While Gill was connecting with her love of playing, organised women\u2019s football was still banned in England in the 1960s \u2013 a ban that started in 1921 before being lifted in 1971. <\/p>\n
For Gill, her love of the game felt very close to home: \u201cMy dad captained the local football team and three of my brothers played locally to a decent standard. One of my brothers did boxing as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents were very encouraging. If they saw me or my brothers taking an interest in something, they made sure we could do it. The love grew through family and friends.\u201d <\/p>\n
Soon enough, playing on the green near her house was not enough, and Gill wanted a taste of competitive, organised football. She had to creatively circumvent some barriers in order to do so. <\/p>\n
\n“Nothing was going to stop me from playing. I knew I would find a way.” <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cTo play in a team I had to pretend to be a boy. My friend\u2019s dad started a boys\u2019 team and they asked if I would play. To be part of a team and put on a kit was amazing because there weren\u2019t any other girls in my area playing. My team-mates just called me Bill instead of Gill and I played unbeknownst to the other teams.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, things changed for young Gill when her cover was blown by an opposing team. \u201cIn one game the other team saw that I was a girl and said they wouldn\u2019t play if I was playing. Their coach agreed and that was it \u2013 I wasn\u2019t allowed to play again. I was only eight or nine and I couldn\u2019t play in a team again until I was 12.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, Sayell\u2019s love of the game was not going to be denied by red tape and dismissive attitudes: \u201cNothing was going to stop me from playing. I knew I would find a way. <\/p>\n
“If you love the game you just want to play. I was very hurt because I knew I was good enough to play with the boys and the boys in my team wanted me to. I felt rejected, but I just loved it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n Salvation was close at hand. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy sister-in-law told me there was a girls\u2019 team around ten or 15 miles from Aylesbury called Thame and my dad would drive me there so I could play for them. There were no age categories \u2013 I was 12 and playing with 20-year-olds. <\/p>\n
“But playing with the boys gave me a good grounding so I could play with older girls without problem.\u201d Sayell achieved an extraordinary landmark very early in her career. At the age of 14, she was selected to represent the British Independents Team at the 1971 Women\u2019s World Cup. <\/p>\n
The tournament was organised by the Federation of Independent European Female Football (FIEFF) rather than FIFA \u2013 it would be 1991 before FIFA would organise an official Women\u2019s World Cup. British Independents were an unsanctioned team put together by the trailblazing women\u2019s football coach Harry Batt and his wife June.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was playing for Thame against Foden Ladies and there were about 200 people watching that day. Harry Batt was watching; he approached my dad and asked if I would be able to come to Mexico to play in the World Cup. My dad asked me and I said I would love to. <\/p>\n
“That game was at the end of June in 1971; on August 5 we boarded the plane to Mexico. It was quite a whirlwind; I had never been abroad and didn\u2019t have a passport, which my dad had to sort for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n All this is extraordinary enough but it\u2019s even more extraordinary when you remember that Sayell was just 14. \u201cI had chaperones in Mexico, and Harry and his wife June were my guardians. But at home we didn\u2019t even have a house phone so I couldn\u2019t contact my parents while I was out there. <\/p>\n
“My parents trusted Harry, they knew I wanted to go and they wouldn\u2019t stop me doing what I wanted to do. They were behind me 100 per cent.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sayell says she had two to three training sessions with her England team-mates before the tournament started. The games attracted huge crowds: \u201cWe played in the Azteca Stadium in front of 90,000 people. We had no idea that would happen and it would be so big.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because the team and the tournament were unsanctioned, upon her return, Sayell received a three-month ban from the FA. Later on, her Thame team began to break up and in 1976, along with many other players from that team, Sayell moved across to Aylesbury Ladies, who were coached by her father Bob. In 1987, things changed. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad managed Aylesbury and my parents were moving abroad to Menorca,\u201d Gill recalls. \u201cThere was a girl called Allie Clement who worked alongside Vic Akers at Arsenal in the Community. <\/p>\n
