The rise and fall of the WAG

Why has the Wagatha Christie case – the libel trial between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy – so captured the public imagination? Perhaps the answer is that it is a brief, exhilarating reminder of a bygone tabloid age – a time when footballers’ wives really could dominate the news. 

Let’s go back to the 2006 Germany World Cup, when an assortment of wives and girlfriends of Britain’s top footballers spent much of the tournament lounging by a hotel pool in Baden-Baden, south west Germany. The staff, wary of paparazzi attempts to snap their high-profile guests, decided to put up screens to protect their privacy. But these weren’t just any guests, and when the WAGs learned what had happened, they demanded the barriers be removed immediately.

While their husbands were representing England on the pitch, the WAGs were busy representing the team in the British press. Newspapers back home were filled with carefully coordinated snaps of the players out with their partners, with just enough ‘leaked’ gossip to keep the column inches filled.