Former England international Alex Scott used her country's European Championships success to send a powerful reminder to Premier League clubs.
Scott, who retired from international football in 2017 with 140 caps, was in the BBC studio as Sarina Wiegman's England team beat Germany to win the Euros for the first-time. Chloe Kelly's extra-time goal was the decider after a tense 120 minutes at Wembley Stadium.
While Wembley hosted the final and Old Trafford was the site of the curtain-raiser, a number of Premier League clubs turned down the opportunity to play host to matches in the tournament. And Scott used the occasion to remind those top-flight sides of their decision.
"In 2018 we were begging people to host in their stadiums a women's game for these Euros" Scott said. "So many people said no.
"I hope you're all looking at yourselves right now because you weren't brave enough to see the vision," she added. Host Gabby Logan then made a point of referencing questions from those watching at home about the size of stadiums used in the tournament, and Scott was forthright in her response.
"I’m not standing up at corporate events in front of sponsors anymore begging for them to get involved in the women’s game because you know what? If you’re not involved, you’ve missed the boat, you’ve missed the train," the ex-footballer continued. "Because look at this… it has finally left the station and it is gathering speed.”
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England won every single game at the tournament, scoring 22 goals and conceding just twice. The final broke the record for the largest attendance for any men's or women's Euros match, with more than 87,000 people packing into the national stadium but other host grounds were far smaller.
Four of the host venues had capacities of less than 20,000, including the Brentford Community Stadium in London and New York Stadium in Rotherham, while Manchester City's academy stadium has a capacity of less than 10,000. Iceland's Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir described the choice of stadiums as "shocking" in the light of the recent record crowd at a club game between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
“They are not prepared for that, that we will sell more tickets than 4,000," Gunnarsdottir told the Their Pitch podcast (via The Guardian ). "It’s disrespectful towards women’s football at this stage because it’s so much bigger than people think. But there will be games in big stadiums and I’m pretty sure they’re going to be sold out.”
A crowd of 91,553 were present at Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium for the Champions league game between the two Spanish giants, with Barca winning 5-2. "Women's football is more than just women's football, you can absolutely make money on it, look at this tonight," Barcelona star Caroline Graham Hansen told DAZN after that game.
"It's not just 91,000 here, it's 91,000 having fun. If you're having fun, people will want to repeat it. This is going to be a game-changer, not just for our team but for the women's game."
