Gareth Southgate to receive knighthood at Windsor Castle
The 54-year-old, who led the Three Lions to consecutive European Championship finals in 2020 and 2024 and the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, was recognised for his services to association football in the New Year Honours.
He is the fourth England boss to be knighted, after Sir Walter Winterbottom, Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Robson.
Sir Gareth resigned from the role after eight years in charge following England's 2-1 final defeat to Spain in July last year, before being succeeded by Thomas Tuchel.
In a social media post following the announcement in December, he joked that he was unlikely to be called 'Sir' by his family.
'It has been the greatest honour to represent my country as both a player and a manager for some 20 years and to be part of the game I love for almost 40. I am incredibly thankful for the amazing people and teams who have supported me both on and off the field,' he said.
'A special thank you to my family for their constant love and encouragement, though I must admit they've made it clear that the titles I hold at home will remain unchanged.'
Sir Gareth won 57 caps for England as a player between 1995 and 2004 and played at three major tournaments, including the 1998 World Cup.
He also had a distinguished 16-year career at club level, operating mainly as a defender for Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough and making more than 600 appearances.
Sir Gareth first joined the Football Association as head of elite development in February 2011 after being sacked as Middlesbrough manager, and went on to coach the under-21s side before his appointment as England manager, initially on a temporary basis, in September 2016.
England reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, when Sir Gareth turned the waistcoat into a must-have fashion accessory.
The team then ended its 55-year wait for a men's final at Euro 2020, delayed 12 months by Covid, before being agonisingly beaten on penalties by Italy at Wembley.
A late defeat to Spain three years later again saw the side just miss out on national silverware.
Overall, Sir Gareth took charge of 102 matches and is the only manager of the England men's team to lead them to two major tournament finals.
Giving an address at the University of London in March, he spoke about how the belief and resilience gained throughout his career in football had 'picked me up when I've been down, grounded me in success, and given me purpose amidst the noise of public life'.
Sir Gareth was previously made an OBE for his services to football in the 2019 New Year Honours.
British and Irish Lions wing Gerald Davies is also set to be knighted at the investiture ceremony for his services to rugby union and to voluntary and charitable service in Wales.
Davies, 80, played for Wales for 12 years in the 1960s and 1970s and won three Grand Slams, and went on to serve as president of the Welsh Rugby Union between 2019 and 2023.
Reacting to the honour, he told the PA news agency: 'I feel very emotional about it. I am surprised by it. Words are really quite inadequate to describe it.
'It comes out of the blue. I was dumbstruck in many ways, but you don't achieve these things on your own.'
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Daily Mail
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For youngsters aged between six and 16, who didn't have this opportunity previously and were expected to take up netball and hockey, playing football is suddenly starting to be normal. 'And that's not including the many who have kickabouts in the parks and fields,' says Mooney of the fastest growing sport in the world. 'By a country mile,' he emphasises. There was a record 17,000 crowd for the Cardiff City Stadium Euro play-off versus the Republic of Ireland. 'We had 40,000 across the two legs. We're just starting to see revenue off the back of ticket sales. Yes we're talking about reduced ticket prices, but we feel we can grow the audience and revenue further,' says Mooney. Perhaps most impressive of the lot is that, at the time of writing, Wales have sold more tickets than any other nation at the Euros, bar hosts Switzerland. 'So more than the Germans, French, English and Dutch,' Mooney says of the near 10,000 Red Wall following. When I put it to him that it's a different audience and you're unlikely to get Canton End stalwarts going to Wales Women matches, Mooney responds: 'Perhaps. But we've wondered how to create that link. Given the numbers heading out to Switzerland to watch us at a major tournament, I'd say there is a percentage of that from the Canton End coming to support the women.' Either way, Mooney wishes to create a legacy which within the next 25 years heads towards complete parity in Welsh football. 'Our vision by 2050 is for the same amount of registered women as men, the same numbers coming to our men's and women's games, the same TV viewing figures for those matches, the same male to female FAW staff, a 50-50 split on our decision-making bodies,' he says. 'It may seem hugely ambitious, but the plan is for a completely balanced FAW that perfectly represents and reflects Wales as a whole. 