Victory turbocharges future of women’s game

Sponsorships, access to the sport, funding... England’s Wembley win means so much more than a trophy

So that is what winning looks like. Chloe Kelly’s extra-time goal at Wembley – and glorious uninhibited shirt-removal celebration – did something that has not happened in 56 years: it secured an international football tournament for England. For nearly six decades we have been waiting for this. And for nearly six decades we have watched it slip away at the last. Now, finally and unequivocally, we can crow that football has come home.

What a superb performance this was by the Lionesses. Against a country that had not lost a European final in eight previous attempts, that had defined women’s football for so long, a team that England had only beaten twice in 27 previous meetings, Sarina Wiegman’s side were magnificent. In planning, process and execution they were flawless. In Kiera Walsh, Leah Williamson, Mary Earps and Lucy Bronze they had players of world class quality. River Deep Mountain High, their favoured dressing room song, deserved to have rung out loud and long in recognition of what they achieved.

Because the fact is, in the process of lifting the trophy, they have transformed everything in their sport. Back in 1984, England reached their first Euros final. They were defeated on penalties by Sweden, and the then Lionesses midfielder Gill Coultard remembers scouring the press the next morning for any account of their performance. She found a paragraph at the bottom of the sports page in just one newspaper.

It won’t be like that this time. Wraparound covers, souvenir magazine sections, Team of the Year awards: the accolades will be lengthy and deserved. Long tired of the wearisome national trope of the gallant losers, the country will bask in the reflected glory of these women for some time to come. And with the attention will come significant progress. When the movie Bend It Like Beckham was released 20 years ago, it marked the first popular suggestion that women could actually play the game. As the title suggested, Jesminder, the heroine of the film, longed to emulate what David Beckham could do with a football. After what happened at Wembley, the modern day Jesminder will have a rather different role model in mind. They will want to be the next Kelly or Williamson or Ella Toone, scorer of England’s first goal in the final. These are female role models for the age.

The FA announced before this game that – win or lose – it had plans to ensure 120,000 more schoolgirls could get access to football.

They will need to double, treble that target now. Victory has just turbocharged the future.

The financial future of the women’s game has, with one glorious swoop of Kelly’s boot, been completely transformed.

There has been a hint of what might come in the build-up to the final.

Google Cloud, Starling Bank, Just Eat: the queue of brands looking to link themselves to the good news story of these wholesome athletes was substantial. Marketing is a pretty straightforward process: the simplest way to demonstrate the efficacy of your product is to associate it with known winners.

Now that they are European champions, now that they have been seen lifting a glittering trophy, now that they have finally undermined the old Gary Lineker adage about football being a simple game you play for ninety minutes and then the Germans win, their value has gone through the roof. Not just personally, though their sponsorship contracts will need significant upgrades. But for the game itself. Bigger backers paying more, much, much more: this win should ensure far more money pouring in to upgrade coaching, facilities and to fertilise the grass roots.

The first indication of the new possibility will be when the Women’s Super League begins in September. Many of the 87,192 at Wembley, who made up the biggest crowd for a European final ever played by women or men, will want to watch their local club team in action.

Because, despite our protestations of valuing fair play and losing with dignity, what we in this country love most of all is this: winners.