“With more money coming in from qualification for the European Championships, particularly Euro 2016, we ended up being more cash-rich,” says Jonathan Ford, chief executive of the Football Association of Wales (FAW) from 2009 to 2021.
“That enabled us to put more money across the board: women’s football, grassroots football. We transformed the women’s game.”
Uefa vice-president Laura McAllister is a former captain of Wales who played a leading role in getting the FAW to formally establish a national women’s team in the 1990s.
“There was nothing inevitable about what happened post-2016 and that’s why I think we should give credit to the FAW, and Jonathan Ford particularly, for steering us out of the tournament into that era,” says McAllister.
“I was part of the FAW Trust in 2016. I can remember times before that when Jonathan came into the board and said things like, ‘Until the men qualify for a major tournament, we can’t invest in X, Y and Z’. And that included the women’s national team.
“While I bristled at that because it felt unfair, the financial realities of the FAW meant until the men got to a position where they generated income from participating and winning, it was going to be impossible for us to deliver the strategy we had for Welsh football.”
McAllister travelled to France 10 years ago as a fan, and Qatar in 2022 to cheer on Wales’ men at a World Cup.
When the women played at Euro 2025 in Switzerland, McAllister was there again to see the legacy not only of her own pioneering work in establishing the team but the far-reaching effects of 2016.
“Something happens when you qualify. It’s flicking a switch in mentality – it becomes something realistic and achievable,” she adds.
“What matters far more is what you do with the breakthrough moment, not how you’ve performed.”
Wales’ women are now trying to take the next step of qualifying for their first World Cup, while the men looked on enviously as their showpiece event happened without them in the United States, Canada and Mexico this summer.
Disappointing as it was, that frustration itself represented a shift in mindset that came after Euro 2016 – a sharp contrast to the passive acceptance that met Wales’ previous absence from major tournaments.
Since that golden month in France, Wales feel like they belong at this level.
“The best thing we could give the teams coming after us was to say it’s possible,” says Coleman.
Subsequent qualifications have been the legacy of Euro 2016, while future ambitions are proof of a desire to ensure generations to come continue to build on the foundations laid by their predecessors.
There is plenty more Wales’ men and women want to achieve but, whatever happens, there will never be another summer quite like Euro 2016.
“We’re so proud of each other and what we achieved,” says Ledley.
“Nobody thought we’d do it. When I walk down the street now, everyone says, ‘Thank you for 2016, the best summer of my life’.”
James can attest to that. “It remains the best month of my life,” he says. “I don’t think you often know it’s the best month of your life as it’s happening.”
With the benefit of hindsight, it is laughable to think you could find a Welsh football fan who would disagree.
You can listen to all three episodes of Iconic: The Summer that Changed Welsh Football on BBC Sounds.
