Whilst we may pick out the occasional highlight before the turn of the millennium – Bobby Moore and wife Tina appearing in television advertisements to “support your local pub”, and tales involving George Best and beauty queens – the era of the Footballer’s Wife (or Girlfriend) is very much a 21st-century phenomenon.

Think about it – when were England last genuinely on the brink of glory? Italia ’90. Do you know what Bobby Robson’s wife looked like? Unlikely. Yet Nancy Dell’Olio was so well known she became a familiar subject on primetime comedy in Alistair McGowan's Big Impression. Sven-Göran Eriksson’s former squeeze was often draped dramatically around the manager when he was in charge of the England team. And what did Sven’s reign climax with? The 2006 World Cup Finals: the tournament of the WAG.

Whilst Victoria Adams’ marriage to David Beckham in 1999 fuelled a growing public obsession with celebrity, it wasn’t really until Germany ’06 that stories of England squad wives and girlfriends flooded the press. Bar room parties, shopping sprees and a willingness to lounge by the poolside unperturbed by paparazzi helped give rise to the WAG pack.

“The unique thing during that football tournament was that [while] there was the usual ban by the FA on the team being able to talk or behave without decorum,” recalls James Herring, Managing Partner of PR Consultancy Taylor Herring. “We had these wives and girlfriends tottering in and out of boutiques from their base in Baden-Baden and hanging about by the hotel pool, and that provided an interesting sidebar for the tabloids and the magazines – it was eye candy to accompany the main event. ”

But for every superstar WAG – Victoria Beckham with her requited love affair with the fashion world, Coleen Rooney and her television show celebrating "real women", Cheryl Cole’s pop and X Factor career – there are a host of B-listers content to just be photographed living up to the fantasy that ITV’s soccer soap Footballer’s Wives portrayed. So can a WAG really be a force for good?

Chris Hemblade, senior contributing editor at Harper’s Bazaar and VIP + Celebrity executive at Macmillan Cancer Support, has spent the last 15 years wrangling celebrities for magazines and more recently for charities as well. “Once people were universally rude about WAGs whoever they were,” says Hemblade. “Then Posh made it in the States and Cheryl became a national treasure and everyone loved a WAG. And I think we have to remember an emerging zeitgeist trend is that we now recognise women love football too. Plus once tabloid editors realised this, they understand how much these sport couples can do for improving sales. So The Beckhams and The Coles become as potent a celebrity coupling as the likes of Hollywood’s Brangelina.”

"At Macmillan Cancer Support, Victoria Beckham supported us by donating things for an auction of ours and Louise Redknapp generously opened a Macmillan information centre at UCLH for us," adds Hemblade. "Their involvement had an enormous impact on our success. I think it’s because they are interesting in their own right and then there is the added glamour by association of their sports star partners. We have so many sports-related events, from runners in marathons to our Big Sports Day for schoolchildren, so I’m chomping at the bit to get WAGs involved with us.”

So much for the elite, but what of the fate of an average WAG? The arrival of Fabio Capello as England's manager has signalled a distinctly more disciplined regime where WAGs are not welcome at the team hotel and international games demand a serious approach from players who have become celebrities in their own club's world. Rio Ferdinand last autumn reflected on the "circus" that surrounded the players and their families at Baden-Baden.

Outbursts from the likes of Danielle Lloyd (Teddy Sheringham’s ex-girlfriend), when she was involved in the infamous Celebrity Big Brother series with Shilpa Shetty, as well as car-crash reality TV like WAGs Boutique betray the reputation of the footballer’s girlfriend as a credit card-toting airhead which PR James Herring believes is not a desirable image for 2009.

“It’s not socially acceptable right now to be photographed going down Bond Street with shopping bags from eight different boutiques,” he says. Herring managed media relations for the launch of Big Brother and before that worked on Fantasy Football League. His company currently represents the likes of Sir Alan Sugar and Robbie Williams, but would he turn to a WAG to give a campaign some much-needed oomph?

“There will always be an interest in A-list footballers and their wives. But that splash-the-cash behaviour seems a bit too vulgar right now. The credit crunch has rather put them out of business – poor little dears! In order to see a resurgence of those WAGs I think we would need another major tournament. Though this summer we do have the weddings of Joe Cole and Rio Ferdinand”.

Rumour has it that at Rio (no circus please) Ferdinand’s wedding, a trained owl is going to swoop down during the ceremony to deliver the rings to the best man. It’s hard to see then that the elevated world of WAG culture is dead quite yet.