English women’s football clubs hope new league will kick start investment

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The creation of a new company to run England’s top women’s football leagues has sparked fresh hope that clubs can capitalise on the rising popularity of the game to support investment and growth.

The revamp means that the Women’s Super League and the second-tier Championship will be owned by clubs, ending their integration with England’s Football Association. The creation of a separate entity is designed to accelerate professionalisation of the game.

Former Nike executive Nikki Doucet has been appointed as chief executive of the so-called NewCo, which will look to narrow the gap between the top two women’s divisions, “mandate” elite training facilities, and support players in pursuing new careers when they leave professional football.

The introduction of a private entity to run the leagues is one of several recommendations in an independent review of the women’s game by former England player Karen Carney to kick start investment and unlock the path to bigger commercial contracts and broadcasting deals. The UK government has backed her report.

The set up provides a “good opportunity” for leagues and clubs to work together to increase revenues, said Zarah Al-Kudcy, commercial director at Chelsea Women, and comes as they are gearing up to restructure the game ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Al-Kudcy added that until now national teams have driven the popularity of the women’s game but clubs are increasingly showcasing their ability to attract big audiences.

“People are Lionesses fans or Matildas fans first, and then they become club fans,” she said. “I think a number of the players are possibly doing better than the clubs in terms of driving commercial revenue or sponsor revenue at the moment.”

The profile of the women’s game in Britain has been bolstered by England’s Lionesses, who followed up their victory at Euro 2022 by finishing as runners-up to Spain in the World Cup last year. England goalkeeper Mary Earps was also voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023, the second Lioness in a row to win the prize.

Although the WSL was set up in 2011 it only became fully professional in 2017-18 and decades of underfunding by the male-focused teams that typically owned women’s clubs have left the game in a weak position.

As audiences have grown, investors have begun to show interest in the women’s game. Late last year, American businesswoman Michele Kang acquired London City Lionesses, currently in the Championship. Because most women’s teams are controlled by well-known men’s clubs it was a rare opportunity and will test Kang’s ability to compete with the deep pockets of the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea, which can tap the resources of their Premier League-owned male counterparts.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed but Kang’s acquisition is the latest of a series of milestones fuelling hopes that the women’s club game is beginning to capitalise on the strides made in recent years.

“We need more investment focused solely on the female game so that the resources are uncompromised,” Kang said when she announced the purchase.

Attendance is increasing at women’s club matches, with Chelsea — WSL winners in the last four seasons — playing in a record-setting clash at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in December that attracted more than 59,000 attendees, a new high for the competition.

But increasing commercial revenues as well as match-day takings is vital to enable clubs to invest in training facilities and youth development.

In a departure from the previous approach of packaging female teams as an add-on to deals driven by men’s clubs, more clubs, leagues and competition organisers are “unbundling” women’s sponsorship.

Chelsea have signed up a range of partners exclusively to the women’s team, whose official sponsors include Danish toy company Lego and protein dairy brand Lindahl.

But sponsorship is starting from a low base. Ayelet Mavor, head of impact at Minute Media, a digital publisher whose titles include The Players’ Tribune and 90Min.com, said brands should be “all over” women’s football to reach new audiences, including mothers, Generation Z and younger females.

“It’s such early days that your buck goes so much further,” Mavor said. “You make a statement by supporting the sport in its infancy. For me it’s a no brainer.”

However, she conceded that brands need to put aside “traditional short-term vision” for a “different risk reward model” based on long-term gain.

“Brands should say they’re in it just as the athletes are in it even though they’re not paid anything like their future colleagues will be paid,” she added.

However, revenues in the women’s football remain a tiny fraction of the men’s game. According to consultancy Deloitte the world’s top 15 women’s clubs generated revenues of €63.3mn in the 2022-23 season; the top 20 men’s clubs generated more than €10bn.