already ahead of France, England wants to further accelerate the professionalization of women’s football

On both sides of the Channel, women’s football is becoming more structured. On the one hand, France, which has never reached the final of a World Cup, a Euro or the Olympic Games, will enter professionalism squarely with the era of the Arkema Premier League. On the other hand, England, world vice-champion and reigning European champion, which the Blues face on Friday May 31 in Newcastle in qualifying for Euro 2025, is accelerating.

While their clubs have been professional since 2018, the first two divisions, the Women’s Super League (WSL) and the Women’s Championship, will free themselves from the English Federation (FA) from next season. Modeled on the men’s Premier League, they will be managed by an independent company of which the clubs will be the shareholders, temporarily. called NewCo.

An initiative announced on November 28, 2023, after unanimous validation of the 24 clubs in these championships. The goal is to take over from the FA, which has been developing women’s football since the creation of the WSL in 2011, but cannot prioritize this mission to the detriment of amateur teams or its other competitions. Conversely, NewCo will be able to focus 100% on the challenge of generating more revenue and improving club infrastructures. “It’s the natural consequence of the progression of women’s football here”judge Emma Smith, journalist at the BBC.

“Interest has continued to grow since the 2015 World Cup, where England finished third. And it obviously exploded after the Lionesses won Euro 2022. I think there was a general acceptance that, in order to progress further, women’s football needed a certain degree of independence. “It’s part of a long-term plan.” she continues. Six seasons after entering the era of professionalism and obtaining less precarious contracts for players, England is entering a second phase.

“English football is not particularly better than in France. What makes it successful is the incredible marketing, how we sell the product, assured Kenza Dali, Aston Villa and Les Bleues midfielder, during the House of WePlayStrong event, on the sidelines of the Champions League final in Bilbao, Saturday May 25. When you score a goal in England, there are 50 cameras, slow motion and it goes around the networks. In D1, you have to look for it in the depths of YouTube… Sometimes, I try to follow my friends and it’s difficult to find the matches.”

To ensure long-term financial sustainability, NewCo intends to focus on “a different product and a different audience”, as Nikki Doucet, appointed president after spending nearly 20 years in sport and finance, notably at Nike, explained to Sky Sports in January.

“What clubs know about men’s football may not work exactly the same in women’s football. There is a festival atmosphere around women’s football. It’s welcoming, inclusive, fun and passionate, obviously, but without judgement.”

Nikki Doucet, president of NewCo

at Sky Sports

The initial premise is that women’s football “reaches a much younger and more family-oriented audience, with more women in the stands”, summarizes Emma Smith, who regularly attends the meetings. So many elements that NewCo intends to leverage to create an identity specific to the WSL, likely to attract investors. The emphasis is therefore placed on preserving the link between supporters and players, but also this atmosphere of “festival”.

“NewCo wants to bring food trucks around the stadiums to appeal to a family audience, but also a DJ at halftime. The idea is that it corresponds to a family outing,” explains the journalist, who adds nuance: “One might wonder whether these professional players should not be treated with more respect”.

Still, for the 2023-2024 financial year, the WSL recorded its attendance record with 971,000 spectators (compared to 176,000 in French D1), or around 300,000 more than the previous season. Arsenal also broke the single-match record with 60,160 people gathering at the Emirates Stadium for the Manchester United reception on February 17. So much so that the club has decided to play all the home matches of its women’s section in the usual men’s den next year.

“It was an unattainable dream, it seems surreal. Playing in front of so many people is a very different feeling, it gives goosebumps and a boost of motivation”, rejoiced Gunner and Swiss international Lia Wälti during WePlayStong Day. One more argument to sell the television rights to the next seasons at a better price. As such, an old debate has been reopened to offer women’s football a prominent place in the program schedules.

Since 1960, live broadcasts of matches have been banned in the United Kingdom on Saturdays from 2:45 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. A move taken at the time to encourage fans to attend the stadium to watch their local teams in the lower divisions, rather than sitting in front of the television for an elite clash. But with this awareness that women’s football does not attract the same audience as its men’s counterpart, the question of lifting this blackout for women was raised.

The British government even estimated that it would be “a viable option to support women’s football and significantly increase its broadcast and commercial revenues”arguing that one could, otherwise, “compensate women’s football for this missed opportunity” to generate profits. Fearing that the behemoths (Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United) will appropriate all the revenue, the smaller clubs hope to take advantage of these negotiations to obtain an equal distribution of this windfall.

For the moment, the possibility is on hold, NewCo having renewed its TV rights contract with Sky Sports and the BBC for one year. Enough to allow him to work to better negotiate by mid-2025. “The question will be whether or not the WSL wants to follow the same path as the Premier League or the Champions League for men, with paid broadcasting in the United Kingdom,” asks BBC journalist Emma Smith.

One thing is clear: England – which has 3.4 million licensees according to the latest figures for 2020, while France has 250,000 – is trying to work harder with this independence of the WSL and the Championship . “The gap to be closed with other countries is not big, it’s just a matter of time. More and more teams are investing, new players are joining England to strengthen the WSL. I think that in two or three years, you will see an English team in the C1 final”, predicts Lia Wälti. For now, only Arsenal, winner in 2007, and Chelsea, beaten by Barcelona in 2021, have reached the Champions League final.

Questioned during the Arkema D1 Trophies at the end of April about a possible emancipation of the new Women’s Professional Football League (LFFP) from the French federation, Jean-Michel Aulas, president of the LFFP, had as for he felt he was not “a supporter of a completely autonomous league” in the future.