Now the dust on 2022 UEFA Women’s Euro has settled a week later, here is a look at lessons learned across the tournament.
In a tournament which has seen many amazing moments from Alessia Russo’s back-heel strike against Sweden to Norway’s unexpected continued decline, we can’t just judge the tournament solely on the emotive feelings savoured on the pitch because what happens off-pitch matters just as much.
From inspiring future generations to raising serious questions about how best to embrace and maximise potential reach of young demographics, there is a lot of themes to break down, digest and build on in order to ensure that 2022 UEFA Women’s Euro has a long-lasting legacy.
There however is just one place to start in terms of the various lessons learned across the last month, as football finally came home and remained on home soil beyond the final.
56 Years of National Footballing Hurt is Over
The most obvious lesson that English football fans can take from this tournament is that 56 years of national footballing hurt on the international stage is finally over, following a vibrant campaign from the Lionesses who played entertaining football throughout.
This squad also had the psychological advantage of having seen their male counter-parts go close last summer – only to be beaten on penalties by Italy in the Men’s Final – which certainly provided additional motivation and belief that they could exceed their performance.
It is also worth considering that the nostalgic euphoria surrounding 1966 also naturally would of played a part, given the wave that the national team as a whole have rode for the last year following the men’s run and arrival of Sarina Wiegman who has ensured the Lionesses are unbeaten in last 11 months.
This squad certainly would of been aware of how this tournament on home soil represented an opportunity to not only inspire a new generation of fans, yet offered a chance of redemption after England’s last home tournament in 2005 Women’s Euro ended in a Group Stage exit.
Yet they managed to banish those years of hurt whilst setting various new records from 87,192 fans attending the Final at Wembley, to naming the same starting line-up for every match and even scoring more goals than any other team.
Role Models
If there is one massive positive to come out of this tournament – it is that females in England and across Europe will have new relatable role models to look up to, because no matter how far each team got – every player played their part in highlighting how talented women’s football is.
Add in the fact that majority of teams lacked the dirtiness of the men’s game and didn’t make a molehill out of fouls, it further sends a message of how football should be played maturely which young people should aspire to instead of rolling around in a simulated dive like Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka.
Now if we look at the story behind each individual player, it is notable that many of the players have relatable stories from working in a coffee shop to Domino’s to studying for University degrees and more, which us members of general public can relate to on different levels.
One notable difference between the women and men’s sides of football is that the former is more LGBTQ+ inclusive, with many players not defined by their sexuality which is reflected in how fans embrace women’s football without any of the negativity associated with men’s football.
Every player who participated in this tournament are therefore fantastic role models for future generations in leading the way for women to play football regardless of their own sexuality, which raises serious questions about the state of attitudes within the men’s game.
The Kids Are All Right
This tournament saw 95 goals scored in total, which set a new record for most goals scored in a single UEFA Women’s Euro tournament, yet we saw evidence that the younger generation of players called up are already capable of delivering goals.
Whether it was England’s Ella Toone delivering a chipped strike to open the scoring in the Final or Netherlands’ Romee Leuchter netting a late brace against Switzerland in Group C, this tournament has shown that the inexperienced players are already capable of success.
Although stats naturally show that those aged 24 or over have been dominant – excluding own goals – with 67 goals overall to the 23 goals netted by players aged 23 or under, the latter age group has produced 24.21% of the total goals scored which is pretty impressive nevertheless.
I therefore feel confident that those set of young stars will be ready to propel the sport to new heights by the time the 2025 UEFA Women’s Euro rolls around, which could well see the 100 goals in a single tournament barrier breached if the influx of attacking quality continues to rise.
The biggest challenge that lies ahead though is nurturing the generations to follow because 37% of schools currently lack basic provision to encourage girls to play football, hence the Lionesses’ pledge for change to be instilled into the education sector by the UK Government.
Should that level of provision be widened and made compulsory within all schools, there will be no limits to what our younger generations can achieve if pursue a professional footballing career and continue to be inspired by current players.
Need To Maximise Youth Reach Potential
Whilst it is easy to judge a tournament purely on the on-pitch quality, we shouldn’t forget the role of spectators because it is impossible to ignore how younger generations embraced the tournament, either with families or large social groups.
It is therefore imperative that the sport seizes upon this opportunity to reach out and inspire today’s difficult-to-reach youth demographics, whether it is through local football programmes – in and out of school – or ensuring they can attend matches of local clubs.
Most women’s football matches however takes place on Sundays when the British transport system don’t often run a regular service depending where you live in the UK, which actually can make it difficult for people without cars to travel to matches unless willing to pay high taxi fares or can get free lifts.
Those transport issues are therefore bound to affect the ability of clubs in attracting young fans if the parents lack transport to take them to matches, or are unwilling to let children attend via public transport alone in friendship groups.
Another issue also lies with Sky selecting WSL matches for evening kick-offs of around 6:45-7pm on Sundays, which is no good for young supporters of away teams in those selected matches especially if have school on the Monday morning and can also be tied into transport issues too.
Fair enough if it’s a local derby as is the case for Liverpool’s clash against Merseyside rivals – Everton as most fans of both clubs will be able to get there and home by 10pm at latest, whereas it won’t be possible for a fixture like Manchester City vs Arsenal for example if an evening kick-off.
Questions therefore need to be asked about how best to maximise the potential reach of the youth demographics, especially off the back of a cracking tournament and ahead of 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup which conveniently falls during the British summer holidays next year.
Where Do Lionesses Go From Here?
Now that the Lionesses have captured the attention of British audiences, the biggest challenge now lies in consolidating their legacy, especially with heightened expectations bound to creep into the game heading into next summer’s World Cup where further success will be expected.
One psychological aspect which served this squad well throughout the tournament is their ‘in the moment’ mentality approach, yet they’re now national icons which brings new pressures and expectations especially for the young players who will know more is now set to be expected of them.
The key task for Wiegman plus individual clubs now will be to ensure that they maintain their humble grounded personalties, whilst continuing to develop their game to their absolute peak in coming years against a backdrop of future talent chasing places in the England squad.
As for their immediate legacy, the players can only continue to do what they’ve been doing in terms of striving to inspire young people, as it is now up to the FA, UK Government, clubs,, schools and local authorities to work to create footballing opportunities for young girls and women.
Current and new fans are also playing their part with increased interest across local clubs across the country and England’s planned friendly against USA in October sold out within 24 hours, underlining the immediate impact of the Lionesses’ success but that shouldn’t serve as the end but more the start.
Should a concerted effort be made by those behind-the-scenes of the sport to ensure change happens to build on these legacy foundations, there is no limits as to how far England can go in matching advanced countries like USA and Germany in coming years.
Failure consequently isn’t an option because if the country fails to grasp this opportunity to provide equal chances in football for all genders, serious questions needs to be asked across various sectors – including at very top of UK Government following the Lionesses’ pleas to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.
One striking line in that letter was intentionally highlighted in bold and it perfectly sums up how the squad and those involved in football views these coming months and years in terms of pushing for equality and progress, “… we see this as only the beginning.”
Well this is certainly just the start but everyone needs to step up and play their part in ensuring that this isn’t an wasted dawn for women’s football across the country.
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