'Obviously myself and Rhian won't be here in years to come, but we're each aware it's about what we leave behind for the next generation. We think it can be even better for the people who come after us. 'The women's game will simply grow and grow and so will our crowds. When girls start playing football, they are more likely to also attend matches. Everything works off that, interest, ticket revenue, sponsorship, advertising opportunities.' He goes on to cite a quote from Carlo Ancelotti, the great recently departed Real Madrid manager turned Brazil boss. 'Ancelotti said success just hangs off the wall of the building at the Bernabeu,' says Mooney. 'Success breeds success - and we're beginning to feel that here too. 'These days we fancy ourselves to beat anybody with the men's team. Like them in 2016, Rhian ended the trauma of us being very unlucky when it comes to qualifying. Suddenly there is the smell of success with the women too.' As we speak in Mooney's office, which has a superb view overlooking Wales' training pitches, he notices Wilkinson walking past the door and beckons her in for an introduction. She is in the building to pore over some analytics from a recent game to prepare for the Euros and cuts an impressive figure as she outlines her determination to succeed with Wales and help rid any stereotypes when it comes to young girls playing football. 'There are lots of similarities in how Craig and Rhian go about the job,' reckons Mooney. 'They are each incredibly detailed in their planning. We may not be the best teams, but we are definitely the best prepared. We aren't going to be beaten because of a lack of detail, or because of something the players didn't know. 'We don't have a pool of world class players because of our population size. That means we need to be clever, agile, bold, ambitious, driven, passionate. We're trying to be world class at what we do and people buy into that. 'Craig and Rhian come to see me looking for support at certain times. They know we're not a £500m a year organisation, we need to manage our budget, but we try to give ourselves every opportunity to succeed by doing things our way.' Women's football is having to make the enormous strides Mooney talks of because it is coming from so far back. At the start of the 1970s, a time when John Toshack, Terry Yorath and Leighton James were beginning their journeys as Dragons legends, women were banned from playing the sport in Wales. The suspension was eventually lifted, but it took close on another two and a half decades for the Wales Women's team to be properly established. Their first qualifying match wasn't until 1995, playing in discarded men's kit against Switzerland in front of just 345 people at Cwmbran Stadium. One huge step forward, two back, because in 2003 the FAW pulled the team out of qualifiers for the next Euros, citing the cost of travelling to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Estonia and Israel as too exorbitant. Unprecedented sums of money were being thrown at Mark Hughes' booming Euro 2004 chasers at the time and cutbacks needed to be made. The women were culled. An easy target. They weren't exactly dancing jigs of joy about it. Nor were UEFA, who fined Wales £20,000 for the sudden withdrawal. Thanks to the efforts of first Ford, then Mooney, things have altered in pace dramatically in the subsequent years, albeit until recent times the FAW's ruling 28-person council was still entirely made up of older men, often in their sixties, seventies, eighties and sometimes even nineties. By 2027 that will change to 40 percent gender parity, Mooney explaining: 'We've got loads of young females brimming with new ideas about how to take our game forward in Wales.' The ongoing drive for women's football will be a fundamental part of that sea change. On the back of qualifying for the Euros, an Environments For Her Fund has been set up inviting grassroots clubs to apply for a portion of £1m grant monies to upgrade facilities. 'Any club wishing to retrofit can apply for £50,000. Remember, lots of these clubhouses were built in the 1970s, '80s, '90s for male football. No toilet facilities or changing rooms for women,' says Mooney. FAW chief Noel Mooney To that end, and despite Wilkinson's aces starring on the world stage in the coming days, Mooney is treating the women's game as something of a start-up enterprise when it comes to funding. It is hardly without expense. The FAW try to give their female teams, Wilkinson's senior side and at age-grade levels, exactly the same as their male counterparts when it comes to charter flights, luxury hotels, training facilities, number of coaches, analysts, medics and sports science back-up. The interest levels are nowhere near the same yet, the women don't bring in anything remotely resembling the revenue streams superstars like Bale, Ryan Giggs, Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and Bellamy himself managed to do down the decades, mirrored more recently by Harry Wilson, Brennan Johnson, Neco Williams and Co. But Mooney cites a business saying he is fond of. 'Risk tolerance. How much risk are you prepared to take in order to get the rewards,' he states. 'The men's team is obviously the cash cow, they bring in the large majority of our revenue through TV rights, gate receipts and so on. 