Records were broken on and off the pitch yesterday (Sunday) as England defeated Germany 2-1 in the final of UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 in front of a bumper Wembley crowd of 87,192.
Goals from Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly secured a first-ever European Championship trophy for England, with the attendance also setting a record across the men’s and women’s editions of the tournament.
The near-capacity crowd at Wembley continued the tournament’s trend of smashing attendance records. Before the start of the tournament, the record crowd for a Women’s Euro match was 43,301 – set during the 2013 final between Germany and Norway at Stockholm’s Friends Arena – but this was beaten on the opening day as 68,871 fans watched England’s 1-0 win against Austria at Old Trafford.
The cumulative attendance record was broken with 15 matches still to play. After yesterday’s final, UEFA confirmed the tournament’s total attendance was 574,975, with an average crowd of 18,544 per game.
The previous overall tournament record was 240,055, which was set during the 2017 edition in the Netherlands. This year’s total attendance more than doubled that of five years ago.
The list of the 10 best-attended Women’s Euro games now features seven matches from this year’s tournament. Six of these games featured host country England, while the semi-final between Germany and France, which attracted a crowd of 27,445, also made the top 10.
Euro 2022 continued a record-breaking year for women’s football attendance in Europe. In April, Barcelona set a new record attendance for women’s football after 91,648 fans watched its Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg at the Camp Nou.
The figure surpassed the previous record of 91,553, which Barcelona set in March for the El Clasico match against Real Madrid. Before that, the record attendance for a women’s football match was 90,185, which was set back in 1999 during the FIFA Women’s World Cup final between the US and China at the Rose Bowl.
The previous record attendance for a women’s international match in Europe was 80,203, which was set during the London 2012 Olympic Games final between the US and Japan at Wembley.
Euro 2022’s attendance records were set as tournament organisers faced criticism ahead of the event for a perceived lack of ambition in the stadia chosen. Other host venues included Brighton’s Amex Stadium, Brentford Community Stadium, Manchester City Academy Stadium, Stadium MK, Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane, Southampton’s St Mary’s Stadium and Leigh Sports Village.
Image: Jaanus Jagomägi on Unsplash
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