Ladies Euro 2025 sees a record high for female coaches, but still in the minority by men

From tournament Stalwarts Pia Sundhage and Sarina Wiegman to international debutante Rhian Wilkinson, the European championship for ladies that starts on Wednesday in Switzerland, marks a historic high for female coaches.

But although women’s football is one of the better sports for female representation, male coaches still have a slight lead in terms of figures with nine out of 16 teams on Euro 2025 coached by men and seven by women.

The 43.75% of the female coaches is a seismic jump of Euro 2013, where only 18.75% of the teams were coached by women. That figure was almost doubled in 2017 and stable in 2022 at 37.5%.

«It is clear that the progress is being made – slowly but surely,» said the female coaching network. «Of course there is still a long way ahead. Change takes time.»

Lack of success has not been a factor. Between 2000 and the World Cup in 2023, all major women’s football tournaments on belonging-world cup, women’s euros and the Olympic Games were won by teams with women. Norio Sasaki, the man who coached Japan for Gold in World Cup in 2011, was the only exception.

Read also | Ladies Euro 2025: Live-streaming info, layout, prize money, locations and everything you need to know

Wiegman was the last woman who was in Australia in 2023, where England reached their first world cup final and lost to Spain.

Sundhage is by far the most experienced coach at Euro 2025, which has been the head coach of the United States and Sweden for five years, Brazil for four years and now houses Switzerland. She led the Americans to gold on both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

Wilkinson, who coaches Wales in their most important tournament debut, Elisabet Gunnarsdottir (Belgium), Nina Patalon (Poland) and Gemma Grainger (Norway) are the four women who make their management debut in a large senior tournament.

Women represented about 13% of all coaches at the Paris Olympic Games last year, which was almost unchanged compared to the 2020 matches in Tokyo.

Women’s basketball was at the forefront of 50%, followed by football (33%) and hockey (16%). One of the worst was athletics at 13%, ladies rugby sevens (8%) and women’s wave (6%).