Euro 2022: How women’s football has grown in just 50 years ahead of the European Championship

By the time Pele helped lead a star-studded Brazil team to World Cup glory in 1970, men’s football had established itself as the true global game.

Brazil’s 1970 side had become cultural sporting icons still widely celebrated today and the men’s World Cup was box office – underlined by the near 110,000 that watched the 4-1 final victory over Italy at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico.

Meanwhile, in the women’s international competition…well… there wasn’t one, at least nothing outside of unofficial World Cups being played during the early 1970s.

In fact the first official international women’s match recognised by FIFA had not even been played, even though countries had still been contesting matches against each other during this period.

That wouldn’t come until two years later when France defeated Holland 4-0 – a full century after the men’s game at international level got off the ground when England and Scotland played out a draw in Glasgow.

As far as the game in England was concerned, a ban on women’s football at Football League grounds had only been lifted a year prior to 1972 – 50 years after it had come into place on the ludicrous basis that ‘…the game of football was quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.’

But as we head into the summer’s European Championship, the women’s game has never looked healthier. Euro 2022 will showcase 16 teams across Europe and will end with a sell-out final at Wembley.

It was only 10 years ago the men’s equivalent was working on the same template and just shows the rapid development of the women’s side of the game in just 50 years.

Unlike the men’s game, it was the European Championship and not the World Cup that got proper competition rolling in 1984…sort of.

Throughout the 1970s, England, Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and Yugoslavia were also playing matches and talks were held to launch an international tournament.

Eventually 16 teams took part in a Competition for National Women’s Teams in 1984. Although recognised by UEFA, it did not have half of the UEFA associations entering and thus could not be granted championship status. It is widely regarded though as the first European Championship.

Only four teams featured in the finals of the competition. England were among them.

While today their group matches at Euro 2022 that include the opener against Austria at Old Trafford have sold out, back in 1984 they barely attracted 1,000 supporters to Crewe’s Gresty Road for their semi-final against Denmark.

Despite winning the semi-final over two legs, England would lose the final to Sweden on penalty kicks following two legs, with their defeat taking place in front of just 2,500 spectators at Luton’s Kenilworth Road on a pitch that resembled little more than a mudbath.

However, not even the matches’ format were on par with the men’s at this stage. For instance halves were only 35 minutes long and even the footballs were a smaller size four instead of the professional size fives used today.

But the tournament was still a success and had come off the back of Italy’s Serie A and France’s Division 1 Feminine being launched a decade previously to lead the growth of the women’s game in Europe.  

However, these factors were rapidly addressed by the time the next competition, hosted and won by Norway, was played three years later – with halves increased to 40 minutes and the size five ball being used.

By 1991, more than half of the UEFA associations were entering, enough for the competition to become known as the European Championship, with 45-minute halves also now being played.

This was also the year of the first official World Cup held in China and the 12-team finals were won by the United States. Not even 20 years after the first official match, the women’s game now had expanded to have UEFA and FIFA recognised competitions. England too established its Premier division.

Germany and Norway led the European game during the early 1990s before the former wrestled control. By 1997, the Euros had doubled to eight teams, one year on from the Olympics featuring women’s football for the first time at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Now, though, focus was put on developing the youth and domestic structure within countries. In 1998 Denmark won the inaugural Under 18 tournament, before it changed to an Under 19 tournament four years later – with a UEFA Women’s Cup established the same year at club level for teams to compete for across Europe.

In England, five years after the FA launched a plan to develop the game from grassroots to elite level in 1997, football became the top participation sport for girls and women – three years ahead of schedule as it started to grow exponentially throughout the continent.

England hosted the Euros in 2005 and by now interest had rapidly grown two decades after the first championship. A record 29,092 watched the Lionessess defeat Finland 3-2 in their opening group game at the Etihad Stadium, where Karen Carney scored a stoppage time winner, with 2.9million watching on BBC Two.

Although England would bow out in the group stage, the eventual final played at Ewood Park still featured 21,000 fans as Germany defeated old rivals Norway 3-1 to win the competition for the sixth time in seven editions.

Interest was rapidly growing, to the extent that the Euros were expanded to 12 teams in 2009 – with Germany of course winning again after hosting the competition as they defeated England 6-2 in the final.

The English game would change a year later with the introduction of the Women’s Super League (WSL) to replace the Premier Division that had largely been dominated by Arsenal during its 19-year run.

