Well, that’s the end of that. Football, like an unrepentant runaway, stubbornly refuses to come home. Spain, deservedly probably, edged the thrilling, almost unbearably tense final and England will return to a warm, if not ecstatic, reception. England’s first football World Cup final in 57 years was undoubtedly that rarest of phenomena these days: a truly national event, with a TV audience likely to set a record for any female sports broadcast. It will also open a conversation about the importance of and future of women’s football. What should that conversation be like? I have a few suggestions and a few appeals.

For a start, can we stop comparing the men’s and women’s games in terms of quality of performance? Let’s dial down both the hype and counter-hype. If I read one more time about how women’s football is not respected, or, in response, about 15-year-old boys in Dallas beating the US women’s team, I think I may fling my iPad against the wall. And it’s a new iPad. Women’s football has greatly improved and its best is impressive. But no, the women wouldn’t beat the men or come close and that means about as much as saying Iga Swiatek wouldn’t beat Carlos Alcaraz. It’s irrelevant. There are intrinsic physical differences too tedious to go into that give men an insuperable advantage. And we all know that. End of story.

Second, can we stop comparing the men’s and women’s game in terms of cold, hard financials, or for that matter, cold, hard viewing and attendance figures? ‘Price of everything and value of nothing’ anyone? Nobody, I think, would dispute the proposition that women should get the same percentage of the revenue generated by their sport as the men do. But that is, at the moment at least, going to be considerably different. That may not be exactly fair, and it is, strictly speaking, an inequality, but it is not evidence of prejudice or discrimination.

If women’s football suffers from a lack of compelling narratives, a few more were begun here

It may be possible to imagine a time when the women’s game is as popular with the public as the men’s but that looks still to be far distant. And, since you can’t force the public to love a product any more than you can force someone to love a person, nothing we can do will change that. And we all know that too. So, again, end of story.

Also, let’s stop patronising women’s football, it’s not some prelapsarian, Corinthian throwback to better, purer sporting era. There was gamesman(woman?)ship aplenty at this World Cup, the girls can play as dirty as the boys. England targeted the wounded Kerr in the semi for some bruising treatment, time-wasting was almost de rigueur, and even the Japanese indulged in a spot of simulation in an attempt to win free kicks and penalties in their knockout tie with Sweden – and the Japanese language doesn’t even have a term for this dark art. In short, they were all at it.

And there were plenty of poor quality and boring games too. The tournament ended well, in terms of thrills, but anyone who watched the whole thing will have had to endure some pretty mediocre stuff in the earlier rounds. A few sides seemed to be playing the very opposite of Tiki Taka, whatever that might be called. ‘Turnover after turnover after turnover’ said the ITV co-commentator at one point. There were some comically bad penalty kicks.

But there were plenty of positives. A tournament that struggled to sell its broadcast rights and was blighted by pre-tournament wrangles over pay reached a thrilling height with the two compelling semis and today’s zinger of a final. New stars emerged (Paralleulo, Caicedo) and old favourites had a last hurrah (Kerr) and, there was plenty of drama, plenty of upsets, and even a new winner. (When did last happen in the cluttered men’s version?)

This bodes well. If women’s football suffers from a lack of compelling narratives, ancient rivalries revisited and such like, a few more were begun here. England vs Australia might have needed some cross-sport pollination to hype it up (it was dubbed the sixth Ashes test), but it won’t need much boosting in future after that ferocious encounter in Sydney. Yes, the crowd was rude and some of the tactics were crude but that’s the grit in the oyster of competitive sport. You can be too nice.

The notable failures will set up some interesting plot lines too. Rather pleasingly, arrogance and hubris got their just desserts in this tournament. The pantomime villains of the whole show (anthem refuseniks USA) were rewarded for with an early and ignominious exit, as were Germany who were so confident of progressing from the first round that they hadn’t put a charter plane on standby for if they failed. How these two giants respond will be interesting.

And as for the UK, let’s celebrate the undoubted benefit that women’s football’s raised profile has produced in terms of greater participation in sport. According to the FA:

Since October 2021, there’s been a 17 per cent increase in female affiliated players across all levels of the game, a 30 per cent increase in female registered football teams, and a 15 per cent increase in female youth teams – made up of girls aged between 5-18 years old.

That will surely only continue now, and probably increase. In a nation notorious for its poor diet and sedentary lifestyle, this is very good news. More women playing football, getting out in the sunshine and keeping fit is surely an unalloyed good – even if hardly any of the girls inspired by this tournament to put down their iPhones and get down the park ever make a living out of it.

So well done Sarina and the team. It was a great effort, and I’m not sure you could have done much more. And the beauty of sport, men’s and women’s, is that there’s always next time.

Just wish you’d stop taking the knee.