EURO 2022 proof of women's game growth – Women in Football

EURO 2022 has proved to be a huge success and further underlines the growth and excitement that women’s football provides.

Half a million tickets have been sold according to UEFA, making it the biggest women’s European sport event in history and more than double the number sold for the last edition of the Women’s EURO in the Netherlands in 2017.

The event is being broadcast to almost 200 countries with an estimated live global audience of more than 250 million, a far cry from when England last hosted the event in 2005.

It has helped that the Women’s Super League has gone from strength to strength in recent years with a new TV deal with the BBC and Sky Sports as well as increased investment from Barclays from elite to grassroots level.

According  to a report by EY, the tournament will generate UK£54 million in economic activity for the cities staging matches and the Football Association hopes that event will boost attendances in the Women’s Super League (WSL) to an average of 6,000 spectators by 2024.

Yvonne Harrison became the CEO of Women in Football earlier this year and is passionate about growing the women’s game and women’s representation in the game from grassroots level to the elite.

Women in Football have been running a campaign, #GetOnside, to promote gender equality in the game at a time when its relationship with major organisations such as the Premier League go from strength to strength.

“This is the really exciting thing about the EUROs is that not only are the stadiums attracting great support but you’ve got lots of young girls now who can take that interest in sport and can play from grassroots level through all the FA programmes and they know that they can become the next Beth Mead.” says Ms Harrison.

“The women’s game has come a long way in a short space of time. It only became fully professional in 2018 and sometimes people unfairly compare it to the men’s game

“Obviously there are going to be huge differences. A lot of women were playing in fields with boys teams and on the streets because there were no girls’ teams when they were growing up.

“There is a career open to them which was not there in the same way for current players and that’s so exciting. Particularly with the Lionesses we have marquee players on billboards all over cities across England right now and rightly so.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to go to a lot of games and there have been mixed crowds. Yes there have been a lot of women and children but a lot of men too and everyone is so excited, people are getting behind teams. It feels like a great place to be.”

Ms Harrison credits the Football Association (FA) and sponsors, among others, for the growth of the game with EURO 2022 having 13 official partners, including Heineken, Adidas, Visa, Volkswagen and Hublot.

She added: “We are incredibly fortunate in England with the FA backing of the women’s game, the investment in grassroots and talent pathways. Yes, there is a need for that to be more accessible and in communities where we can show a more diverse range of players coming through the game.

“We have the most competitive league for women in the world with the Women’s Super League and we are seeing women from all over the world coming here because of that.

“It’s great that there is commercial interest in the women’s game, the new TV deal with Sky and the BBC was a really significant moment; and we’ve seen Barclays take on not only the Women’s Super league but also the Championship.

“Barclays sponsor Women in Football as well, that’s how we came to be an organisation with a small number of employees now.

“It’s really important that that investment is sustained beyond the EUROs. We’ve done some cool work with Heineken and Pepsi beyond this period. If I was a brand looking to smartly position myself in a growing market, women’s football is a great place.

“There’s been some really interesting research done that fans of women’s sport are more likely to purchase from that brand and engage with that brand.”

There’s no doubt that women’s football is almost unrecognisable from five or ten years ago.

But Ms Harrison believes that a lot more needs to be done, both on and off the field.

She said: “There are lots of opportunities but it's also very apparent the hills we still have to climb.

“With all of the progress, there are still some disparities in the women’s game when you look at salaries. You might have some earning £20,000 a year and some earning £250,000 a year so there’s a long way to go.

“It’s not only about women playing football. It’s about women refereeing, and more coaches and volunteers and that then translates to more women working in the football industry.

“We need role models on the pitch and off the pitch – we have them in broadcast media, finance, legal and we’re trying to celebrate the successes of our members and tell those stories.

“Often the thing I am asked to speak about is when somebody has made a comment which is implying that women are not as good as men or just sexist comments that are made or about women being more emotional than men and therefore conceding goals in quick succession.

“In our member survey from two years ago, 66% talked about either experiencing or witnessing sexist behaviour in the workplace but only 12% felt comfortable enough to report that.

“There is something culturally, within the football industry and beyond where people aren’t necessarily feeling as included as they could be and don’t feel supported enough when they do speak out about these things.

“There is sexism and misogyny and this undertone within society and from a workforce point of view, we’ve seen a lot of positivity and a lot of strides from organisations wanting to make a difference and wanting to make a difference in terms of gender equality.

“The Premier League are currently working on a new gender equality strategy and the EFL (English Football League) are launching a strategy shortly around diversity and inclusion, so these are big institutions that are doing thing and that’s really important.”

For Ms Harrison, it is these challenges where Women in Football seeks to make a difference.

She concludes: “Visibility, influence and impact, those are the important things for me.

“How visible are we as an organisation and how much are we influencing the industry and how do we impact the agenda and policy.

“We need to work with our members so that they are as strong as they can be and with organisations within football to shift the dial with regards to gender equality.”