Lionesses Roar into Final! Plus, How Many Games is TOO Many?

Image: Daniel courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Welcome to the latest edition of The Rest is Football newsletter, your weekly round-up of some of the stories and debates shared by Gary, Alan and Micah over the past week, with a few extra bits and pieces thrown in. 

If YOU’VE got a question for one or all of our TRIF trio then submit it using the form below for a chance to have it answered on the next TRIF questions episode. Leave your name, or don’t if you want to remain anonymous.

England’s Lionesses make history with title retention on foreign soil

A special Ep of the pod dropped on Monday after Sarina Wiegman’s England Lionesses had beaten Spain on penalties to retain the women’s Euros they won three years ago at Wembley.

And what another dramatic occasion it was! England fell behind in the first half before Alessia Russo nodded a brilliantly-placed equaliser from Chloe Kelly’s cross.

The score stayed at 1-1 until the end of extra time, meaning the title went down to penalties. England keeper Hannah Hampton was one of the heroines of the shootout as Spain failed to score three of their spot-kicks in a row, with Hampton saving two of them. She’d also produced heroics in normal time to deny Spain more than once.

Chloe Kelly was the other standout figure in the shootout, converting England’s vital fifth kick, but there were heroines across the pitch on Sunday, not least Lucy Bronze, who revealed after the trophy presentation that she’d played the entire tournament with a fractured tibia! WTAF?

England’s success underlined the astonishing achievements of Sarina Wiegman as a coach. She has now won the past three Euros as a coach, first with the Netherlands in 2017, then with England at Euro 2021 (in 2022) and then with England this year.

Astonishingly, she has coached teams at the last FIVE major finals - the past three Euros plus the 2019 World Cup final (where the Netherlands were runners-up to the USA) and the 2023 World Cup (where England were runners-up to Spain). 

Euro 2025 was the first time any senior England team, men or women, has won a major trophy on foreign soil. 

The Lionesses also became the first team to win a single-legged Euros final after being behind at half-time. They had trailed in all three knockout matches but showed the ultimately resilience to prevail every time.

Daily Brightness - celebrating another landmark Lionesses win

Gary introduced Monday’s special pod and then handed over to Rachel Daly and Millie Bright, who host ‘The Rest Is Football: Daly Brightness.’ Both Rachel and Millie were part of the England team who won the Euros three years ago and both were World Cup runners-up in 2023.

“England are European champions once again, back to back,” said Rachel, recording a special Ep to celebrate. “The Lionesses have just defended their crown after a brilliant and dramatic victory against Spain on penalties. 

“Mill, how emotionally drained are you after that one?”

Millie replied: “I feel like I've been at the tournament, to be honest, the last few weeks. Literally, I was like, I feel like I'm playing this match… Emotionally, I feel like I've been there. I feel so drained…

“Honestly, it's crazy, but unbelievable. And yeah, I think the resilience the girls have showed the whole tournament. And yes, it's not been a perfect journey, but who gives a shit? You've got a medal around your neck, you're lifting the trophy again, and you've made history back to back champions. Nothing else matters.”

Both Rachel and Millie said Chloe is the best crosser of a ball either of them have played with, and also that Alessia’s header for the equaliser was much harder than it looked. That had both also predicted a 2-1 win to England - but were delighted the Lionesses won on pens, if not that they missed the post-match party!

Glorious mayhem on the Mall

The Lionesses celebrated their victory with an open top bus parade in London on Tuesday that took them along The Mall to a stage in front of the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace. When they won Euro 2021 (in 2022), some 7,000 fans turned out for their victory party in Trafalgar Square. On Tuesday, the streets around the Palace were heaving with more than 65,000 fans.  

The England squad had flown back to the UK on Monday - to Southend airport, with their landing live on TV! - before attending a reception at Downing Street.

"I've been crying all the way down The Mall," said England captain and Arsenal star, Leah Williamson, 28, at Tuesday’s parade. "This is unbelievable, probably one of the best things we've been a part of … We’re making history every single step. Stay with us, this story is not done yet.”

Sarina Wiegman got a surprise when her favourite singer, Burna Boy, came onto the stage to sing with her, and she sang and danced along as he sang For My Hand.

England women: bigger than the “best" club tournament in the world

England's Lionesses win against Spain in the final got an average TV audience of 12m people across the BBC and ITV, peaking at 16.2m, which made it the most-watched TV event of the yearso far in the UK. On top of that there were another 4.2m streams of the match being watched on iPlayer, the BBC App and the BBC website, suggesting that perhaps 20m people tuned in to some or all of the coverage in the UK.

The newsletter doesn’t find these amazing numbers particularly surprising because the women’s game has been on the up for years in England, and the England women’s team have been excelling at the highest level, winning the Euros in 2022 and 2025 and reaching the World Cup final in Australia in 2023.

What perhaps is surprising is how far ahead in viewing terms the Lionesses were against the men’s new 32-team Club World Cup (CWC). Chelsea won that by beating PSG in the final and the TV audience in the UK (on free-to-air Channel 5) averaged just 1.1m people, peaking at 2.3m.

Of course Channel 5 is slightly niche, and if the tournament had been free-to-air on the BBC, then the audience would have been bigger, but quite probably not as big as England’s final win.

There was also the issue of the new CWC being a relatively minor event, being new and untested, even thought FIFA hyped it massively. It was staged in the USA which didn’t make for great viewing hours in the UK. Attendances were patchy. Games were disrupted by weather events. Neutrals were never really going to be very interested, as opposed to most England football fans taking an interest in the Lionesses.

And the “main” broadcaster for the CWC, DAZN, while making matches free to everyone, anywhere in the world, did require fans to set up an account and hand over an email address and contact details to get access. That would have put off many people, and neither DAZN nor FIFA have released any viewing data to show how big (or probably small) the viewing numbers were.

Even on free-to-air TV in the USA, the CWC host nation where Inter Miami (and Lionel Messi) were among the American teams involved, CWC matches only average 1.3m per game.

The CWC was, in reality, a small global event in viewing terms, and will almost certainly grow over time. But the women’s Euro - already well established, and with a team like England capable of delivering drama almost every time they take the pitch - was always going to have a better chance of delivering better audiences. 

More than a month of the transfer window left … and PL clubs have already spent £1.7bn+ 

The record transfer window in Premier League history for the most money ever spent was in summer 2023, when the 20 clubs combined spent £2.4bn, gross, on new players.

Already this summer, by Wednesday evening of this week, the 20 clubs who will play in the 2025-26 Premier League, had spent £1.758 BILLION, gross, and appear on course to smash the record from two years ago.

In the table below, the newsletter has compiled the summer spending so far of the coming season’s Premier League clubs, with the gross spent, gross receipts and net spend for each club plus the biggest individual buy and biggest sale for each club.

Liverpool lead the way with new players … and they’re not done yet

Liverpool had the biggest gross summer spend by midweek, splashing out £291m gross, and £170m net so far on new players including Florian Wirtz at £116m. The big issue is whether they will also seal a deal for Newcastle’s Alexander Isak.

The numbers and deals speak for themselves but Arsenal, both Manchester clubs and Tottenham have also already each spent net sums of between £100m and £200m this summer, while Chelsea’s gross spend was almost £200m by midweek, although they have also sold players worth  close to £150m.

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Kind regards.

The Rest Is Football team