For the 100%

Dear reader,

Do you like women’s football? Do you like football? Do you like sport? The answer to all these questions may be a resounding “no” and, if you’re still reading, then I applaud and thank you. I do, though, gently urge you to give a game or two a go during Women’s Euro 2025, because sharing collective joy and pain can be a thrilling and liberating antidote in an increasingly tense, cruel, individualistic and divisive world.

Not every outlet thinks that way. Far from it. It is the ethos of the Guardian and our belief in and attitude towards high-quality, investigative and independent journalism that is accessible for all that breeds this long-term commitment to women’s sport.

That commitment is evident to me from top to bottom.

I see it daily in the knowledge and passion of the football editors, I see it in positioning of women’s sports stories on the website, I see it in the wordcounts which match those relating to men’s football, I see it in the attentiveness of the sub-editors, I see it in the increasing frequency with which the primarily men’s football journalists dip into covering aspects of the women’s game, I see it in our expanding pool of writers on women’s sport, and I see it, physically, in the Guardian’s HQ where front pages of England’s 2022 Euros victory are pinned to the wall in the offices of both the deputy editor and editor-in-chief.

Across the four-week tournament in Switzerland, the Guardian will be providing you with unrivalled coverage of all 16 teams competing. That includes news, profiles of all 368 players and guides to all 16 teams via our Experts’ Network, interviews, live blogs, the Moving the Goalposts newsletter, match previews reports and analysis, David Squires’ cartoons, the views of serial WSL-winning columnist Emma Hayes, our Women’s Football Weekly podcast, and much more.

All of this is costly and, where many others have cut back, we continue to invest in increasing our coverage of women’s sport because we believe that providing coverage of sport that are representative of 50% of the world’s population is both important and the right thing to do.

It is a responsibility, too. Sport and the media have a reciprocal relationship, we help grow interest in sport and, as that interest increases, the demand for coverage increases with it. Ultimately, we will benefit from the growth of women’s sport as much as women’s sport benefits from our coverage.

We are hungry to keep building. By supporting the Guardian you are powering something even bigger: access to free high-quality information for those around the world who might not otherwise be able to: a global force for good.

If you’re a regular reader of the Guardian’s independent journalism, please consider supporting our work with a small amount. Whether it’s a one-off or a regular monthly payment, your help is important and appreciated.

Asking people for money in a cost of living crisis is uncomfortable, but good journalism is costly and in times of political and social crisis it’s increasingly important. Support can look different for different people. If you can put your hand in your pocket, please do, but if supporting us financially is a stretch too far, buy a paper or click on and read articles via the website. Prove there is value in this journalism.

Thank you for reading
Suzanne

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