"2022 is a year that will live long in the memory for everyone involved in the women’s game."
Those are the words of Baroness Sue Campbell, the FA’s Director of Women’s Football.
It is an assertion that is shared by so many, though it can sometimes be difficult to actually grasp the tangible progress behind the sentiment.
It almost feels like 'the meteoric rise of the women's game' has been coined as a slogan, a strapline, to convince the cynics that women's football deserves to be regarded with the same reverence as its male counterpart.
But as the year rumbles to a close, and players from across the WSL jet off for a brief Christmas hiatus, the cold, hard facts perfectly illustrate the undeniable evolution of women's football and the indelible mark the past 12 months have made on the women's game in the UK and beyond.
Of course, at the mention of 2022, anyone of an England persuasion will immediately see their mind drawn back to July 31. To Wembley. To Leah Williamson holding aloft England's first piece of silverware since 1966 as the Lionesses prevailed over Germany to triumph at the Women's EUROs.
It was a tournament that seemed to mark something of a watershed moment for the women's game. Eight attendance records were broken, culminating with an 87,192 strong crowd at the Final that broke the EUROs (women’s and men’s) competition record.
The Final also garnered a peak TV audience of 17.4m on the BBC, with 365 million watching across the globe; a figure more than double the previous tournament.
And as the billowing silver ticker-tape settled and international football gave way to the return of the domestic calendar, the heroics of Sarina Wiegman's side - who had flexed their muscles in packed-out stadiums from Sheffield to Southampton - proved a catalyst for something of a revolution in the Women's Super League too.
The WSL has seen its average attendance up 227% on last season, with nearly 348,000 fans having passed through the turnstiles so far this term. Arsenal's emphatic victory over Tottenham in the North London derby drew a league-record 47,367 fans to the Emirates, while Sky Sports saw 495,000 viewers tune in for for Liverpool v Everton at Anfield in in September.
It's a similar story in the second tier, with Barclays Women’s Championship attendance up 86% on last season and a combined attendance of almost 59,000 over the last four months.
And within those thousands are hordes of young girls. Girls with 'Kerr 20' and 'Stengel 24' etched on to the back of their shirts. Girls who, perhaps for the first time, realise that they too can be a footballer one day.
The power of that notion is not something which can be properly conveyed through facts and figures, but it is a truth that is evident at WSL and Championship grounds across the country.
"When the Lionesses lifted the EURO trophy at Wembley Stadium on 31 July in front of a record 87,000 fans, they not only made history and created an outpouring of joy that I’ve never seen before, but they also created an opportunity to transform the future of the game," Baroness Campbell told England Football.
"We are all determined to capitalise on that opportunity and ensure that the legacy of the tournament isn’t just a trophy but that every girl has the opportunity to play football."
Of course, there is still work to do to reach that goal. From June to December, there has been a 15% increase in female youth teams, with interest in women’s football up 12% amongst girls aged 5-16 in England.
But still only 63 per cent of schools offer girls equal access to football in PE lessons, meaning more than a third are not getting the same opportunity to play the sport in PE as boys. That statistic prompted all 23 of England's EURO 2022 squad to pen an open letter to the government calling for more to be done to afford girls with the chance to play football.
However, while there is still progress to be made, the statistics show that Baroness Campbell is right to regard 2022 as a landmark year for the women's game. And with next summer's Women's World Cup firmly on the horizon, one can only hope 2023 proves even more memorable.
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