Bullingham: 'An amazing time to be an England fan'

FA CEO Mark Bullingham has lauded the Lionesses after seeing them reach a third successive major tournament final at UEFA Women’s EURO 2025.

Speaking in an interview with former England international Jill Scott at the squad’s base in Switzerland, Bullingham spoke about the progress made in recent years as well as the hard work being done behind the scenes to both build upon and sustain the success of our women’s and men’s teams.

Bullingham has been with Sarina Wiegman and her squad at their basecamp in Zurich throughout the EUROs so far, seeing the team progress through their group stage and then two thrilling knockout games with Sweden and Italy, to set up a place in Sunday’s final when they will face Spain in Basel.

"I'm definitely ten years older than I was a week ago, like every England fan across the country,” he said. "But feeling fantastic, it's brilliant to make another final and I'm just so proud of everyone involved.

"The players have been so resilient, with a never-say-die attitude and they've kept going the whole time so we're just so proud of them.

"I think Sarina is such a special manager, her record is better than anyone in the men's or women's game, with five finals in five tournaments which is just unbelievable.

"It's an amazing time to be an England fan and I keep telling my kids day-to-day that it shouldn't be taken for granted.

“I grew up wanting England to qualify for tournaments and if you look at it since the men won in '66, in that next 50 years we got to one major tournament final and now we've had five in five years across the men's and women's, so it's an incredible time to be an England fan and we just want to keep going.”

One pleasing aspect for both Bullingham and Wiegman has been the emergence of younger players breaking into the senior squad, with the likes of Michelle Agyemang, Grace Clinton, Jess Park, Lauren James and more all featuring this summer having come through the England pathway since their maiden EURO title win in 2022.

"It's magic, the pathway has been worked on for a long time by a lot of people across the FA and it's really coming to fruition and that's so good,” he added.

"Of course we want more and there's more we can do, but there’s young players coming through and we've got six of the team here who played in the U20s World Cup in 2018 so the pathway is definitely working and we've got more to come through.

"It's not easy [to play] at this level, and for some like Michelle who haven't had much club football, that's one of our biggest challenges - how we get the clubs to give them a chance because there's so much talent there that we want them to be able to play.

"But she's [Agyemang] taken everything in her stride brilliantly and really lit up the tournament.

"The more we can get those players the opportunities, whether it's a loan or playing for their club, we can get them to come through and play in the way that we know they can which would be exciting for the future of English football.”

Bullingham also paid tribute to the impact made on the grassroots game for women and girls since England’s EURO title win on home soil in 2022.

A grassroots coach himself, he’s witnessed first-hand how the success of England women on and off the pitch has provided inspiration for girls across the country.

"I've coached for the last ten years, and seen the impact that the Lionesses have had, particularly in the girls' game and the growth that they've helped drive,” he explained.

“Our team has done a lot of work to ensure they've got the pathways and opportunities in schools and clubs.

"It should be possible for every young girl to have a local opportunity and that's what we've worked hard on, but there's no doubt that the Lionesses have inspired that and another good tournament run definitely helps.

"We don't take it for granted, it's incredibly hard and the rest of the world is investing in women's football and definitely want to catch up.

“The key thing for us is we've got really good work that's gone on the pathway and we've got talent coming through, but we've just got to make sure that talent gets the opportunity to play because otherwise we don't get the potential turning into a well-rounded player that's ready and able to play in the tournaments.”

And as the nation’s eyes turn to Sunday’s EURO 2025 final, Bullingham is backing the Lionesses to continue on their journey under Wiegman.

"I think they're an amazing team and we've got to back them,” he said.

“They've been so resilient throughout and of course as we know, it's a tough opposition but we've got to get behind the Lionesses.”