Wiegman grateful for FA's trust in her leadership
The FA confirmed Sarina Wiegman will remain in charge no matter England's result at Euro 2025, and she is delighted with the backing.
Sarina Wiegman says she is grateful for the Football Association's (FA) faith in her leadership as England prepare for their European Championship title defence.
The FA's chief executive, Mark Bullingham, gave his support to Wiegman ahead of the upcoming tournament, saying her job is secure no matter their result at Euro 2025.
England are expected to challenge for the title once more, with the Opta supercomputer giving them a 16.1% chance of reclaiming the trophy, though they face stiff competition from world champions Spain (24.8%).
Following their triumph at Euro 2022, Wiegman also led England to their maiden World Cup final in 2023, though they lost 1-0 to Spain.
Bullingham expects the Dutchwoman to still be with the team as the build up to the 2027 World Cup, with her contract running out after that, and Wiegman was delighted with the support she has been shown.
"We have had conversations. I extended my contract until 2027 after the World Cup. We are going into a new tournament now. I feel very happy here," she told reporters ahead of England's friendly against Jamaica.
"I am excited to go into a new tournament. Not looking too much ahead. I have always felt so much support from Mark and the board, and still feel that way. It's really nice that he confirms that.
"We're just really excited to go into the tournament, and we're convinced that we can do really well. We're all aware our group is really, really tough with incredible teams in it.
"Let's see what it brings us, but we're going to do everything we can to get out of the group stage and do really well in the tournament again."
England's only warm-up game for the tournament sees them face Jamaica at the King Power Stadium on Sunday.
And Wiegman confirmed that Lauren James, who has not featured for club or country since suffering a hamstring injury in April, could be involved.
James was one of England's standout performers at the 2023 World Cup, her first major tournament for the Lionesses, as she scored three goals and registered three assists.
"We have to manage the minutes. She's doing really well, but of course, she hasn't played games yet. But she's in a good place," said Wiegman when asked about James.
"She will likely come off the bench - we can manage that a bit. She showed up in the training sessions really well. She could cope with loads and recover from loads.
"Her performance has been really good. She's ready; we're just still growing into minutes. This is the first time in a while that she's coming into a game.
"She [needs to] get through that. Then we'll take it from there towards the tournament."
