How Euro 2025 could show a distinctive power shift in women's football

Independent

a day ago

As 16 squads travel to Switzerland with hope, amid all of the usual excitement that invigorates any tournament's giddy build-up, there is an unusual concern well away from Euro 2025. Figures within the American women's game insist they are worried about a distinctive power shift in terms of playing talent. The States may not be consistently producing the best any more.
While so much of the women's game is constantly framed by questions about growth, these Euros could genuinely represent a historic landmark; a moment. This could be the summer where Europe finally completes a rise over the USA, as the new centre of power for the women's game. The matches themselves may well end up as testament to that.
There were already signs at the 2023 World Cup, beyond just the identity of the champions.
Spain are still the best team in the world, looking a level above anything we've ever seen in the women's international game in terms of tactical sophistication. They are naturally favourites for this competition, having already beaten the defending European champions in that 2023 final, in England. Despite that recent record, there are now genuine concerns that Sarina Wiegman 's side could go out in the group stage, which only speaks to Euro 2025's strength in depth. Spain and England were among five European sides in the 2023 quarter-finals, following on from seven in 2019, amid a huge rise in overall quality.
Of course, football isn't just about such hard facts. It's about how it makes you feel. Euro 2025 is bursting with exhilarating talent, led by Spain's Aitana Bonmati. She is among a number of players you would just want to watch, from established stars in her own team and England's Lauren James, to burgeoning players such as France's Marie-Antoinette Katoto. Switzerland is going to see real depth of pure football ingenuity.
Even the number of European Championship representation in America's NWSL domestic league has risen, from a mere six players in 2022 to 16 now. The exact meaning of that can be interpreted in multiple ways, but many in the European game are certain about what they're watching.
As one industry figure argues, 'it's hard not to think the activation of Europe's deeply-ingrained football culture is now amplifying talent, whereas the US still has a tendency to produce highly-coached athletes'.
This might sound disrespectful to a generation of great trailblazers like Megan Rapinoe, but then the nature of development is that quality is deepened. A more global game naturally means limits are pushed, especially in terms of what players can do. It is certainly conspicuous that the US has chosen this moment to appoint a European coach, in Emma Hayes.
The point of all of this isn't one-upmanship or old-world football conservatism. It is highly relevant to the future of the sport, as well as how this tournament will go. Above anything, there's the more open question of what the best methods of long-term development actually are. Any international tournament, after all, is supposed to serve as a barometer for where the game is. This one may showcase Europe's rise.
And one major reason for the recent leap is because the continent's 'super clubs' have seen the commercial potential of the women's game and invested. At the very top, Barcelona's willingness to take it seriously has enriched Spain with La Masia 's famous talent production, further elevating an ideology imbued in every Spanish girl and boy from a young age. Ten of the world champions' 23-woman squad also play for Barcelona.
Even when you start to list the Euros' brightest young talents in the customary way, 18-year-old Sydney Schertenleib – the host nation's great hope – is already at Barcelona. The Catalan club have a total of 18, which is the most of anyone. They simultaneously form a total of 132 players from the 15 men's 'super clubs' who were invited to the controversial Super League in 2012 – the 12 eventual members, as well as Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. In other words, the centre of financial power for the entire sport. That is up from 121 in Euro 2022 and a mere 74 in Euro 2017. Juventus, as another prominent example, had no players in Italy's 2017 squad. They now have 10.
Uefa, for their part, have witnessed this investment and started to match it. Football insiders genuinely laud the federation's 'Unstoppable' strategy document, which aims to make the European women's game a billion-euro industry by 2030. Those involved would also make a point of insisting that isn't just about what players are paid but professionalisation of standards across the entire environment.
Investment has duly grown significantly at all levels, from grassroots to the elite. Uefa's figures show there are more opportunities, better pathways, better coaching and – consequently – better games. We are likely to see the fruits of this from Wednesday's opening match. Wales and Poland, the tournament's two debutant squads, are perhaps the great successes of this.
Their performances will still say a lot, especially as everyone hopes to avoid results like England 8-0 Norway, as still seen at Euro 2022. Gaps still remain.
Uefa is really at the start of this process, after all. The rise of the super clubs is only likely to widen those gaps, too. Modern football history shows they ensure concentration of wealth, whereas Uefa need to encourage diversity.
The super clubs are also the destination of a lot of private money, which is still mostly American, driving the majority of global investment in the women's game. That has created a different type of gap.
While super clubs like Barcelona and Arsenal are so strong, none of their domestic leagues can match the competitive balance of the NWSL, especially as regards the high baseline standard.
The foundation of the elite game in the States is still far stronger because it is actually stand-alone. It isn't dependent on or leveraged by the men's game, in the way Europe now is. That comes from a long-term culture of its own, and especially the enacting of the Title IX civil rights law in 1972, as well as the college system and general attitudes to women's sport. It also means the US system is much better at giving girls careers in football that are actually sustainable. Education is woven into the game.
This is another area where Europe has a lot of catching up to do, and has ensured teams in both the WSL and Liga Femenina are way off the top teams' level. There is at least some danger that women's football becomes a mostly top-end international sport, in the same way rugby union has. Some Uefa figures are similarly concerned at how development has plateaued in Germany, which had been ahead of most European countries for almost 30 years. Now, partly to do with wider demographics, participation rates are stalling.
A report by the Women's Sport Trust last week similarly revealed that broadcast audiences for the Women's Super League have fallen by 35 per cent, and the competition is about to undergo an overhaul in order to revive momentum.
It plays into why this tournament comes at a telling moment, amid a sudden sense of stagnation after so much growth.
European football does need a great show but, because of years of work, has never been better set up to give one.