“The women’s game right now is at a time where it really shows its full strength. People cannot deny it anymore.”



That was the message from UEFA’s head of women’s football, Nadine Kessler, who spoke exclusively to The Athletic in Milan on the day FIFA’s technical study group (TSG) revealed its findings from this summer’s Women’s World Cup.



Kessler, as well as overseeing the development of women’s football for UEFA, was part of FIFA’s TSG in France. She worked alongside the former USA boss April Heinrichs and China legend Sun Wen in analysing every match during the tournament to look at trends and styles of play, and then producing a 105-page report on their findings. A summary of this was fed back to delegates and coaches from 150 member associations at the very first Women’s Football Conference, in the build-up to the FIFA Best Awards.



“The role was really for us to get together as a...