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The Corinthians: We Were The Champions

Duration: 1 x 90'

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This revealing film, packed with unseen personal archive, follows the original rebel girls of football who took on the establishment in a decades-long struggle to win not one but two European Cups.

Told for the first time through the ten surviving players, The Corinthians: We Were The Champions reveals the full raucous, rebellious story of a team of working-class girls from Manchester who formed in 1949 in defiance of the FA ban against women.

From a muddy playing field with just a duck pond to wash in, to a packed stadium in France, these pioneering players uncovers the full 20-year battle to that triumphant moment, and the crucial role they played in ensuring women’s football survived the ban to lay the foundations of the modern game.

Packed with unseen personal archive, and told entirely in their own words, this is the missing history of women’s football as you’ve never seen or heard it before – complete with comic animation and a punk girl soundtrack.

Told by forgotten players from a team who are recognised as one of the most successful women’s football teams our country had ever seen…The mighty Corinthians Ladies FC.

Women were banned from playing football in England for 50 years. From 1921 to 1971 the all-male Football Association branded the game ‘unsuitable for females’ and banned women from playing on any affiliated grounds. But some women did play – and to world-class standard.

Formed by former football scout Percy Ashley in 1949, 28 years into the ban, Manchester Corinthians Ladies FC were a team of working-class schoolgirls and office workers who were brought up to believe it was ‘wrong’ for women to play, and had never met another girl who kicked a ball. With no ground, no money, and travelling miles to train, this film explores how they formed a team so good they not only won every match at home but jetted off abroad to become global superstars, winning two unofficial European Cups.

In this film, players who were there on the pitch describe beating Germany to bring a cup home from Europe in 1957, before City or United, and becoming the first women’s team to tour South America in 1960. Key players who played in the tournament recall beating Juventus to win a cup in 1970 that would see them play a leading role in the end of the ban altogether. But not for them a place in the football hall of fame. Not for a women’s team.

Now, for the first time in over 50 years, surviving players from the finest female football team that time forgot tell the real story of the Corinthians on screen, entirely in their own words. Bringing to life the very real 20-year struggle they faced for the right to play. The establishment tried to stop them. The Corinthians: We Were The Champions ensures this team of trailblazing women will always be remembered through the stories of Myra, Anne, Marlene, Pauline, Freda, Whit, Monica, Jean, Jan and Tiny.

Awards:

Grierson Awards 2026 Nominee: Best Sports Documentary

North East International Film Festival 2025 Winner: Best of the Festival (Feature)

For BBC

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