They think it’s Wall over

THERE are two things I can say for sure about the Women’s Euros, which kick-off tonight with England v Austria (MOTD LIVE: UEFA WOMEN’S EURO 2022,

BBC1, 7pm).

The first is that they’ll bring in record UK viewing figures for the women’s game. It would be pretty catastrophic if they didn’t, given the unprecedented coverage.

There’s a live match on the BBC every night between now and July 18 (BBC1 has every England and Northern Ireland fixture), then more when we reach the knockout stage. The second guarantee is that this is going to annoy the hell out of some viewers.

That’s the curious thing about women’s football: its detractors can be awfully, er, vociferous.

For some, it’s not enough simply to decide it’s not their cup of tea. They have to let rip on Twitgram, Facetwonk and suchlike.

I guess all the wokey stuff surrounding the women’s game can be a bit tiresome. But to be fair, the FA did ban women’s football for half a century, so you can’t entirely blame those keen to make up for lost time.

Other critics claim the coverage is disproportionate to the popularity and indeed the quality of the (horrible word alert) “product”.

But this is a sport that’s growing worldwide at a phenomenal rate in both respects, so it would be remiss of TV not to reflect that – and, given its influence, not to help boost its profile further still.

In the overall scheme of things, the BBC still devotes way more airtime to, say,TheWall with Danny Dyer, and, let’s be honest, nobody likes that.

OK, so there are a few little things that do niggle, such as the way some media outlets choose to blur the distinction between the men’s game and the women’s in their reporting.

No doubt some ninny in charge thinks that’s helping the cause of #Equality, but in fact it just breaks one of journalism’s golden rules – be clear and unambiguous – and confuses potential new fans.

Still, it’s not a dealbreaker. I’ve just trained my brain to cope.

So when they announce, for example, that “Chelsea will face

Juventus in the Champions League” I realise they might mean a different Chelsea will face a different Juventus in a different Champions League, and it’s jolly well up to me to figure it out.

In the end, I don’t let any of that bother me.

Ultimately, I love watching a good game of football and if it’s women playing, well, great.The more, the merrier.

And my prediction for England tonight? Well, I did enjoy their game against Latvia last November, which they won 20-0.

But obviously that was a freak result so let’s not be greedy.

I’ll settle for 10.