Women's football needs a Luke Littler or Caitlin Clark figure to truly ignite
So, as the sound of Burna Boy and Sarina Wiegman's duet stops ringing in our ears, how does the domestic game in England capitalise on this interest?
There was a sharp rise in TV viewers of women's sport after England's first Euros win in 2022. But TV viewing figures plateaued and even fell for women's sport in the UK between January and May this year for the first time since the Lionesses' Wembley win, according to the Women's Sports Trust's (WST) visibility report. There was a year-on-year drop in Women's Super League broadcast audiences (by 35 per cent) and attendances at games (10 per cent).
Tammy Parlour, chief executive of WST, wants to make sure that the Lionesses' win is the catalyst for sustained growth of the domestic game and the WSL.
'We have been on such a long journey to get to this point,' Parlour tells Telegraph Sport. 'I'm looking at the parade and it's almost unbelievable. It has captured the public's attention in a way that we've only dreamed of. But there's still loads of work to be done, we can't just lean back and say 'it's all fixed now'.
'We need to make sure this is not just another spike in viewers, but something that is a lasting shift in audience behaviour and commercial value.'
One way to seize the moment that this latest Euros win has provided would be to maximise the potential of the players who lifted the trophy on Sunday. By drawing on star power, women's football can attract a wider audience and there is a precedent for superstars helping relatively niche sports to experience huge growth.
Caitlin Clark has had such a positive impact on audience growth for the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in the United States, that the term 'Caitlin Clark effect' has its own Wikipedia page. Clark is so important to the league that, when she was injured during June this year, the WNBA's viewership figures fell by 55 per cent.
Luke Littler has had a similar effect on darts in the UK. His victory in the 2024 World Championship final attracted 3.7m viewers, making it the most watched non-football event on Sky Sports in the past 12 months. By comparison, only 2.2m watched Silverstone's British GP.
Traditionally in England, supporting an individual over a team is frowned upon, but it is a burgeoning trend among Gen Z thanks to social media elevating athletes to celebrities.
A 2022 report by the European Club Association found that young fans today are less likely to follow a team because their family does, with social media instead more likely to influence who they support.
WSL boasts several potential superstars
Social media is one platform on which women's sport has had a huge and sustained success. In the first five months of this year, there were enormous year-on-year audience gains on platforms such as TikTok (105 per cent) and YouTube (84 per cent). The WSL became the second-most viewed women's sports competition globally on YouTube, with 39.6m views since the channel's launch in July last year.
Engagement with influencers and sportspeople's personal accounts is a growing trend online and the Women's Super League has names beyond the Lionesses it could draw upon. While the Premier League has players such as Erling Haaland, the WSL has World Cup winner Mariona Caldentey, Jamaica's Khadija 'Bunny' Shaw and women's football's first £1m player, Olivia Smith.
Lisa Parfitt, co-founder of sports marketing agency The Space Between, recognises the need for high-profile athletes to grow the domestic game in England.
'It's absolutely essential,' Parfitt said. 'Research shows that women's sport more broadly has had a fame gap, a lack of well-known mainstream stars, which has held back attendances. For new audiences – and I stress new fans – the superstars of the Lionesses and other nations in the Euros are vital for them to attend.
'There's a good reason why the WSL has come out of the blocks with advertising promoting the WSL and WSL2 as 'officially the most represented league at the Women's Euros 2025'. And Leah Williamson's Gunner stud earrings at the parade was a lovely touch connecting the moment back to her club.'
leah williamson isn't leah williamson without…those gunner earrings 🤝🏼 pic.twitter.com/uzUmajCdaP
— sophie 🫧 | EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS (@leahsawfc) April 4, 2024
For athletes to make the leap to celebrity they need the backing of a global brand, and there are plenty of reasons for sponsors to want to tap into the women's game.
Sponsors offered 'unique' opportunity
In Nielsen and Pepsico's Undervalued to Unstoppable women's football report from this year, the study projected that women's football will be the only major sport in the world to have its audience comprise more women than men. As women are the predominant financial decision-makers in households, this makes women's football a uniquely attractive marketing opportunity.
'There is a really special opportunity that women's football has globally, with its fanbase being mostly made up of women, ' says Tom Scott, the chief executive of communications consultancy firm Trippant. 'By 2028, three-quarters of household financial decisions will be made by women [according to the Nielsen report], so they've got so many different brands that can be activated through partnership.
'Women's football has this opportunity but it's very much focused on tournament football. It's only when you get big brands like Nike or Adidas putting Chloe Kelly or Leah Williamson everywhere on billboards and across socials [all year round] that you will see more growth.
'But it's only a matter of time before a couple of brands will realise that they can get so much from putting those faces out there and takes one of these players, one of these superstars, and makes them a global ambassador.'
Nielsen's report concluded that, by 2030, women's football is expected to break into the top-five biggest sports globally with a projected 800 million fans worldwide, while beyond the next five years there are long-term benefits as participation at youth level has soared.
England's heroes could ignite domestic game
The groundwork has been done, the studies have been published, the global market awaits. All that is left now is for one of England's Euros heroes to step up and become that global superstar women's football needs to ignite the domestic game.
So who could women's football's next superstars be? One of England's super-subs, Chloe Kelly or Michelle Agyemang? The brilliant Lucy Bronze, who battled on with a broken leg? England women's captain-fantastic Leah Williamson? Or Hannah Hampton, the goalkeeper who was told her eyesight would prevent her from playing professional football?
Scott believes Kelly, the match-winner in the past two Euro finals, is in prime position. 'It's not about creating superstars because they're already there,' he says. 'Kelly's got that opportunity now after that double win.'
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