Will Euro 2025 Finally be the Wakeup Call Italy Needs to Popularise Women’s Football?
Italy has undoubtedly gained a reputation of being one of the world’s footballing giants.
Serie A, the top tier of football in Italy has become a global staple within the international football fandom as have the Azzuri, the Italian National Team.
Italy remains one of the most successful countries at the World Cup having won four titles in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006.
Whilst all attention is focused on the men’s game one must ask where this leaves Women’s Football in Italy. With Italy having qualified for the Euros in Switzerland next summer, would this help popularise the women’s game?
Le Azzure
Much like the prowess of their male counterparts, the Italian Women’s National Football Team, also referred to as the Azzure, are currently ranked 13th by the official FIFA Women’s World Rankings.
It is clear that the Italian women’s team is not suffering from a lack of talent or sporting resources, but they are certainly missing the exposure that is needed to popularise the women’s game in the country. This is something Italy’s participation in the Euros next summer could change.
On one hand, one could argue that Italy’s appearance at the FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup helped spread Italian women’s football on a national level.
Daniele Fisichella is a London-based Italian football journalist who has worked extensively with brands such as TalkSport and GOAL. Speaking to The Sports Gazette, he explained how the 2023 World Cup served as an avenue to attract more viewership of the women’s game.
“At the last World Cup in July, played in July in Australia and New Zealand, Italy played the first game of the World Cup at 8am in the morning. This was watched by almost a million people on the rest of television, a TV share of almost 21%, which made that game the most watched program in the morning in the entire Italian TV.”
“The Lionesses Effect”
As was the case for England when the Lionesses won the last Euros in 2022, English women’s football was thrust into the public eye. Around 50 million people tuned in to see the Euro 2022 final between England and Germany three times that of the 2017 final.
To demonstrate the impact of this victory, between June 2022 before the tournament and December 2022, registration amongst youth girl football teams went up by 15%.
“I think there is the opportunity there”, said Fischella on how the 2025 Euros could impact engagement with Italian women’s football.
“I think as I said, there is an appetite for whatever is football, any type of football, Italy is a big footballing nation.”
Fisichella maintains the belief the future looks bright but long for engagement with women’s football in Italy.
“I think the market for women’s football can only grow. The public following women’s football on social media is around 200, 000 people in Italy, which is an increase by 38, 000 compared to last year. These are off-field statistics from the F. A., it’s a big increase, but that tells you that the road ahead is still, still very, very long.”