“Vic was looking to start a women\u2019s team in the local community and Allie mentioned Aylesbury were going to be managerless and had a strong core of players. Vic had a look and a chat with my dad and it went from there.” <\/p>\n
Arsenal, guided by Akers and Alan Sefton from Arsenal in the Community, took Aylesbury over and they became Arsenal. <\/p>\n
\n“Vic installed that professionalism in us from the start; that when you wear the shirt you represent Arsenal and that’s a great privilege.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cI had my daughter in February 1987 and pulled an Arsenal shirt on for the first time in July,\u201d Sayell says. \u201cTo pull on an Arsenal shirt was something special. We were a good side at Aylesbury, but this was such a big jump forward for women\u2019s football to be associated with a professional club.\u201d <\/p>\n
Gill says that founder and coach Akers\u2019 role in turning Aylesbury into Arsenal went well beyond administration. <\/p>\n
\u201cVic instilled that professionalism in us from the start: that when you wear the shirt you represent Arsenal and that\u2019s a great privilege. The way the team played and held themselves was totally different. We knew we belonged and we knew we were representing such a prestigious club. We could see it was building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sayell won Player of the Season in Arsenal Ladies\u2019 first campaign in 1987\/88 playing as a sweeper. She views the modern version of Arsenal Women with a great deal of pride. \u201cThe jump from Aylesbury to Arsenal was big, but when I look at where we are now it\u2019s another big jump. I said to Vic recently, \u2018This is what you created.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\n \n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think at the time we could ever have imagined that this would happen and now I feel even more privileged to have been a part of this journey. I am very proud of the girls in the squad now and the support is crazy. I don\u2019t think there is anything else like it in the world.”<\/p>\n
Sayell played for the first six years of Arsenal\u2019s existence until 1993, when the Gunners won the treble in their first season in the top flight. She says it was obvious that the club was set up for success. \u201cFulham, Millwall, Southampton, Donny Belles were all great teams too, but girls wanted to come to Arsenal. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe quality of the players that wanted to join was incredible because they knew the set-up with Vic was going to be so professional. Vic put in so much time and effort. He turned down jobs to stay with the team and bring it forwards and build it. The team was building into something special and everyone treated it seriously.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sadly, Sayell\u2019s playing career ended in 1993, just as Arsenal were ushering in an era of dominance. \u201cI twisted my knee in the JVC ball court and ruptured my ACL. I was 34 and towards the end of my career. Back then we didn\u2019t have the facilities to rehab \u2013 it would have been on the NHS. <\/p>\n
“At the age I was I didn\u2019t have the resources to rebuild and the girls that were coming through were younger and quicker; it would have been tough to compete for a first team place. It was a tough decision to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n Sayell stayed with the club initially. \u201cI helped out with the reserves for a while, but I couldn\u2019t get into the coaching side. I had to be out there doing it and, because I couldn\u2019t, it was tough to be around it.\u201d After that, Gill\u2019s connection with women\u2019s football was not totally severed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI moved to Donegal in Ireland. The FAI found out I had played for Arsenal and they had a programme called Soccer Sisters, so the FAI asked if I would coach some of the young Irish girls. I did that for a few years. Then I moved down to Devon and lost touch with the game a little.\u201d <\/p>\n
In recent years, both Arsenal and the FA have re-established contact with Sayell, there was even a documentary about the 1971 World Cup team, called Copa 71, produced by Venus and Serena Williams. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in Milton Keynes now and I\u2019m falling back in love with the game. I\u2019ve been getting to games at Arsenal and with England. I love going. I\u2019m amazed by the standard \u2013 they are true athletes now. I feel like I was born too soon. I wish I could be out there now!\u201d <\/p>\n
\n \n<\/article>\n<\/article>\n However, Sayell insists there is no envy when she sees the modern day incarnation of Arsenal Women, regularly playing in front of tens of thousands of fans at the Emirates. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of where my football career went and it\u2019s so nice to have that recognition now and for the current players to know the history too. We\u2019re not jealous, we\u2019re amazed, and I couldn\u2019t be prouder of them all.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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