The return of the Women’s European Championships in 2022 to England, 17 years after it had first been held in the country, coincided with England’s golden generation which saw them win their first ever major tournament trophy under the Wembley arch, courtesy of Chloe Kelly’s 110th-minute winner.
While the 2005 edition was held exclusively across North-West England, 2022 saw two venues in South Yorkshire, including a quarter-final and a semi-final hosted in the region. The 2005 tournament was lauded as a success and could be considered to have kickstarted the growth of women’s football in the North West. But how did the 2022 tournament impact South Yorkshire?
Match Attendances
Over 119,000 fans passed through the turnstiles across the eight games held across South Yorkshire – four at Rotherham United’s New York Stadium, and four at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane. This included England’s sell-out semi-final victory against Sweden, and saw an average of nearly 15,000 each game, filling the stadiums to an average of three-quarters capacity.
The four games in The Steel City all filled out crowds of more than 20,000, and it is estimated by Sheffield City Council that this brought 10,000 more people into Sheffield on each match day, generating a total of £8.3 million in an income boost to the local economy.
In Rotherham, while the attendances weren’t as large on paper because of the smaller size of the New York Stadium, there was still a considerable amount of value added through football to the city centre. UEFA’s post tournament report stated that for the France vs Italy match, there was a 193% increase in footfall compared to the previous year and a 137% increase from the previous week. Such an increase in footfall is likely to have brought a considerable boost to local businesses in Rotherham through visitor spending.
Rotherham had the lowest estimated Gross Value Added (GVA) across all of the host towns and cities, however the fan events in the city centre saw some local businesses receive up to six times their usual income, according to councillor Chris Siddall, as quoted in the post-tournament report.
Impact on South Yorkshire
Prior to the tournament, UEFA published a pre-tournament impact report which outlined the key development goals in hosting games in both Sheffield and Rotherham.
| Goal |
|---|
| Over 500,000 new opportunities to engage women and girls in football across Host Cities |
| Over 20,000 more women and girls playing football recreationally |
| Over 7,000 more women and girls playing football in clubs/grassroots |
| Over 1,000 women and girls taking the FA Playmaker coaching course |
| Over 300 additional FA-qualified female coaches in the women’s game |
| Over 350 additional FA-qualified female referees in the women’s game |
The ambitions of the legacy programme set out by the FA and UEFA beforehand outlined six key areas for growth – focusing around increasing women’s representation at all levels of the game, particularly at grassroots level.
While there was significant progress in the first four, the goals were less successful across coaches and referees nationwide, with the female referees target significantly behind what was expected.
South Yorkshire’s clubs
Some South Yorkshire clubs benefitted from an increase in attendances as part of the professional game’s massively increased attendances – something that was seen across Europe as WSL attendances rose by 173% between the 2021-22 and 2023-24 seasons.
Sheffield United Women moved their home games from the Olympic Legacy Park to Bramall Lane in the years following the tournament, with the move being rewarded by significantly increased attendances in the Women’s Championship – including a record-breaking crowd of over 11,000 for their 2023 home game against London City Lionesses.
The impact on South Yorkshire’s other clubs has been more unclear – Doncaster Rovers Belles continue to struggle and suffered relegation to the 5th tier in 2024/25, having won the Women’s Championship as recently as 2018, and being a WSL founder member in 2011.
Barnsley Women FC and Rotherham United Women have also made no significant progress through the leagues since over the last few years, and it is likely that there are now going to be no South Yorkshire clubs in the top two tiers for the first time in decades, pending Sheffield United’s imminent relegation to the Women’s National League.
