Our enthusiasm for women's football needn't end with the World Cup. Here's how to keep the momentum going

With the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo and England’s next match against Germany coming up later this year, there’s no reason we can’t prolong our nationwide support indefinitely

As the reigning champions USA take on the Netherlands in the Women’s World Cup final today in the sticky 30C heat at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais, every player should know this: result aside, they’ve helped change the course of the women’s game forever.

Today is the climax of a ground-breaking Women’s World Cup, by far the biggest step since its relatively recent inception in 1991 (in contrast, the men’s competition was founded in 1930). It has marked a seismic shift in attitudes towards female athletes, and catalysed the calls for gender equality in sport. This is a landmark moment for football.

Just take the viewing figures alone. The British TV audience nearly doubled from 6.1 million in England’s opening game against Scotland – a match I travelled to Nice to watch with my football team Tower Hamlets WFC – to a peak of 11.7 million during the Lionesses’ heart-wrenching semi-final loss against the USA. In doing so, it smashed the record for UK television’s biggest audience for a women’s match for the fourth time this tournament – and became the most-viewed programme of 2019 so far.

We’re witnessing a turning point in the way the public engages in the women’s game. From the players to the journalists – with the BBC showing every game in the Women’s World Cup for the second time since 2015 – to the grassroots clubs across the UK, like London-based Goal Diggers FC, which helped organise screenings as part of the Festival of Football, there has been a collective push of enthusiasm.

Down on the ground, fans have done their part filling up stadiums. While England’s first game in June drew just over 13,000 fans, more than 53,000 piled in to Lyon’s stadium to catch the Lionesses take on America on Tuesday. “I can’t express enough how amazing all your support has been, it really does mean a lot,” wrote England’s Nikita Parris in Twitter post shortly after the agonising defeat.

I’ve seen those close to me watching football for the first time – school friends, university mates, and my girlfriend. And it’s been even more heart-warming to watch men and boys taking this seriously. In today’s political climate of sexist clowns, it’s so refreshing to read supportive posts from England’s men’s players like Marcus Rashford; to know my dad and brothers are tuning in to the games; and to have a male friend asking me down to the pub to watch a match.

This tournament has inspired a generation of young footballers – girls and boys – with stories of kids imitating Lucy Bronze’s 20-yard belter against Norway. For women and girls across the country, this is our football revolution. “We want to leave a legacy for all the young girls wanting to play football,” as the Lionesses’ Jill Scott reportedly said after Tuesday’s loss.

This year has showcased LGBT+ inclusivity within the top levels of women’s football, too, with at least 40 out players this year, including the USA’s Trump-defiant, co-captain Megan Rapinoe (compared to none in the men’s tournament last year). We’re progressing away from those smirking school boys, who used to mockingly tell me that football is a “sport for lesbians” – adding to my internal shame over my closeted sexuality – and former Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s comments in 2004 that women footballers should wear “tighter shorts” because “female players are pretty”.

Sexism in sport is finally beginning to be tackled – but there is still so much work to be done. The $30m (£24m) total prize money at the Women’s World Cup is just 7.5 per cent of the whopping $400m in riches dolled out to teams at the men’s event (indeed, Australia’s women’s squad is campaigning to close this gap). Today’s finalists, the US team, meanwhile, are embroiled in a lawsuit against their own governing body, demanding equal pay with the men’s team, which has never won a World Cup.

There’s more – Fifa, rightfully, came under fire at the last Women’s World Cup in 2015 over its decision for all matches to be played on artificial turf in Canada, something I don’t think would have ever happened at the men’s tournament. Even today, the USA vs Netherlands match clashes with two major men’s football finals, the Copa America and the Concacaf Gold Cup, potentially drawing support away.

We can’t let this momentum slip. England’s next match against Germany sees the Lionesses returning to Wembley for the first time since 2014 – and 30,000 tickets have already been sold. Then, there’s the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and – the big one – the Uefa Women's Euro 2021 at home in England. If we keep cheering the Lionesses on, then maybe – just maybe – football will finally come home.