Welcome everybody to Soccer one o one.

My name is Taylor Rockwell, and this week we're talking the UEFA Women's European Championship, aka the women's Euros, the premier competition for national teams in European women's football.

It was launched in the 80s. It continues through to this day, and it has more or less charted the rise of women's football across Europe with powerhouses like Germany, Norway,

and England, most recently Spain, leaving their mark. The 2025 iteration, as I said, kicks

off this week. We're recording this on July 2nd and will feature some strong teams,

some potential dark horses, and even a debutante or two. Here with me to talk about the history

of the competition, its biggest names, the favorites

for this year, and its importance as possibly the highest quality women's international

tournament, is Graham Ruthven, Graham, the opening question for any major international

competition.

How much are you rooting against England?

I mean, and my answer is always the same, very much so.

It doesn't matter the tournament. Thankfully, England have been drawn in a really hard group for, you know, 2025. So there's a chance, Taylor. There's a chance that they might not make it as far as the knockout rounds. And frankly, I'm excited to talk about another tournament that is taking place in this summer off from soccer. Everyone's having a great summer off before the World Cup next year. That's right, isn't it? I'm having a great time. So much time off from the soccer this summer. I mean, there's been nothing to discuss. I always go back to when we first pitched this show as a radio show, a once a week radio show, and we're asked, is there enough soccer a year round to do a weekly show? The answer then was yes. The answer now remains very much yes. Graham, the women's euros. Let's get into it. I gave you a very quick history. I believe you call that a potted history. Let's start with the very basics for people who are new to this one. What is the women's euros? Yeah, so the clue is kind of in the name. It's quite simply the women's

equivalent of listeners will be familiar with the men's euros, of course, that we had,

when was that last year? Well, that feels longer ago than last year. If you're not familiar,

if listeners are not familiar, the Euros are the championships for UEFA national teams that are held once every four years. So you've got the World Cup, right? Which is once every four years for all teams around the world. And then you have regional tournaments, confederational tournaments. So UEFA has one. Conquer CAF has won.

So the Gold Cup on the Men's side is taking place right now. Kaff has the Africa Cup of Nations,

which incidentally the women's Afcon starts this weekend as well. And the Euros are UEFA's continental competition. The men's euros were last year and the women's euros are

this year, this week, as Taylor mentioned. And in terms of the history of the competition,

I will say, it goes back much further than I thought it would, because the first women's

World Cup is 1991, the first women's European championships, 1984. Of course, you only had

16 teams competing in qualifying for that one.

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