked everyone” in the campaign for the 2019 World Cup.
Her team came within one game of reaching the finals in France five years ago but lost their final decisive match against England at Rodney Parade to miss out.
But speaking to a new BBC documentary series ahead of Wales’ Euro 2025 play-off semi-final against Slovakia, Iconic: The Rise of the Women in Red, Ludlow insists that was never a realistic goal when she was first appointed because of how wide her responsibilities were.
“If the purpose was to employ me to get us to a big tournament then nobody should have ever thought that it was suitable to give me the age groups [as well],” Ludlow said.
Ludlow, who had one-year’s experience of coaching with Women’s Super League (WSL) side Reading, added: “Any knowledgeable person in football development or elite football would just laugh at you.
“I was naive, I was thankful for the opportunity to learn and develop but I had no acknowledgement of the challenges ahead and how to try and balance development and senior football, they’re completely different projects.
“The decision you make on one camp compared to the other is completely different, the preparation should be completely different and we had to try and balance that with a really small inexperienced staff group.
“So, was the ambition to qualify? I’ll be honest, for me it was this thing out there and because of my whole upbringing as an Arsenal football player, we would never sit in a changing room and say about trophies we want to win in a season, we’d focus on all of our processes.
“I honestly believe the reality of how well we did after four years in the system and building the system shocked everyone.
“It shocked the chief executive because he pretty much doubled my salary after it.”
Wales went through the entire qualification campaign for the 2019 World Cup without conceding a goal until that final match.
They had earned a goalless draw against England at St Mary’s, Southampton in what Ludlow described at the time as being the best result in Wales’ history.
“We went through a qualifying campaign with seven clean sheets,” she added.
“I don’t talk about it now and I work and I try and develop young coaches and when I say that they’re like, what?
“Yeah, actually we did that, as a team of people we did that and we blew people’s minds in the game, it was a case of what the heck are they doing, it’s extraordinary.
“Because it wasn’t a case of they’ve nearly qualified, they should then qualify [the next time], football never works like that, it’s looking at the context of everything.
“Who were you playing, where were you playing, what’s all the support system?
“You add in that our small group of staff were looking after all the age groups as well so our male equivalent was having down-time between national team camps, we weren’t.
“We were literally off one plane and on another plane, one year we must have done 200 days on camp.
“Bonkers, absolutely bonkers.
“So to then actually get to a point where we were one game away from qualifying and having the world number one or number two at the time and getting a point in Southampton was just mind blowing.”
Ludlow stood down as Wales boss in 2021, replaced by Gemma Grainger who became the country’s first ever full-time manager focused only on the senior side.
Since then, the FAW have significantly increased their investment in the women’s game and the women’s national team and also agreed an equal pay deal for the women’s players to earn parity with their male counterparts.
“When I came in, there had certainly been a movement towards investing in it and I’d like to think over the last couple of years that we’ve really gone further and further,” said current chief executive Noel Mooney.
“We treat the women’s game like a start-up almost because it hadn’t had that investment historically.
“Now we’re investing in it very heavily, I think we’re one of the highest spending national associations as a percentage of our turnover with the women’s national team and we’re really proud of that because it’s deserved.
“We need to invest in high performance to qualify for Euros which we haven’t yet, to qualify for World Cups which we haven’t yet, which the men have had.
“They’ve had the investment, they’ve had the qualifications, the women haven’t yet and we need to invest heavily and invest well to make sure they’ve got all the things they need to make sure that there’s no excuses for not qualifying for Euros and for World Cups.”
Under current head coach Rhian Wilkinson, Wales take on Slovakia over two legs this month, the winners to face either Georgia or Republic of Ireland in the play-off final, a potential chance to qualify for their first ever major tournament, Euro 2025 in Switzerland next summer.
They will though be without midfielder Sophie Ingle for the play-offs after she suffered a serious knee injury while Ceri Holland and Jess Fishlock are fitness doubts.
“I’d love to think they can do it this time,” Ludlow added.
“I think the stars are aligned in many ways but there are lots of challenges.
“The development from a Uefa perspective over the last few years means that more teams can qualify so the system is very different.
“But even though there’s more teams qualifying, there’s more teams around the world and within Uefa that are investing in the women’s game as well.
“So whereas many years ago you’d look at another smaller nation and go, this should be an easy three points, it’s not necessarily the case these days.
“International football is challenging whatever team you’re coming up against and Rhian Wilkinson will know that and her staff will know that.
“So sometimes you need a bit of luck.”