Beyond the Summer: Securing Lasting Investment for Women’s Sport in Wales

What an amazing summer of sport we have had to remember and celebrate! The Euro Championships, the Women’s Open in Porthcawl, the women’s team at Glamorgan building the pathway to turn pro and the Women’s Rugby World Cup. As the summer‘s events draw to a close with the World Cup selling far more than double the number of tickets for the 2021 World Cup, one thing is clear: Wales has a significant opportunity for the sport, education and health sectors to unite, setting the vision, policies and investment needed to deliver true equity and equality for women and girls across the nation. Our next challenge is to ensure that the focus lasts beyond the excitement of this summer of sport.

Image courtesy of Football Association of Wales

Wales Women’s player Jess Fishlock celebrates with her arms raised during the UEFA Women’s EURO 2025. Beside her, Ffion Morgan claps in support, while in the background Rachel Rowe stands with her hands on her hips. All three players are wearing Wales’ mint-green away kit with marine-blue detailing

According to the UN, if we continue at the current pace of change, achieving economic parity for women will take another 300 years! That’s more than 10 future generations of young Welsh girls who will still be missing out. Wales is working hard to change the fortunes of future generations through legislation - and this must be on the priority list too.

Demand for and interest in women’s sport exists and is growing. 

Records are falling across every sport. The UEFA Women’s EUROs sold 600,000 tickets before the first match, with 35% of fans travelling from overseas to Switzerland. Back in March, the Wales rugby union team made history with a record-breaking 18,000 fans cheering them on against England in the Women’s Six Nations at the Principality Stadium.

Golf also had its moment in the spotlight, with more than 47,000 fans attending the Championship at Royal Porthcawl, the largest women’s sporting event ever held in Wales, and generating 70.6m Instagram video plays and a further 19.3 million TikTok views. Meanwhile, the Rugby World Cup 2025 has already sold out Twickenham for the Final on 25 September, and by kick-off in July had sold over 400,000 tickets, selling three times the number of tickets compared to the World Cup in 2021.

It’s not just the fans wanting to get involved. More and more companies are backing women’s sport too, realising the rewards that come with investing in this fast-growing movement. The Women’s UEFA EURO 2025 attracted a group of 20 brands, including Amazon, Lidl, PepsiCo, and Visa, marking the largest sponsorship programme ever for the tournament. 

The results from the Football Association of Wales (FAW) are one step closer to the future we are advocating for. Following their 2023/24 season, the FAW have seen an increase of 45% in participation; an 198% increase in attendance at national teams games, and investment in women’s and girls’ football in Wales has increased by 254% since 2021.

These statistics are nothing short of phenomenal. To some of us who have been rallying behind women’s sport for decades, it’s beyond exhilarating to see the world finally catch up, and the gatekeepers who have knowingly or otherwise kept women out of sport open up their grounds to growing numbers of enthusiastic supporters.

And those supporters are different. Bristol City are thinking of trialling alcohol in their grounds for WSL matches. What was banned in legislation for men’s football in 1985 due to the hooliganism and violent outbursts faced at matches, in women’s football a far more relaxed and congenial atmosphere means that the unthinkable might just actually be possible.

All this paints an incredibly rosy picture for women’s sport. Some even ask us why Cymru Women’s Sport is launching our first strategy this winter.

Whilst the international and elite picture of an incredible uptick in support and investment at elite level cannot be denied, research published by Sport Wales has shown that up to 94% of girls aged 7–16 want to do more sport, which is echoed across all intersections of society; ethnicity, socio-economic status and disability. Girls from ethnicities other than white also not only want to do more sport but are the least frequent participants. 

We are still not meeting the needs and wants of young girls at grassroots level. And what are those future generations, if not those who could go on to elite level sport one day? If we don’t improve the opportunities for all women and girls, the fanfare of seeing our Welsh sides competing at international level will never go beyond the group stages, but more to the point, we will be failing to provide yet more generations of girls the opportunity to develop healthy and sustainable relationships with sport and physical activity.

We are also just about to head into the darker months, where close to half of all women will change their physical activity habits because it becomes unsafe for them to exercise early in the morning or after work. We are working with a company called Route Buddies to showcase the need for safe routes for women and girls to run and use on their way to take part in activities. Yet their data shows that a shocking number of women have either been accosted or shouted at while running, and horrifically, the number of cases of women being spat at is on the rise.

Welsh women’s sport may be riding high, but we must not mistake recent successes for lasting change. The progress is real, yet we are still a long way from true equality.

That’s why we’ve set out a Manifesto for the 2026 Senedd elections and are ready to work hand in hand with government, industry and communities to deliver genuine, long-term impact. At Cymru Women’s Sport, our mission is simple: advocate, celebrate, and connect. And right now, our priority is making sure this unforgettable summer of sport is transformed into lasting investment and focus on the intersectional needs of women and girls across Wales.