Women’ s football missing open goal

Women’s football has never enjoyed a higher profile. Records are being broken for attendances and viewing figures and there’s more money in it than ever before.

But there is still a long, long way to go before it’s anywhere close to the popularity of the men’s game.

I can’t help but feel that there’s been a missed opportunity this summer.

Unfortunately Scotland didn’t qualify for the European Championships but a major tournament like that being staged in England is a big deal.

And, with the men’s World Cup giving up its traditional June slot in favour of a winter tournament in Qatar, scheduling the women’s Euros for that window would have been a nobrainer for me.

The Nations League games have come to an end and the live football won’t

be starting for a couple of weeks.

We’re nearly a fortnight after from the women’s Euros and by then we’ll be into Wimbledon and the Open territory, as well as pre-season starting in England and cup games in Scotland.

Football will always be the number one sport in Britain and I reckon a lot more people would have watched games over the last week or so had the tournament been on than they will in a couple of weeks.

As I said, a chance has been missed.

So my old Wentworth pro-am playing partner, Brooks Koepka, has jumped over to the LIV Golf series.

With Rory McIlroy winning in Canada and then a leaderboard filled with PGA Tour players in the US Open, it felt as if there had been a change in the background music. But it didn’t last long. It feels as if it will be

years before golf has a stable landscape.

The language between the two different camps is getting increasingly strong – Rory will be speaking for a lot of people when using the world “duplicitous” to describe players jumping ship after saying they weren’t interested.

And I think we should all enjoy watching the Open with everybody allowed to play because I can’t see that lasting into next season.

This is going to be more and more toxic, with friendships getting lost, I suspect.

Good luck to the administrators finding some middle ground because I don’t think it will exist for much longer.

It’s another column saying “goodbye” to one of our Beijing team.

Mili Smith has decided the time is right to pursue a career as a primary teacher.

She’s still young enough to come back to the elite side of curling but for now,

I know she’ll be an inspirational teacher.

Mili will have Olympic and European gold medals (and an MBE) to show her future pupils.

Everybody involved with British Curling knows how important a part Mili played in our team.

I’ve said on countless occasions how crucial the bond we formed (very quickly) was to our success.

If there had been one of us on a different page, the whole thing would have collapsed.

There will always be a debate about whether you can hold down a “real world” job and be a top level curler and, looking back, I probably feel I’d have benefitted from having a different life balance early in my career.

Mili is a the start of a new one, and becoming a teacher will require her dedication over the next few years.

But she’s got curling in her blood and I’m sure she won’t be lost to the sport.

GROWTH: Prince William shows his support for the England Women’s football team ahead of the Euros.