Record crowds, star players, prime-time coverage: Women’s Euro 2022 expects to win big

The first ball is still to be kicked, but already records have begun tumbling as England prepares to host the Women’s Euro 2022, which begins on Wednesday.

The curtain raiser, between Austria and England at Old Trafford, takes place against a backdrop of soaring ticket sales, with Uefa revealing on Friday that a record 500,000 have already been snapped up for the 26-day tournament.

All the Lionesses’ group stage games sold out months ago and tickets are no longer available for the Wembley final, where 87,200 spectators are expected on 31 July.

“We’ve already sold double what they sold in the Netherlands for Euro 2017 [a then-record 240,000],” said Baroness Sue Campbell, the FA’s head of women’s football. “We’ve got a total ticket capacity of 725,000 so there’s still availability.”

Due to a pandemic-induced 12-month delay, it is five years since the last tournament was staged in the Netherlands, where 28,102 people watched the host nation beat Denmark 4-2 in the final in Enschede.

To date 43% of seats – priced between £5 and £50 – have been bought by women and 21% ordered for under-16s, while more than 96,000 – another record – have been bought by overseas fans in 99 countries.

It’s not just in the stands that record numbers will be watching. For the first time almost all of the 31 matches will be broadcast on either BBC One or BBC Two.

With most games kicking off at 8pm, Uefa is confident of exceeding the 178 million worldwide television viewers who tuned in to Euro 2017.

Indeed, the expectation is that more than 250 million viewers will tune in to watch an event for which TV rights have been sold to countries across Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, north Africa and Asia.

“Our aim is twofold,” said