Women's Euro 2025 final to cap £800m boost for UK supermarkets, pubs and retailers

The Guardian

2 days ago

The climax of the exhilarating women's Euros, as the Lionesses attempt to atone for their loss to Spain at the World Cup, is poised to be the most-watched women's football match in UK history with the tournament providing a more than £800m boost to supermarkets, pubs and retailers.
With Sunday's showdown aired on both ITV and the BBC, and their respective streaming services, TV industry executives expect that, with the help of a family-friendly 5pm kick-off time, viewing will eclipse the 14.8 million peak audience when England lost 1-0 to Spain in Sydney two years ago, if the match is close.
England's series of thrillers, after a drubbing in the opening match, has led to a surge in popularity for the tournament, with the semi-final win over Italy providing ITV with its biggest TV audience of the year.
The growing momentum means that, by the final whistle on Sunday evening, it is estimated that the UK public will have spent more than £800m during the tournament, according to research by GlobalData for VoucherCodes. This is £221m more than was spent by consumers during the women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2023.
On the day of the final, consumers are expected to spend almost £184m in pubs and other venues, as well as at retail outlets from supermarkets and sports stores to electrical goods sellers, and on merchandise.
With most fans expected to choose to watch the final at home, supermarkets are likely to be the biggest winners. Almost £100m will be spent on food and drink this weekend, with home shopping for food and drink accounting for more than 70% of the total £801m splurged across the tournament.
Tesco expects a 15% jump in spending on products related to the Euros this weekend and has estimated that more than 450,000 bottles of champagne and sparkling wine will be sold to fans to celebrate an England victory – or drown their sorrows.
However, Spain will come out on top in the battle of beer, with Spanish lager brands such as San Miguel, Cruzcampo and Estrella Damm dominating consumer choice in recent years.
'It's ironic that while England football fans will be cheering on the Lionesses on Sunday afternoon the beer of choice is likely to be Spanish,' said David Albon, a beer buyer at Tesco. 'It is a real coincidence that the rise in popularity of Spanish beer in the UK has coincided with the rise of Spain in sports such as tennis, and in football the nation is the current women's world champions.'
The Co-op is expecting to see a 30% sales increase for its ready-to-drink cocktail cans on the day of the final.
Asda estimates that it will sell more than 6m pints and 300,000 pizzas this weekend – and has launched a promotion whereby fans can buy a 'Half & Half' pizza with England and Spanish ingredients – as well as 1.3m bags of crisps.
It is estimated that 13m pints will be consumed during Sunday's game, 8.7m by fans watching at home, and 4.3m by about 4.5 million people expected to watch the game in hospitality venues.
Overall, fans are forecast to spend almost £71m in venues on Sunday, more than double the amount spent across each of the quarter-final and semi final rounds.
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'We've gone all out this summer to give the women's game the stage it deserves, showing every minute of every match in all our sports pubs,' said Michelle West, the head of sport at Greene King. 'But our commitment goes beyond the screen – from chant books to cheer on the Lionesses, to drink promotions when England score and the introduction of our new 'Cheers Her' pale ale, we've worked hard to enhance the in-pub atmosphere for women's sport and we're seeing a significant rise in matchday turnout as a result.'
With female players on the pitch, the Euros are much more appealing to women and girls – who are expected to account for 53% of all viewers.
And with young stars such as the 18-year-old match-winning hero Michelle Agyemang, the youngest player in the squad, there is huge appeal among younger female viewers. Almost 5 million under-18s are expected to tune into matches, according to GlobalData/VoucherCodes.
With more in-home, less-male dominated viewing across the family-friendly tournament, 18m cups of tea are expected to be sipped, 7.9m coffees and 15.4m glasses of juice and smoothies.
Nevertheless, the great British tradition of beer and football is not yet under threat. The pint remains the firm football favourite, with almost 52m expected to be drunk across the tournament – 13m of those on Sunday – but whether by the final whistle it will be in jubilation or commiseration remains to be seen.