LONDON —
Euro 2022 began with organizers defending the choice of small venues, but 25
days later a record European Championship attendance of 87,192 at Wembley for
the final witnessed England at last win a major international tournament.
اضافة اعلان
The Lionesses’
legacy could change the face of the women’s game in England for future
generations.
A record television
audience for a women’s football match in the UK of 17.4 million tuned in to
watch Sunday’s tense 2-1 victory in extra time over Germany, as Chloe Kelly
scored the winner.
Sarina Wiegman’s
squad changed perceptions on top of winning the hearts of the host nation.
An Ipsos poll
published on Monday found that 44 percent of the British public — and 64
percent of football fans — said they are more interested in watching women’s
football following Euro 2022.
England’s women now
have a platform their predecessors could only dream of and they used it to push
the message of equality off the pitch.
“In most workplaces
across the world, women still have a few more battles to face,” said Captain
Leah Williamson.
“For every change
of judgment or perception or opening the eyes of somebody who views women as
somebody with the potential to be equal to her male counterpart, I think that
makes change in society.”
“That’s a powerful
message that we have the power to send, in a typically male-dominated
environment.”
There remains a
huge income gap for women’s football to close on the men’s game.
Prize money of 16
million euros for the 16 competing teams at Euro 2022 pales in comparison with
the 331 million euros handed out to the 24 nations at the men’s Euro 2020 last
year.
UEFA defended that
gulf by saying they would make a “significant loss” in running the tournament
due to a five-fold increase in spending on infrastructure and facilities.
But a tournament of
record crowds — with total attendance more than doubled from Euro 2017 in the
Netherlands — and TV audiences will ripple around the rest of the continent.
“We expected a lot
but to be honest we didn’t expect so much,” UEFA president
Aleksander Ceferin said at a women’s football forum on Sunday.
“The numbers are
amazing, but it’s not only the numbers that are important. The matches are
great and the technical skills have been unbelievable.
“Maybe some people — sponsors, broadcasters, and
everyone else — should start thinking that it’s worth investing in women’s
football.”
World Cup to come
With less than a year to the start of the 2023 World Cup in Australia and
New Zealand, the Euro has revived some of the momentum for the women’s game
lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2019 World Cup
in France was also seen as a launching pad for the popularity of the women’s
game. However, just a year later, it was often treated as an afterthought as
associations, clubs, and leagues scrambled to get the men’s game back up and
running during lockdowns.
Euro 2022 itself
was supposed to take place in 2021, but was moved back to accommodate a
12-month delay to the men’s Euro 2020.
England’s women did
not play a match for nearly a year between March 2020 and February 2021.
Such a scenario is
now unthinkable with a new generation of girls idolizing the likes of Beth
Mead, Alessia Russo, and Ella Toone just as much as Harry Kane or Raheem
Sterling.
“The moral purpose
of what we have tried to do here in England is just as important as the
business purpose of winning teams,” said the
English Football Association’s
(FA) director of women’s football, Sue Campbell.
“We think we can
improve the lives of girls and women in society by the way we deliver football
in the community and on the international stage.”
Even Queen
Elizabeth II joined in the congratulations to label the Lionesses “an
inspiration for girls and women today, and for future generations”.
The last time
England won a major tournament, at the 1966 World Cup, women’s football was
still banned by the FA.
Now it’s time to thrive has come.
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