The 75 year-old Swede, President of European football’s governing body since 1990, has been an interested spectator during the Championship and admitted he was a little surprised at the magnitude of the crowds.

"In a way I am surprised," he told TheFA.com. "Ladies football was born in the Nordic countries but in Norway, Sweden and then Denmark and Finland we have never reached this number of spectators.

"We only saw it in China and the United States, but now you see it here. In the motherland of football, they show that the circulation of women’s football is growing and that it will have an impact all over the place.

"The crowds have been fantastic and that proves we took the right decision by taking the tournament to England."

Attendance figures have been significantly boosted by the near-70,000 fans who watched the three England games. But matches not involving England have also been well attended, as Johansson pointed out when talking at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington as Norway beat his home country 3-2 in extra time to book their place in Sunday’s final.

"It means a lot when you have a home country playing," he said, "it makes the number of fans grow. But I'm still impressed with the numbers watching the other games.

"The organisation has been very good too. I heard the general secretary of the Norwegian FA thanking The FA and the public for the effective, professional way they have been treated and the hospitality shown to them, so that shows they have done it extremely well."

The President diplomatically avoided making any prediction about the outcome of Sunday’s final between Norway and Germany, but he expressed his admiration for the way the Germans have dominated the European scene for a decade and was also complimentary about Hope Powell’s England team.

"I think Germany is still the strongest team." he said "They always seem able to win with one goal and they have won the European Championship three times out of four. But the rest of the teams are quite even.

"I saw Sweden beat England in 1984 in the first Championship final and to compare these two teams to now, it is quite another thing. England have come on - a couple of years ago they were not up there, but they are now.

"France and Spain are also coming now. They play another sort of football, not only using physical strength, they are very talented in their play. Ladies football today, compared to what it was like ten years ago, is quite something else."