Hottest ticket of 2022

Tickets for the final of 2022’s Women’s Euros at Wembley on Sunday, July 31 have been in unprecedented demand. The final was more than six times oversubscribed during the public ballot, and that was after 53,000 tickets had already been snapped up during the pre-sale event. Just a handful of tickets are expected to be available in the general sale event, which begins in June, and then an allocation will be given to each of the national associations whose teams reach the final, but expectation is that the home of English football will be completely sold out.

The tournament in general is set to more than double the cumulative attendance from the previous Euros in Holland in 2017, when just over 240,000 fans went to games. And on the pitch, the competition is wide open. Also, before the summer’s battle for European glory, four of the world’s best sides will be competing in a new, four-team invitational tournament in England, which has been named the Arnold Clark Cup for sponsorship reasons. The Lionesses will face Canada at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium on February 17, Spain at Norwich’s Carrow Road on February 20 and then record eight-time European champions Germany at Molineux three days later, in a round-robin event that could give neutrals more clues as to who might triumph at Wembley in July.

A looming crisis in the sport is…

There are widespread fears across the sport that the abuse scandals that have been emerging in America’s NWSL in 2021 are simply the tip of the iceberg, globally. Allegations first raised as a result of investigations by The Athletic about English coach Paul Riley, who denies sexually coercing and verbally abusing players, have led to more players coming forward about other US-based coaches, but more widely, players have been speaking up around the world. 

There are legitimate concerns that the sport’s governing bodies have not been doing enough – for many years – to protect players from predatory coaches around the globe, and criticisms have been made of the way complaints have been handled. Two dozen players for the Venezuela have accused former their former national team coach Kenneth Zseremeta of sexual harassment and abuse, plus a youth coach at the Argentinian FA remains under investigation by Fifa. Telegraph Sport has since been made aware of suspicions about the conduct of more than a dozen coaches across four different continents, and more victims are understood to be contemplating coming forward.

One prediction

While England are on course to qualify for the 2023 World Cup with ease – exemplified by their ludicrously one-sided 20-0 win over Latvia in November – a much bolder prediction is to say that they will be joined in reaching that tournament by one or more of the other home nations, but it’s a prospect that may well become a reality. Wales, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland are all currently second in their qualifying groups and on course to reach the nine-team play-offs at the end of 2022, while Northern Ireland are also in with a great chance of joining them because they are behind Group D’s second-placed side Austria merely by a goal-difference of one.