Hannah Hampton regrets revealing water bottle trick after hate comments on grandfather tribute

Hannah Hampton has said she regrets revealing the water bottle trick she used during the penalty shootout that decided the Euro 2025 final after online hate comments targeted a tribute she had written to her recently-deceased grandfather.

England dramatically beat world champions Spain 3-1 on penalties to retain their European Championship title with goalkeeper Hampton the hero as she saved spot-kicks from Mariona Caldentey and Aitana Bonmati, while Salma Paralluelo missed.

In the days after the final, Hampton – who had usurped Mary Earps as England’s No 1 in the build-up to the tournament, leading the 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year to retire from Lionesses duty rather than be a back-up – revealed she had spotted Spain goalkeeper Cata Coll’s cheat sheet for England’s penalty preferences on her water bottle during the shootout and tossed it into the crowd.

Coll was visibly confused to find a replacement bottle – which Hampton had put there after discarding the original – without her notes, and searched in vain for initial one.

However, the Spain No 1 has since disputed Hampton’s claim about her notes being tossed into the crowd, quote-tweeting a clip of the talkSPORT interview and writing: “Okay, okay, calm down, calm down. At least if it were true...”

Hampton appeared on ITV show Lorraineon Wednesday (13 August) morning to discuss the incident and admitted to guest host Ranvir Singh that she regrets telling the world about her trick due to the online hate she has received, most notably on a social media post she wrote in tribute to her grandfather, who passed away two days before Euro 2025 and who she described as her “biggest supporter”.

“I wish I didn't say it in the first instance because it's brought so much hate,” said Hampton. “The outside people bringing in hate because it disproves people. It's just hard.

“If I could take it back, I wish I didn’t say anything. It's positive and negative. It’s great there’s so much engagement with the women’s game now and people are interested in what you say but you open yourself up to hate.

“It's difficult because people just jump on it and make comments that are unnecessary. Bringing hate comments. There’s a lot of hate. My thing is, I wish I didn't say it because on the post I put about my grandad, people are saying that’s why he’s gone [because she threw Coll’s water bottle in the crowd]. There's five bottles on the floor, I know I've picked one up, she's saying it's not hers. In that moment, I've genuinely thought it is hers.

“It's hard. Being in the public eye, you learn the hard way. We’re human. I’ve made mistakes many times. You learn from it and you move on. I’ve got nothing but respect for Cata, it wasn't done in a disrespectful way.”

Although Coll has since denied the claims, insisting it wasn’t her water bottle that Hampton threw into the crowd, the England goalkeeper had explained her thought process during the talkSPORT interview with Sam Matterface.

Hampton said: “The Spanish keeper had it (the penalty information) on her bottle, so I thought when she was going in goal, I'd just pick it up and chuck it into the English fans so she can't have it. I don't ever put it on a bottle because anyone can do that so I put it on my arm.

“It wasn't hard. When she's gone in the goal, it's on its own isn't it? It's in the towel.”

“She was walking back to take the penalty and I was walking the other way and she was so confused, and I was just trying not to burst out laughing, being like, ‘I don't know what's happening’.”

Hampton subsequently became one of five Lionesses to be nominated for the Women's Ballon d'Or, alongside Lucy Bronze, Chloe Kelly, Alessia Russo and Leah Williamson.