Lionesses bring football home
The true impact of the 2022 Women’s Euros will not be known for some years, and the arguments over “legacy” had begun even before England’s victorious women had shaken off their hangovers, but in the moment it was a resounding, record-breaking triumph that even the most optimistic could have barely hoped for.
In stadia the tournament smashed records day after day. The opening match, England’s nervy 1-0 defeat of Austria at Old Trafford, drew a competition record 68,871. That was broken for the final with 87,192 at Wembley to see England beat Germany 2-1 after extra-time.
That was the biggest European Championship attendance of either gender, eclipsing the 79,115 who filled the Bernabeu for the 1964 men’s final. Back then few women in Europe were even allowed to play football.
By the end, the tournament had also set record attendances for group, quarter-final and semi-final matches – with and without host participation – and delivered seven of the top ten all-time Women’s Euro audiences. In total 574,875 attended, more than double the record set in 2017, with an average gate of 18,544.
And unlike the men’s Euros the previous year, which ended in disgraceful scenes at Wembley, there were no arrests or reports of trouble. Throughout, fans of different nations mixed happily in grounds.
On television the tournament passed the cumulative Europe-wide figure of 164m viewers, set in 2017, before the semi-finals. The final drew the UK’s biggest TV audience of the year, peaking at 23.3 million on various BBC platforms (plus pub and similar settings, which are
