An iconic tournament for a number of reasons, 1988 saw the final European Championship appearances of some of its most successful teams as, for various political reasons, West Germany, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia no longer existed by 1992. England euro cup Kelly took her shirt off to celebrate her goal, earning a yellow card but also a shout-out from Brandi Chastain, who celebrated in similar style when her penalty kick won the World Cup for the U.S. in 1999. “Enjoy the free rounds of pints and dinners for the rest of your life from all of England. Cheers!” Chastain wrote on Twitter.
The morning after England beat Germany—on a day when London’s FTSE 100 index dropped 0.7%—Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank noted how the usual way of things had come unglued in 2021. “I can’t believe at the start of my career that equity markets genuinely went up in countries that won important matches at major tournaments,” he wrote in an investor note. “Life was so much simpler back then.” How do I get tickets to the UEFA European Championship? The sport, relegated to parks and rugby pitches, has been toiling to recover ever since. The FA reversed the ban in 1971, but, like most soccer federations worldwide, it never truly invested in the women's game until recently. It delegated governance to a separate "Women's FA" until 1993. When England met Germany in the 2009 Euro final, just 13 short years ago, most of its players were semi-professional. Their annual salaries were tiny fractions of the roughly $67,000 that each of England's 2022 players will make for winning Sunday's final. Their games, prior to the 2009 semifinal and final, were not shown on TV.