Womens Football

Its young, diverse and passionate fanbase offers a huge opportunity, but too many clubs are only scratching the surface

The Lionesses are simply the most successful England football team in history, winning back-to-back European Championships and becoming the first England senior team to win a major tournament on foreign soil. It is an incredible achievement and one that will reverberate through the women’s game for many years to come.

The head coach, Sarina Wiegman, is simply world class; it’s an overused phrase but absolutely fitting in this case. To reach five major finals in a row (including a European Championship win and a World Cup final with the Netherlands before joining England) is a record that may never be surpassed. She was an inspired choice by Kay Cossington, the former Football Association technical director who targeted her for her ability to build a strong culture and sense of team as much as her obvious tactical acumen.

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Oasis paid tribute to England’s Euro-winning Lionesses during a recent gig at Wembley – with several of the squad in the crowd to witness the shoutout in person.

Oasis paid tribute to England’s Euro-winning Lionesses during a recent gig at Wembley – with several of the squad in the crowd to witness the shoutout in person.

Familiar tones of rage, pain and betrayal that envelop men’s football were missing during England’s joyful run to glory

“You can’t stand their voices? ALL women’s voices?” “Yes.” “Are you married to a woman?” “I am. And she feels the same.” Hmm. To be fair to Dave from Egham, whose name has been changed to protect the confused, the whole setup here was pretty bleak. It was Dave’s destiny a week on from England’s victory at Euro 2025 to find himself going viral after an appearance on LBC radio.

In the clip Dave objects to the sound of all women’s voices, even if they’re Adele or Billie Holiday. Specifically he objects to women talking about women’s sport, which Dave hates because it is being thrown down his throat, and thrown down his throat to the extent he has to ring up a radio station and talk about the women talking about the women’s sport, simply to disentangle its tendrils from his throat, to steal a few gargling, sputtering final breaths.

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Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

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As the Euros soared to greater heights this summer in Switzerland, the same cannot be said for the Copa America Femenina in Ecuador.

A BBC Sport documentary celebrates the history-making England team and retells every step of their Euro 2025 story, all the way through to Chloe Kelly’s winning penalty.

A BBC Sport documentary celebrates the history-making England team and retells every step of their Euro 2025 story, all the way through to Chloe Kelly’s winning penalty.

Attention has quickly turned towards Brazil 2027, but how will Sarina Wiegman’s team evolve before then?

The shiny ticker-tape had not even been cleared from the pitch at St Jakob-Park when the gauntlet was thrown down. As England celebrated their Euro 2025 triumph, King Charles wrote on the royal family’s Instagram account: “Well done, Lionesses. The next task is to bring home the World Cup in 2027 if you possibly can!” No pressure, then.

The short-term future for England players will centre around two things; a holiday – unless you are a National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) player like Jess Carter, who had to fly straight back to the US to play club football – and more accolades, the latest of which came on Friday as the National Football Museum announced every squad member and Sarina Wiegman will all be inducted into their Hall of Fame. More awards will surely follow but, eventually, everyone will catch up with the king’s mindset and focus attention on 2027.

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The US owns a good recent record against Euro 2025 teams, but the transition to a new generation under Emma Hayes could be limiting for now

Sunday in Switzerland, England’s Lionesses clawed their way to a second straight Euro title after defeating the reigning world champions, Spain, 3-1 in a penalty shootout. With a record 1.35m watching stateside, at least one wondered if, in some alternate universe in which they could play in the Euros, they would have won it.

Asked that question on a recent episode of The Women’s Game podcast, US captain and OL Lyonnes midfielder Lindsey Heaps suggested that they could. While debriefing England’s wild quarter-final comeback against Sweden with retired World Cup champion Sam Mewis, Heaps began by noting the difficulty of comparing Emma Hayes’ program in transition to mid-tournament teams: “It’s so hard because we’re obviously missing a lot of players,” she said. “But we have a lot of new, young players, inexperienced players, that are doing so well. I think it would be so hard to say. Also, Emma would fully prepare us for a tournament, and tournament mode. So it’d be a little bit different than what we’ve been doing, and how we’ve been playing.”

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