Women's Football in the UK: How the Game Has Changed Since Euro 2022 — and What's Next

When England's Lionesses beat Germany 2-1 at Wembley on 31 July 2022, winning the European Championship before a crowd of 87,192 — the largest ever for a European Championship final — the general assumption was that the moment would mark a significant cultural turning point for women's football in England.

Four years on, it is possible to measure whether that assumption was correct. The answer is: yes, substantially, with some important caveats.

The Numbers

The headline metrics for women's football in England are genuinely impressive.

Attendances: The Women's Super League averaged just over 5,600 per game in the 2025–26 season. That is almost double the 2021–22 average and around three times the pre-pandemic 2018–19 figure. Chelsea Women's record attendance at Stamford Bridge (over 38,000 for a Champions League match in 2025) and Arsenal Women's record at the Emirates (41,800 in their Champions League semi-final against Barcelona in 2026) demonstrate what the top clubs can achieve with the right match and the right marketing effort.

Grassroots participation: FA-registered women and girl players reached 2.4 million in 2026 — up 45% since Euro 2022 and up from around 900,000 in 2018. Schools participation (football on PE curriculum for girls) has grown; local clubs report long waiting lists for juniors. The conversion of a tournament win into visible female football role models has measurable effects on who tries the sport.

Broadcast and commercial: The WSL's current broadcast deal with Sky Sports and BBC Sport is worth £8.5 million per year — a meaningful increase from the sub-£1 million rights fees of 2018, though still a fraction of the Premier League's £3 billion-plus annual rights income. Commercial sponsorship of WSL clubs and the England women's team has grown substantially — Nike, Barclays (the WSL title sponsor) and a range of brands have significantly increased women's football investment.

What Actually Changed After 2022

The Euro 2022 effect was real, but understanding what specifically changed is more useful than simply noting that things improved.

Media normalisation: Before 2022, women's football coverage in mainstream sports media was episodic — tournament coverage and little else. The consistent daily/weekly coverage that normalises sport (the Monday morning match analysis, the transfer gossip, the manager quotes) was absent. After 2022, Sky Sports in particular significantly expanded its WSL coverage to match what audiences demonstrated they would watch. This normalisation is self-reinforcing: more coverage creates more casual fans, who justify more coverage.

Visible aspiration for young players: The generation of girls currently aged 8–14 have grown up with the Lionesses as a visible, successful, celebrated elite team. The pathway from grassroots to professional sport is visible in a way it was not before. Players like Lauren James, Alessia Russo and Maya Le Tissier are known to young players in a way that previous generations of England women's players were not.

Investment in facilities: Several WSL clubs have made significant infrastructure investments — in training grounds, academies and stadium capacity — driven partly by UEFA's requirements for Women's Champions League participation and partly by the increased commercial case for investment. Arsenal's investment in their women's academy and training facility is the most visible example, but similar investments are occurring across the top six.

The Gap That Remains

The celebration of growth should not obscure the significant structural gaps that remain.

Pay. Elite WSL players earn between £200,000 and £400,000 per year at the top clubs. The Premier League median salary is approximately £3.5 million. The rationale for this gap — different audience sizes, different commercial revenues — is factually accurate. The appropriate response to the gap is to continue growing the women's game, which is happening. But it should be acknowledged rather than papered over.

Pyramid depth. Below the WSL, the women's football pyramid — Championship, Tier 3, regional leagues — remains significantly under-resourced. Players outside the WSL are frequently semi-professional or amateur, working full-time jobs alongside football training. The depth of professional opportunity that sustains elite men's football across the pyramid does not yet exist for women.

Media parity at major outlets. While WSL coverage has grown at specialist sports media, women's football coverage as a percentage of total football coverage at major tabloids and broadsheet sports desks remains significantly below its viewership share. The structural assumption that football reporting means men's football is slower to change than broadcast and commercial metrics suggest.

Euro 2025: The Staging Post

England hosted the Women's Euro 2025 tournament in July and August 2025 across ten venues, with Wembley as the final venue. The tournament — England reaching the semi-finals before being knocked out by Spain, who won the tournament — further embedded women's football in public consciousness. Aggregate attendance across the tournament exceeded 600,000; 2025 was the first Women's Euros to sell out stadiums months in advance as a default rather than an exception.

The 2026 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will be the next major staging post. England enter the tournament as one of the top four ranked teams in the world, with a squad that has aged into its peak years since the Euro 2022 squad.

The trajectory of women's football in England — and across the UK — is genuinely positive. The question is less whether growth will continue and more how to structurally embed the growth so it does not depend on tournament highs to sustain momentum.