Momentum is rising. Unprecedented cultural attention has pushed women and girls’ sport into the spotlight and onto a new trajectory. In the commercial sector we are seeing record crowds, record investments, record viewing figures, record transfer fees, record commercial deals, alongside new research, new data, new strategies.

2025 will go down as the year women’s sport finally became impossible to ignore. The noise grew louder, the numbers sharper, the stages bigger. Stadiums filled. Digital engagement soared. The calendar looked like something we’d been waiting decades for: Rugby World Cup on home soil, Wembley moments in rugby league, women back at Queen’s Club after half a century, cricket pushing new boundaries, global tournaments arriving one after another.

This summer, I had the privilege of facilitating a Youth Fund panel where young people made real decisions about where funding should be spent across their city. A range of organisations applied to deliver youth activities, and it was the young people on the panel, not the adults in the room, who decided which projects would be supported.