When England bombed out of the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals, the nation was quick to place the blame. But it wasn’t on Wayne Rooney, whose second half sending off left the team vulnerable to a strong Portuguese side. Neither was it on the three players who paid the price for their subpar spot kicks. It was apparently the players’ wives and girlfriends (WAGs) who were really responsible for letting the nation down.
England stalwart, Rio Ferdinand, was quick to criticise the England WAGs, saying: “We became a bit of a circus in terms of the whole WAG situation. It was like watching a theatre unfolding and football almost became a secondary element to the main event.”
The likes of Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Cole created a media frenzy as they gallivanted across the idyllic German spa town of Baden-Baden. Pictures of their latest outfits were constantly plastered across the front pages, their clubbing exploits were always making headlines, and their every move was scrutinised by the ruthless media.
“Their lack of imagination and narrowness of outlook is staggering. They possess no curiosity about anything other than clothes, champagne and their reflections” wrote one Daily Mail reporter during the tournament.
The media’s disdain for the WAGs peaked when England’s 2006 World Cup journey came to a disappointing end. Fabio Capello, who led England in the 2010 World Cup, even restricted players to seeing their partners once a week, and only after games.
“We are there to play, not for a holiday.” said the then-England manager, Capello.
“This regime is very water-tight. This squad’s in a different frame of mind to the ones I’ve been in for a while. We’ve got a very business-like state of mind, and that’s come from the manager and his staff. It’s a new way of thinking. It feels as if we’re going in the right direction. I don’t want to speak too soon, but you can see we’re at the start of something and, hopefully, there’ll be bigger rewards than what we’ve had in the past. Everyone’s very focused and tuned in to what we want to achieve.” said Ferdinand on Capello’s new restrictions.
Despite eliminating what was supposedly the squad’s biggest distraction, England crashed out of the tournament even earlier that year through a 4-1 defeat to Germany, after winning only one of their four games.
It was only at the 2016 Euros that the ban on WAGs was finally lifted. With a steady improvement in England’s performances, which saw them reach the final of the previous European Championship, the tabloids have seemingly run out of ammo to aim at the footballers’ female partners.
With the 2024 Euros soon approaching, coverage of the squad’s “hottest” and “most famous” WAGs has been flooding in.
Despite this, the discourse surrounding WAGs has long departed from the extreme misogynistic tones of the 2000s.
England manager, Gareth Southgate, has even condemned the term WAG, calling it “disrespectful”.
Ahead of this summer’s European Championships, England skipper Harry Kane has only heaped praise upon the involvement of the players’ families and partners at big tournaments.
“We’ve created this really good environment where friends and family, girlfriends and wives, have been part of the team and the group, especially when we’ve been away.”
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