Game Changers

As a media organisation that has always championed women’s sport and made it a priority to both invest in our coverage and present and project it in a way that furthers the cause of equality, the Lionesses’ triumph at Euro 2022 represented a huge opportunity for the Guardian.

Throughout the tournament our coverage, led by Suzanne Wrack and Jonathan Liew but involving a big team, had been front and centre of our website and both the news and sport sections of our newspaper. We also launched a new podcast, Women’s Football Weekly, to coincide with the tournament. So when Chloe Kelly scored the winning goal to beat Germany in the final we knew it was vital that we made a statement with a poster front page. While our rivals focused on “football coming home” we wanted to make a statement about the step change that the triumph represented for women’s sport. The image of the team lifting the trophy, alongside the headline “Game changers” and an elegant design that featured the start of Liew’s report made an impact on the newsstand and was greeted warmly by both readers and players. Sales of the paper went up and Millie Bright, the England and Chelsea defender, was pictured brandishing a copy at the team celebrations.