Should there be a bank holiday to celebrate sporting success?

England captain Leah Williamson (Photo: BBC)

This is a question that has been asked many times previously, but has recently been taken up by Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey.

Prior to the final of the women's Euro 25 tournament, he posted on twitter: "The @Lionesses have made us proud every step of the way. If they become back-to-back champions, the Prime Minister should declare a bank holiday to honour what would be a stunning achievement."

Following the England team's win over Spain on penalties, he was clearly pleased with the result. He posted: "Back-to-back champions! The Lionesses have done it again and made us proud. How about it, @Keir_Starmer? Time for that bank holiday?" When Downing Street confirmed there would not be a bank holiday, the Lib Dem leader posted in response: "PM's missed an open goal here."

Before I consider the question of a bank holiday in such circumstances, may I firstly congratulate the England women's football team on their incredible and unprecedented success in securing back-to-back European championships and being the first England football team to win a major tournament abroad. This is huge, and not only for the England team but for the ongoing development of women's football. As someone who has been involved with five women's football teams (three as a coach, one as a commercial manager and another as a photographer) I am pleased to see the impact international success is having on grassroots sport.

However, does this merit a bank holiday? 

Firstly, it's not clear whether Ed Davey believes this should apply to the UK as a whole or only to England - after all, it was an English rather than a UK-wide team that triumphed. There is a potential problem right there, as people in other parts of the UK may feel it is alienating if the bank holiday is England-only or, alternatively, may view it as an example of Westminster overreach if the bank holiday is applied to areas where the majority support a different national team. 

Secondly, a bank holiday to mark sporting success is completely unprecedented in the UK. There was no bank holiday when England won the World Cup in 1966, nor the last time the women's team won the Euros only three years ago. 

Neither were there bank holidays to commemorate England's World Cup wins in rugby union (2003) or men's cricket (2019), for the Great Britain team winning the rugby league World Cup (1954, 1960 and 1972) or for the England women's cricket team's astonishing successes in both the ICC World Cup (1973, 1993, 2009, 2017) and the T20 World Cup (2009). That double World Cup winning team of 2009 certainly deserved some recognition, but no-one thought a bank holiday was in order.

Similarly, the achievements of Virginia Wade, Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu in winning grand slam tennis titles has never had people calling for bank holidays. Despite Britain's dominance in world cycling in recent years - and the particular achievements of Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Bradley Wiggins - few have argued that their success should be celebrated with a national holiday. Outstanding success in motorsport, gymnastics, golf or athletics - think Mo Salah, Jessica Ennis Hill, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Paula Radcliffe and Kelly Holmes - has never seemed to get people excited about a potential bank holiday in the way football does.

If Ed Davey's call for a bank holiday was granted, a precedent would inevitably be set. It would be impossible to put the genie back into the bottle and demands for other successes to be celebrated in the same way would be made - demands that could prove difficult to refuse purely from a sense of fairness. Whether or not he's proposing that the success of national teams in major football tournaments should automatically be celebrated with a bank holiday, that would be the likely outcome. 

What Ed doesn't tell us is how is this to be paid for. The economic cost of a bank holiday is estimated at £2.4 billion. It's not a decision to be made lightly or on a whim after a dramatic penalty shoot-out.  

It's also not possible to predict whether a team will be successful. On Sunday a tense game was decided on penalties. This makes it hard to plan in advance for bank holidays based on sporting success. How are businesses, employees and vital public services supposed to adjust to the possibility of a bank holiday announced at short notice? Would businesses be compensated, or expected to take the hit? If the latter, why? 

And if such an arrangement is good for football, what about other sports? Is Ed suggesting that success in other sports should also be recognised with a bank holiday? If so, how on earth is this practical and what research has been undertaken to establish viability? If not, what is so special about football? Why the inequality of esteem within sport? It would create unhelpful debates about which achievements are more "deserving". 

Let's imagine that in 2026 the England men's team wins the FIFA World Cup, the England women's cricket team wins the ICC T20 World Cup, Team England and Team Scotland both have an outstanding Commonwealth Games, Team GB surprises everyone and wins several gold medals at the Winter Olympics, while Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper both win a grand slam. How many extra bank holidays would we get, Ed?

And this is purely in relation to events in which teams and athletes represent their nations. But that isn't how sport works, and teams from the UK achieve enormous success in international sporting competition. In the admittedly unlikely event of Hibernian winning the Europa League, which would obviously be a great result for Scotland as a whole, would that merit a bank holiday? It would be arguably a greater achievement than the third ranked team in Europe winning a competition they won only three years ago and in which they were expected to do well.

The economic impact of sporting success could become a huge burden, and that's before we consider workplace and school disruption. 

YouGov polling unsurprisingly reveals a majority of the public would welcome such a move - of course people will want a day off work! But is this a good idea from either a political or economic perspective? Not really - it would be expensive and deeply impractical. 

A more minor concern is that bank holidays become devalued and lose their significance.

There are so many ways that sporting success is - and always has been - celebrated. We do not need more bank holidays in which to do this. In fairness, this is not one of our party's better ideas. 

So, well done to the Lionesses - but let's not have any of this silliness about a bank holiday. It would be chaotic, expensive and completely unsustainable.