The summer that changed Welsh football
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- Wales ended a 58-year wait to play at a major tournament at Euro 2016, beating Slovakia 2-1 in Bordeaux on June 11 (Bale free-kick, Robson-Kanu winner), losing 2-1 to England, and crushing Russia 3-0 in Toulouse with Neil Taylor's first international goal in six years.
- Hal Robson-Kanu sealed a 3-1 quarter-final upset of world-number-one Belgium with a Cruyff turn that flummoxed three defenders before finishing past Thibaut Courtois, setting up a semi-final with eventual champions Portugal.
- Wales were beaten 2-0 by Portugal in Lyon (goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani) with Aaron Ramsey and Ben Davies suspended, ending the deepest run by a British team at a major tournament in decades.
- Welsh fans won a Uefa 'outstanding contribution' award for their bucket hats and the chant 'Don't Take Me Home', which became an unofficial anthem of the tournament, with comedian Elis James recalling supporters were 'desperate to enjoy every second' given fears it might not happen again.
- The FAW, under chief executive Jonathan Ford from 2009 to 2021, ploughed the financial windfall from Euro 2016 qualification into women's and grassroots football, a structural shift credited by Uefa vice-president Laura McAllister with producing a women's team at Euro 2025 and a men's first World Cup in 64 years in 2022.
Why it matters: The Euro 2016 windfall seeded women's and grassroots football funding, per former FAW chief Jonathan Ford, turning one tournament run into structural change: a women's team at Euro 2025 and a men's first World Cup in 64 years in 2022, replacing a culture of dashed dreams with a baseline expectation of qualification.
