Women's competition legacy plans transforming football across Europe

Guided by UEFA and the Swiss Football Association (SFA)’s joint legacy plan 'Here to Stay', Women's EURO 2025 will stimulate long-term and sustainable development in both grassroots and elite women's football.

‘Here to Stay’ includes plans to double the number of girls and women playing football in Switzerland from 40,000 to 80,000, and the number of women working as coaches and referees from 2,500 to 5,000.

At an elite level, the focus is on promoting the next generation of top young athletes and strengthening the standards, venues and visibility of the national Women's Super League.

The SFA will also promote structural changes at a social level to improve the representation of women in football and build capacity for new female leaders.

Building on Women’s EURO 2022 foundations

The legacy plan for Women’s EURO 2025 builds on the foundations of recent women's competitions, including Women's EURO 2022 in England.

Over the past four years, a period which includes the home nation's Women's EURO 2022 victory at Wembley, 129,000 more girls across England's eight host cities have taken part in school football.

In addition, 34,025 more women and girls are playing for fun, with a further 10,356 playing competitively. There are also 298 newly qualified female coaches, and 247 new female referees involved in football.

Leah Williamson and Millie Bright of England lift the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 trophyGetty Images

Boosting women’s football development in Sweden

The impact of this year's European Women’s Under-17 Championship in Sweden and Women’s Under-19 Championship in Lithuania is already becoming evident too.

The Swedish Football Association showed how age-grade competitions could be used to boost nationwide development of the game when Malmö and Lund hosted the Women's Under-17 Championship in May.

An extensive legacy programme deployed in the two cities has already encouraged more girls and women to get into football.

Sweden’s implementation of the UEFA Football in Schools programme was boosted by the Women’s Under-17 Championship, with around 6,000 local children from 40 schools benefitting. The project also attracted some 70 teachers and 40 volunteer coaches to take part in joint club-school workshops.

The officials ahead of the UEFA European Women’s Under-17 Championship match between Belgium and SpainBILDBYRÅN

In addition, the Be a Referee campaign, with a similarity to UEFA’s campaign of the same name, gave aspiring match officials the chance to meet referees in person during the tournament. Within weeks of the final, the number of female referees in the local region had risen from 14 to 23.

For the European Women's Under-19 Championship, which was also won by Spain, the Lithuanian Football Federation launched Let’s Play, a legacy and funding project to encourage more young girls aged 7-11 to play the game.

Almost 900 girls have joined football lessons at 22 schools since the launch, while another 440 have participated in regional tournaments. In addition, 54 teachers and volunteer coaches have attended training sessions.

Youth tournaments in 2025

The impact of UEFA's youth tournaments is set to continue in 2025 with the European Women's Under-17 Championship in the Faroe Islands and the Women's Under-19 Championship in Poland.

May's Under-17 tournament will be used as an inspirational tool for future talent, aiding the development of the women's football talent pathway in the Faroe Islands.

A month later, the Under-19s will follow, just weeks before Poland compete in the Women’s EURO for the first time.

The tournament’s legacy plan, ‘Level The Field’, will aim to increase participation among girls aged 5-14 and to break down stereotypes about women’s football in the host nation.

This will be achieved through organising accessible and appealing football programmes, tournaments, workshops and festivals specifically for young girls, as well as creating a mentorship scheme which connects girls with role models in football.