The Gunners were among the first teams to run a professional side and became the first team outside of Germany or Sweden to win the Women’s Cup in 2007, two years before increasing entry levels saw it renamed the Champions League. But their dominance heading into the 2010s in England would subside slightly as more teams started to grow their women’s teams, including Chelsea and Manchester City.

Powerhouses Germany hosted the 2011 World Cup and by now on the eve of the tournament, popular German newspapers were headlining the national side’s stars on the front page in support. 

The hosts’ opening game against Canada drew a European record of 73,680 fans and much of the 16-team tournament would average around 25,000 – the final itself without Germany saw Japan stun the United States on penalties in front of just under 50,000 in Frankfurt.

Momentum carried through to the London 2012 Olympics where 80,203 saw USA gain revenge over Japan for their World Cup loss by taking the gold medal at Wembley.

France, one of the pioneers of the domestic game, were also starting to see the sport flourish, with Lyon’s second straight Champions League success in 2012 drawing in 50,212 in Munich against Frankfurt.

The sport has continued to expand over the last decade. The World Cup increased to 24 teams in 2015, while the Euros extended to its current format of 16 teams during the last tournament held in Holland five years ago. 

Attendances are increasing with them. This summer’s Euros has sold 450,000 tickets – double the amount sold at Euro 2017. 

The profile of the stars playing the game has sky rocketed, too. Even up to 2010, it can be argued that few would have identified many of England’s then star players including captain Faye White and now legendary players including Kelly Smith, Rachel Yankey and Casey Stoney.

Yet many of the players then widely unknown to casual football followers now have a much higher profile following their exploits in the last 10 years, as well as making their mark as pundits.

Alex Scott, Karen Carney and Eni Aluko have become familiar faces following impressive careers while the likes of Jill Scott and Ellen White are still involved in the squad and are much more recognised. Current Chelsea manager Emma Hayes has also emerged as a high profile figure following her touchline success and knowledge of the game that has seen her emerge as a pundit for men’s matches as well as women’s.

Former England captain Steph Houghton was also a member of the 2011 World Cup squad and her omission as a result of fitness issues for this summer’s Euros has made big headlines across many media outlets.

The advertising drive across social media in conjunction with team’s official accounts have also seen foreign players start to attract interest. 

Tottenham Hotspur for instance spotted an opportunity to recruit world-class talent, signing two-times United States World Cup winner Alex Morgan on a short-term deal in 2020 following the tournament in France three years ago.

Although the forward, who has 115 goals in 190 games for her country, played only five times for the north London side, her arrival drew plenty of attention to the club off the back of Morgan’s popularity.

Tottenham’s main Twitter account promoted her signing, a live interview, behind the scenes footage of her first match with the club as well as the chance to win a signed shirt. Such a move and publicity would have been unlikely even just a few years previously.

Encouragingly for the growth of the women’s game, the potential to be tapped into is enormous still. More money is being poured into the game with the prizepot on offer at Euro 2022 around £13.7million – double the amount from the previous Euros in Holland.

Hopes are this trickles into the domestic structure and keeps the positive momentum going. This season’s Champions League final, for instance, was played at Juventus’ Allianz Stadium, featuring two sides from outside of Italy in Barcelona and Lyon. The French side recovered from a goal down to win 3-1 with still an impressive 32,000 coming out in support.

Domestically, France as one of the early adopters of a women’s division appear to be leading the way in the game in Europe with eight Champions League wins – double that of next nearest record winners Frankfurt.

German and French teams have won 17 of the 21 European Cups on offer in the women’s game, yet heading into Euro 2022 neither country are strong favourites to triumph in England.

England as hosts, Holland as holders as well as favourites Spain and No 2 world ranked Sweden are strong contenders and that can only leave room for growth within those nations to further enhance their domestic games.

Barcelona’s consecutive Champions League finals – having beaten Chelsea in 2021 – indicates Spain are already starting to emerge as a domestic threat, while the WSL in England continues to attract global stars.

That can be seen in the PFA team of the year for 2022. Nearly half of the squad consisted of players away from British shores and included star internationals Vivianne Miedema of Arsenal and Holland, Ona Batlle of Manchester United and Spain, as well as Chelsea trio Ann-Katrin Berger, Guro Reiten and Sam Kerr of Germany, Norway and Australia, respectively.

This rapid rise in just a few years means the major tournaments such as the European Championship and the World Cup offer huge opportunities to showcase not just the value but the entertainment the women’s game has to offer.

With so much still to come from women’s football, Euro 2022 will hopefully offer up a spectacle that can celebrate the incredible achievements and developments over the past 50 years. It’s an exciting period on the way for the game and women’s sport in general.