Massive moment Can Euros give a huge boost for women's league?

Kitted out in an "Everyone is Watching the Lionesses" T-shirt before boarding a flight to Basel, the Women's Super League (WSL) chief executive, Nikki Doucet, describes England's extraordinary progress to a third successive major final as another "ignition moment" for the sport, but the international game has long since been on fire.

- Matt Hughes

While not everyone has been watching in an increasingly fractured television landscape, ITV's peak audience of 10.2 million for England's dramatic semi-final win over Italy on Tuesday was their biggest of the year, and with live coverage of tomorrow's final against Spain shared with the BBC, more broadcast records seem likely to tumble.

The challenge for Doucet and the clubs is to convert more of the millions captivated by women's football every other summer into regular fans who attend matches, watch games on TV and buy the increasingly bespoke merchandise. With 84 WSL players involved at a European Championship that has seen every match broadcast live on terrestrial TV, the last few weeks have been a marketing department's dream, particularly with homegrown heroes emerging such as Michelle Agyemang.

"Women's football is growing, period," Doucet says. "If England win on Sunday there's going to be another massive moment, but even if they don't win everyone is still going to want to watch Michelle and Chloe [Kelly]. They're still going to want to come and watch Hannah [Hampton]. They're going to want to come and watch Olivia Smith now. And we haven't talked about [Australian superstar forward] Sam Kerr coming back [from injury] for Chelsea.

"There are more and more icons, more and more players that people want to come and watch, more and more stories that they know."

The WSL was able to use England's historic success in winning the 2022 European Championship to grow the competition, with match-day attendances across the league increasing by 172% and TV viewing figures rising by 33% the following season, but is better placed now to take full advantage of Lioness fever.