“This is more than a tournament. It’s a movement, and the response from across Europe and beyond proves that women’s football is not only here to stay – it is setting the new standard.”
Those were the words of Nadine Kessler, a former Germany international who is now UEFA’s women’s football director during Euro 2025.
Much of that appears undeniable: UEFA says they sold more tickets before the group stage even began than it had in the whole of Euro 2022. Social media engagements are up 55% since then and the prize pot has increased by 156% to €41 million ($47.5 million).
But, although Poland made their Euros bow this year, the movement has not quite reached the rest of the east and parts of southern Europe. Despite winning their final group game against Denmark, Poland exited at the group stage, as have the only other sides ever to have qualified from eastern Europe (as defined by the United Nations) — Ukraine in 2009, and Russia five times between 1997 and their ban from international football in 2022.
This stands in stark contrast to men’s football, where 11 of the 24 teams at the last men’s Euros, in Germany in 2024, were from the region, albeit without enormous success. Croatia (again, defined as eastern Europe by the UN) were one of those teams, and were losing finalists in the 2018 World Cup and semifinals in Qatar four years later. Their women, on the other hand, have not yet come close to qualifying for a World Cup or Euros.
Goran Ljubojevic, the former coach and now sporting director of serial Croatian women’s champions ZNK Osijek, told DW that the region was always playing catch-up, with clubs only starting to add women’s programs in the 90s, and that investment in the women’s game was scarce. But he also believes societal norms are holding the sport back.
‘A man’s game’
“The cultural problem in our countries is that people think girls should not play football, that mostly they should stay home and be housewives or something,” he told DW. The European Union’s Gender Equality index, published in 2024, bears this out to some degree, with no eastern countries above the EU average.
“I don’t know that it will ever happen that we will see a shift in the male brain in Croatia, and that this part of Europe will ever accept women’s football on that level like they do in western Europe and or the USA.”
But Ljubojevic, who played for NK Osijek (ZNK Osiek is the women’s section of the club) and Dinamo Zagreb, said seeing sold-out stadiums and widespread interest in tournaments like the Euros is having an impact in his homeland, and the east and south of the continent more broadly.
“People saw the games in the European Championship, they saw the World Cup in Australia [and New Zealand in 2023], they saw full stadiums and were like ‘wow, I really didn’t know that many people watch women’s football.’ So, something shifts in their mind. But even with that, I think the infrastructure is still not good enough for women’s football to rise up here.”
Despite being the most successful side in the country, ZNK Osijek draw crowds of only about 300 for their home matches. As Ljubojevic sees it, the talent is there, it just requires investment in coaching, infrastructure and paying players enough for them to be full-time professionals.
Increasing budgets
UEFA has put new schemes in to place in the region in recent years, and these are starting to have an impact, according to Professor Dariusz Wojtaszyn, from the University of Wroclaw in Poland.
“There have been many positive developments in recent years. They are driven by initiatives of UEFA and local football associations, which, albeit slowly, are beginning to recognize the potential of women’s football,” the academic, who has written extensively on eastern European women’s football, told DW.
“Women’s football budgets have increased significantly (usually more than 100%) in all CEE [Central and Eastern European] countries. That is why I view UEFA’s initiatives very positively. They really do bring tangible results.”
UEFA told DW in a written statement that the revamped competitions, including the Champions League and Europa League “have ensured that all competitions and all final tournaments remain open and accessible to clubs and teams from all associations. Over this period we’ve seen impressive performances from eastern European clubs at both club, national team and youth national team level and we will continue to work with the respective associations, as we do with all our member associations, with the goal of improving performance and the development of football on a pan-European level.”
History and politics
But Wojtaszyn thinks that the politics of the region have been holding it back. Although the communist systems that governed many of these countries until the 1990s professed to be gender-equal, they actually produced a “paternalistic model of family and traditional social relations, which limited the possibilities for women’s emancipation,” according to Wojtaszyn. The fall of communism then entrenched issues still further.
“The collapse of the state sponsorship system that had existed in previous decades caused significant economic problems for football clubs. Under such conditions, women’s football, which was generating less interest, found it extremely difficult to compete for sponsors in the free market with its male competitors. Therefore, teams struggled financially, pitches were in very poor condition and female players played amateur sports,” he said.
More recently, he added, the rise of right-wing parties in countries like Romania, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary — and a resurgence of “traditional” values that came with that — have made professional football an unattractive proposition for many women.
Although his players still need other jobs to make ends meet, Ljubojevic has great hope for the future, even if he feels significant investment and education is required.
See it to be it
“We have a huge talent pool, the same as in men’s football, but nobody has coached them properly,” he said. “It will be much, much better in a few years. I will tell you that we have great talents, we have great players, and we [ZNK Osijek] are now really working at the highest level.”
Poland are expecting to see a surge in participation from their Euros campaign, with national team head coach Nina Patalon predicting growth from 30,000 to 300,000 female players in the country post-tournament.
Ljubojevic thinks that Croatia, and perhaps other countries in the region, need something similar to kick-start their women’s football scene.
Although Poland lost out on hosting 2025, and no eastern European countries have bid for 2029, he would like to see Croatia become the first country in his region to host a tournament.
“Yes, we can do it. But we have to take it seriously. The federation, the country and everything — they have to invest money and time. Women’s football is the new wave and we have to ride that new wave. But we are still not doing it yet.”
Edited by: Chuck Penfold
