Is this women's football's actual homecoming?
Does the royal treatment of England's Euro winners signal significant change in the game's wider popularity?
A BBC News reporter with a microphone, a bleary-eyed super fan with an England flag draped around their shoulders and several others lining the barriers behind them. This wasn’t a royal wedding or the King’s birthday. This was the parade to welcome home England’s victorious Euro 2025 team.
Around 65,000 people turned up to The Mall on Tuesday morning to cheer Sarina Wiegman’s side and as a reward for their commitment they got to witness a 10-minute open-top bus procession, followed by a stage presentation that featured Afrobeats juggernaut Burna Boy and M People’s Heather Small.
The celebration just outside of Buckingham Palace was a considerable level up from the 7,000 fans that came to party with the Lionesses in Trafalgar Square after they claimed their first European title back in 2022.
Some fans had turned up at 2am on Tuesday to get a front-row position at the parade, and others had travelled from across the country, spending hours of time and plenty of money just to get a glimpse of their heroes.
It’s surreal to think how much women’s football and the visibility of England’s national team has changed over the last three years. The sheer scale of Tuesday’s event was testament to that. No expense, apart from maybe an additional sound system for the packed crowd, was spared as pyrotechnics and smoke blasted into the air for the much-anticipated trophy lift.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Cutback to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.