Women’s soccer has been given a huge boost with the news that the BBC is to show live coverage of next summer’s European Championship matches in Sweden.
Each of the three England group games as well as any quarter final they make, both semi finals and the final will be shown live across BBC3 and BBC2.
England will play Spain on July 12th, Russia on July 15th and France on July 18th in their bid to reach the quarter finals and possibly more.
This is the first time the tournament has received mainstream broadcast coverage in Britain since its inception in 1984.  The BBC said the main reason for buying the rights was the great response to the broadcast of women’s soccer during the Olympics which proved there was “a strong appetite” for women’s sport on TV.
The Irish national team under manager Sue Ronan just missed out on second place in their qualifying group.  France emerged victorious after two wins over the Irish team but they finished the campaign well with a 2-0 win over Israel and recently competed before large crowds in two challenge matches against the USA.
Katie Taylor, who has represented Ireland in soccer as well as boxing, is likely to be crowned Sports Personality of the year this weekend and has been to the fore of a great year for women’s sport.  Next year the Irish Rugby Sevens team will compete in the World Cup Finals in Russia and Women’s sport is without doubt a rising force, albeit without yet having secured comparable levels of funding.
This is an area which Sport for Business will focus on with our sports and business partners in 2013.
[ismember] Key take away for Sport: In a year without a major international men's Championship event there will be potential opportunities for sports that do not regularly attain mainstream coverage to do so next summer.
Key Take away for Business: Women's sport benefits from only 1% of the commercial support that goes towards the men's side but can deliver a dedicated audience with great potential to expand at a much reduced cost of entry.[/ismember]
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