5. 5. Statement: The European Football Championship

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:45 pm on 8 June 2016.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 4:45, 8 June 2016

Well, the Member is absolutely right. This is a tournament where Davids can be incredibly successful. We’ve seen some great surprises in recent tournaments with nations such as Denmark and Greece having won it. Actually, if we look at the rankings of Wales and the other teams that are in the group, we see that Wales is ranked at the moment globally twenty-sixth, Slovakia twenty-fourth, England eleventh—we were ahead of England not long ago—and Russia is ranked twenty-ninth. It’s one of the most compacted groups and it will be very difficult to predict the outcome of many of the matches. So, I firmly believe that, if Wales is David in this tournament, David will be most successful.

In terms of tourism, we’re breaking records in Wales right now, and I’m very pleased that Euro 2016 and, in 2017, the Champions League final, will assist in promoting Wales in 2017 as the Year of Legends, which I think again will capitalise on our uniqueness as a place of great culture and great heritage. So, I’m very excited about that as well.

In terms of grass roots and the role of the Welsh Football Trust in promoting—. And I think you’re absolutely right to identify the girls’ game. There are now 3,500 registered players who are under 18 in Wales. There are currently 1,465 adult female players, so we can see that there’s been a huge growth. But the Welsh Football Trust have great ambition in this regard. They aim to grow the game. They currently have been awarded gold standard association status under UEFA’s grass-roots charter in recognition of the scale and standard of the programmes delivered. And it’s interesting for Members to note that Wales is the first nation to provide education online attracting world-class coaches to our courses, including Thierry Henry.