'With the women we are investing in a product, something we need to do for a number of years before we see the returns in terms of profits. 'But we believe it is going to generate a LOT of money for Welsh football in the future. It opens up new revenue opportunities for us. Our commercial partners want to talk about the women's game. Modern, progressive companies are keen to be investing in this. 'The Welsh Government are more connected to us and have helped with funding to put into the legacy we wish to create. We're looking to drive things, bring female leadership, reach out to communities where they wouldn't necessarily see football as their sport. 'We also find our women are interested in social matters, equality, diversity, inclusion. How we treat the world, environmental issues, fairness. They come to us wanting to do a day's coaching to help push the growing interest. Recently 200 girls aged six to 14 jumped at the chance to play football with them at a training session. We maxed out the numbers in an instant, could have done it ten times over. The buzz is becoming phenomenal. 'If truth be known we might struggle to keep up with the demand of growing numbers who want to play. But clubs helping as start-ups for the women's game will be rewarded with more support and funding. 'It's not just a male game any more. We will not stop until it's 50-50 - same facilities, same playing conditions, same numbers is the aim with our clubs. 'Yes it's costly, but it's a worthwhile investment and reaching the Euros, with everything it can bring for us, is part of that. 'We get £1.8m from UEFA for qualifying. The players receive 35 percent, most of the rest goes on logistics to ensure they get the same backing as Craig's side would expect. They need to feel wanted. As such we anticipate actually losing £300,000 from the tournament, but the FAW Board are aware it's about far more than that. 'The legacy we can create, the interest we can generate, is the big thing here. We would spend five times that figure, knowing what the future spin-offs can be. 'For me personally, this perhaps means even more than us getting to the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. We're bringing a modern Cymru to the world and it's incredibly satisfying, knowing everything we've had to deal with and put into this to get to this stage. 'We've taken the hits together, including the sudden departure of our previous manager Gemma Grainger at the start of last year. That was a challenge, but I'm really happy we reacted the way we did. Rhian brings fresh ideas. She's brilliant, just like Craig is. 'Our players have had struggles to get there for lots of reasons. Some went to schools where they weren't permitted to play football. Others come from villages and towns where it wasn't the done thing. 'Yet through everything the FAW staff have invested in them, we've shared a belief, we've done it together as Team Wales… and the reward comes from qualifying and beyond. Suddenly the girls not permitted to play have developed into stars. 'If the women can get to their World Cup in Brazil in 2027 that will complete the set for us. The men have done the Euros and the World Cup, the women can do it too. 'Having that profile helps us keep supporting the grassroots game to grow, making sure we've got the things in place to ensure this growth that we see doesn't plateau. It will continue to surge. The legacy of these Euros can be enormous.' Wales kick off against the Netherlands in Lucerne next Saturday, before meeting France on July 9th and reigning Euro champions England four days after. It's a daunting sequence of matches, but given the glamour opposition, tournaments being bigger these days and games being beamed on BBC or ITV, Wilkinson and Mooney see this as a huge opportunity to reach a vast number of eyes. Wilkinson named her Euros squad on the summit of Snowdon, the highest point in Wales, pointing out: 'The mountain was used as a theme because qualifying was always going to be an uphill battle, with setbacks. 'But this is a special team. They're strong and don't quit on each other. I've never been prouder. My arrival maybe came just at the right time to ask these players to do things that in the past they weren't ready for. We will surprise people, these names should be known.' Mooney beams excitedly: 'We have the potential to come together to celebrate, to challenge negative gender stereotypes and to boost participation in football at every level. Article continues below 'We want everyone across Wales to be able to feel a part of this extraordinary moment, no matter where they are. We want to bring Wales to the world through football. This is a really special time for the women's game here.' Historically rugby has been viewed as the number one sport in Wales and clearly interest levels for Six Nations and autumn Tests tend to be through the roof, notwithstanding the current mess the Welsh game finds itself in. But, in terms of participation numbers anyway, that No.1 argument has already been won by football - and it is about to be completely blown out of the water. Where Welsh rugby struggles, Mooney feels Welsh football is about to explode further.
