WHEN the English FA unveiled its Inspiring Positive Change strategy for women’s and girls’ football back in October 2020, it included the “transformational” objective of winning a major tournament within four years.

At the time, the FA officially regarded that as an “ambitious” target despite the women having made it to the semi-finals of 2019’s World Cup, where they lost to eventual winners, the USA.

At their version of the World Cup in 2018, the Under-20s had taken third place.

Georgia Stanway starred in that tournament, sharing the golden boot award as equal top scorer, while Alessia Russo, Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly had all scored in the 6-1 group stage win over Mexico.

The seeds of success had been well and truly sown. Kay Cossington, who has been the head of women’s technical development at the FA for over five years, was confident they would bloom under their development plans.

She knew that they were “working from strong foundations with talented players, and [that] it was now time to take it to another level.”

Her eyes were nonetheless originally fixed on glory at next year’s World Cup finals in Australia/New Zealand.

That winning a major tournament has come earlier than she hoped, and the FA planned for, is a monumental achievement while professional women’s football in England is still in its infancy.

Thankfully, the FA’s strategy is also focused on creating a sustainable future for the women’s game, regardless of the national team’s glory.

Alongside the stated ambition of establishing the world’s best professional leagues, hopefully they will enjoy more success in their objectives to be met by 2024 of increasing participation for fun, competition and excellence, as well as supporting the development of organisers, coaches and referees.  

Baroness Sue Campbell — head of women’s football since 2016, who was trusted with delivering “truly transformational change” to the women’s and girls’ game — still believes that dealing with the recent success of the Euros and an “influx of people who now see that it has commercial value” must be handled “with great care.”

Her vision will come as music to the ears of those who hope the women’s game might mirror the men’s game in terms of its accessibility but not ape the antics of many of its players, coaches and managers, or the unrestrained financialisation that has defined professional football for many years.

Talking on the Radio 4, Campbell, who had previously been chair of UK Sport, stated that “we all need to be responsible about how we manage the future [of women’s football], making sure we don't lose the essence and feel.

“People talk to me about how we’ve demonstrated that the beautiful game is back. This is how men’s football used to be before it became too commercial. We want the women’s game to retain that feel, to retain that essence as we move forward.”

This House of Lords cross-bencher shares the general feeling that Sunday’s final had enjoyed “a very positive, inclusive, happy, joyful atmosphere.”

She believes that “the culture around the women’s game is different and [that] as commerciality [sic] comes in, more money comes in, we’ve got to work very hard to preserve this wonderful culture that exists in the women’s game.”

Campbell stated that the players want to make sure that growth within the game is managed sensitively, too. If that’s true it will make it much easier for women’s football to take this opportunity offered by the Euros and do great things with it.

She claimed that “the women are really keen to play their part in growing the game, but we all want to do it in a way that preserves the very best of what’s been fought for many, many years by many people.”

If women’s football can blaze a trail of sanity in how the game is managed, played and enjoyed, avoids the lure of monstrous transfer fees, salaries and excessive admission prices, it would surely be a fitting legacy for their Euros success.

With any luck it might also help to ensure that the men’s game sits up, takes notice and starts to put its own house in order.