Euro 2022 Legacy Leads to 129,000 More Girls Participating in Football

England goalkeeper Mary Earps stated she “can feel how much the game has grown,” coinciding with Football Association (FA) data indicating that an additional 129,000 girls have engaged in schools football within the Euro 2022 host cities over the last four years. The FA reported that, compared to 2020, there are now over 500,000 additional opportunities for women and girls to participate in football across these regions. Beyond the increase in schools football, an extra 34,025 women and girls are now playing recreationally, with an additional 10,356 participating competitively. Furthermore, the cities have seen the involvement of 298 new female coaches and 247 more female referees in the sport. With England set to play Switzerland on Tuesday at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane, the venue for the Lionesses’ 4-0 semi-final victory against Sweden in Euro 2022, the FA declared they have “smashed” their targets, describing the tournament’s legacy as “a real success story.” Chloe Kelly’s extra-time goal secured England’s triumph over Germany at Wembley, marking the first major trophy win for an England senior side since 1966. However, the influence of that event and the preceding weeks extended beyond merely winning a trophy. Since the conclusion of the tournament, Earps mentioned having “great conversations” with individuals who have returned to the sport after watching the Lionesses. She elaborated, “People would say, ‘Ah, you know, I stopped playing football in my teens or I stopped playing football… for whatever reason.'” “But then they’d say ‘watching the Euros… I was desperate to play football again and I joined a five-a-side team or I became a referee or I joined as a coach in grassroots or became involved in the game again in some capacity’.” “Obviously, my favourite ones being the goalkeeper stories, because I’m biased!” The competition was held across 10 host stadiums situated in nine distinct locations: London, Manchester, Sheffield, Southampton, Brighton, Milton Keynes, Rotherham, Wigan, and Leigh. Each host city assessed its specific deficiencies in girls’ football provision, information the FA utilized to develop its legacy plan, titled ‘Inspiring Positive Change,’ which monitored participation growth in the sport across these areas from 2020 to 2024. Brighton recorded the most significant increase in girls’ schools football, with 45,938 more players since 2020, followed by London with an additional 28,913, and Manchester ranking third with 22,138. The count of girls playing football “for fun” rose by 9,560 in Sheffield, marking the highest increase among the surveyed cities, with London seeing 6,026 more and Rotherham 5,550. Stacey Mullock, the FA’s senior national development manager for grassroots football, expressed that the program’s success has been overwhelming. Mullock stated, “Without grassroots, you know we don’t really have a future England team.” “The game has grown so much over the last few years, and it gives us real hope for our talent pathway and what our development teams at England are looking like now because there is a bigger pool of talent to choose from.” “There is no doubt that the fact that we won, at Wembley, that summer was just everything we all couldn’t even imagine dreaming of really. And it was amazing.” “But I think we would have seen growth anyway – whether it would have been on the same scale, you know, who knows?” “I think it’s really helped having all of the media profiling, the personalities that we have in the squad and people that are doing such a good job to promote what women’s football is all about and how it is different to the men’s game, how they want to use their platform to be able to make a real change in society.” Earps has undeniably been one of these influential personalities. England commenced Euro 2022 with a 1-0 victory over Austria at Old Trafford; Earps, having played five years for United before joining Paris St-Germain in France, now has a mural dedicated to her in Manchester. Earps commented, “To open the tournament there at Old Trafford was… Yeah, it was unbelievable, really.” “I remember training at the pitch the night before and having no idea, I guess, of the journey we were about to embark on and just being super focused and being excited to play at the Theatre of Dreams.” Earps is currently advocating for broader involvement in football, even for those not wishing to play. She stated, “There’s so many different ways you can be involved in football. Whether that’s a season ticket holder, as a fan, or a coach, ref, official, whatever.” Mary Earps (right) has earned 52 caps for England. These statistics were published as the FA’s ‘Inspiring Positive Change’ program concludes, making way for a new strategy, ‘Reaching Higher’, external, planned for 2024-2028, which seeks to “build on the transformational success” already accomplished. Mullock further explained, “We’re really honing in on a few areas of the game we know we still need to look at. We know we haven’t yet got enough diversity across the game and it’s something that we’re really focused on.” “There’s so much more to do. So we are really keen, excited, to do more and almost take the momentum of everything that’s come off of the Euros, and go on to do bigger and better things within the women’s and girls’ game.” Mark Bullingham, FA chief executive officer, commented, “Until we have the same number of women and girls playing as men and boys, there is still more work to do across the game. In the next four years, we will set our sights on more international success, as well as building the quality and sustainability of our women’s and girls’ leagues and cup competitions and developing facilities to match our ambitions.”