European Championship for women: ten years, six historical moments.

Women's football in England has expanded quickly in recent years, with attendance records broken and massive watching statistics.

While there is still room for improvement, the off-field progress over the past ten years cannot be understated and is likely to culminate in a record crowd for a women's game in England when the hosts play Germany in the Euro 2022 final at Wembley on Sunday. The Lionesses' success on the field has fueled a surge in interest in the sport.

The English women's game has advanced significantly over the past 10 years, according to BBC Sport, which pinpoints six significant turning points.

A whole new level

Guy Mowbray, a BBC analyst, said it had the potential to elevate women's football "to a whole new level."

At the 2012 Olympics, Team GB defeated tournament favorites Brazil 1-0 in front of 70,584 fans, who made up the largest audience to ever see a British women's international on home soil.

It outperformed the previous record for a women's match in England by almost 17,000, which was established on Boxing Day 1920 at a match between Dick Kerr Ladies of Preston and St Helens Ladies at Goodison Park.

The attendance record only lasted a little more than a week, as 80,203 people showed up nine days later at Wembley to watch the United States defeat Japan in the Olympic final.

That still stands as the record for a women's game in England. In 2019, 77,768 spectators witnessed the Lionesses' home international attendance record fall after they fell to Germany 2-1 in a friendly at Wembley.

Infatuated with the Lionesses

With a historic last-eight victory over Canada in Vancouver in 2015, Mark Sampson's team became the first England team to go to a World Cup semi-final since Italia 90.

Over 1.6 million viewers watched the triumph, which was hailed by FA director of women's football Kelly Simmons as "the moment when the general public fell in love with the Lionesses," despite the game starting at 00:30 BST.

Sampson's squad fell to the eventual champions Japan in the semifinals, but Fara Williams' extra-time penalty gave England a historic victory against Germany in the third-place play-off.

To preserve the women's game's expanding momentum, steps were already being taken off the field. The Female Development Programme, which was introduced in 2013 and was intended to continue for two years, was granted an additional year of funding from the FA and Sport England, amounting to almost £3.7 million, in order to increase the number of women and girls playing football.

The program's initial goal was to recruit 40,000 new female players to the sport of football, but in its first two years, it attracted more than 2,000 new female players than anticipated.

In 2020, when the FA's three-year "Gameplan for Growth" campaign came to a close, it was anticipated that there were over 3.4 million female players active in the sport.

Breaking viewing records in the semi-final defeat

9.3 million people tuned into the BBC at its peak to see England's convincing semi-final win over Sweden, although the previous record for Lionesses games was achieved three years prior.

During their painful World Cup semi-final loss to the USA in 2019, a peak viewership of over 11.7 million tuned in, shattering all-time ratings records for the third time in a fortnight.

These astounding figures outperformed the 11.3 million viewers that watched the 2019 men's Champions League final between Tottenham and Liverpool in Madrid on digital and television combined.

Prior to the 2019 World Cup, the women's record was four million viewers, which was achieved during the Lionesses' Euro 2017 semifinal loss to the Netherlands.

More crowds and more attendees

Manchester City and Chelsea decided to move their first 2019–20 Women's Super League matches to Etihad Stadium and Stamford Bridge, respectively, in an effort to capitalize on the heightened interest in the women's game following the 2019 World Cup.

A record-breaking 31,213 people attended the inaugural WSL Manchester derby at City's main stadium, which resulted in a 1-0 victory for the home team, while 24,564 people showed up the next day to witness Chelsea play London rivals Tottenham.

Gavin Makel, City's director of women's football, said the team intended to kick off the new season "with a boom," while Chelsea referred to the change as a "celebration of women's football."

The WSL attendance record, which had been set on the first day of the 2019–20 season, was broken once more in November of that same year when 38,262 spectators came out to watch Tottenham Hotspur lose 2-0 to north London rivals Arsenal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. This record still stands in the WSL.

FA reveals "landmark" TV agreement

The FA signed a "landmark" three-year contract with BBC and Sky in March 2021 for the broadcast rights to the WSL, which is said to be the largest of its type in any professional women's football league in the world.

According to Simmons, the £7-£8 million contract, which runs until 2024, combines two of the FA's top priorities: raising awareness of the league and luring investment to raise its caliber.

Simmons described the pact, which resulted in a "near fourfold" increase in watching hours in 2021–22 compared to the prior campaign, as "one of the largest agreements commercially, obviously for women's football in terms of a domestic contract, and up there for women's sport."

Kathryn Swarbrick, head of commercial and marketing at the FA, adding, "This is a time to celebrate and a turning point in the future of the WSL." "This will be a significant step in realizing our goal of having the best domestic women's professional league in the world."

A preview of things to come?

The mood at the Theatre of Dreams on July 6 could not have been greater for the Lionesses, even if they did not put up the flawless, fluid performance they had hoped for in their Euro 2022 opening against Austria at Old Trafford.

Sarina Wiegman's team began their European Women's Championship campaign with a 1-0 victory thanks to Beth Mead's first-half goal in front of 68,871 spectators, a record audience for a European Women's Championship game.

Hours before kickoff, supporters of both teams, including a sizable number of families, gathered outside the stadium, and the opening ceremony featured an amazing firework show. Bedlam broke out among the home fans as Mead calmed their anxieties with her delightful finish off the crossbar.

"It was amazing. No more talking," When questioned about the environment, which set the tone for a memorable event both on and off the field, Wiegman stated.

The current record for any Euros match is 79,115 for the 1964 men's final at Madrid's Bernabeu; Sunday's final attendance, though, has the potential to surpass that figure.

Wembley, which can hold 87,200 people, has sold out of tickets for the England vs. Germany Euro 2022 matchup.