The Women’s Super League resumes its rights, six weeks after the World Cup final lost by the Lionesses against Spain. And the first day offers some posters, notably in London with this Arsenal-Liverpool in the usual men’s stadium, and the derby between Tottenham and Chelsea, quadruple title holders.
The Blues of Sam Kerr and Lauren James once again take on the role of favorites despite the departures of ex-captain Magdalena Eriksson and striker Pernille Harder, who left to strengthen Bayern Munich in the off-season. The recruitment of the Canadian Ashley Lawrence and the American Catarina Macario, stolen from Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais, however, compensates for these exiles suffered by coach Emma Hayes, at the same time as it illustrates the power of the attraction of a championship which has overtaken France, despite being a pioneer.
However, successes are still awaited in the European Cup (Arsenal failed in the semi-final of the Champions League last season, eliminated by the Germans Wolfsburg) and the infrastructures (stadiums, pitch, etc.) are sometimes failing . But ideas abound to take the WSL and its little sister, the semi-professional Championship (second division), to a new level.
The two championships, controlled and managed by the English Federation, will come under the control of an independent company from the 2024-25 season, based on the model of the powerful men’s Premier League. “One of our stated aims is to make this the first £1 billion women’s championship in the world. “It’s about league and club revenue and there’s no reason why we can’t do it,” said Dawn Airey, head of the board of directors for both leagues.
The manager has been working since February on the governance and financial model of the future structure, within a working group comprising managers of clubs playing in the Premier League and placed under the aegis of Nikki Doucet, a former director at the equipment manufacturer Nike. This billion “is not a figure that we took at random,” assured Dawn Airey. “It is based on a really serious and precise business plan for the next ten years.”
“We’re taking into account the rise in viewership, the growth in engagement and broadcast, the increased interest in sponsorship and marketing opportunities, and we’re starting to be more imaginative about what it means to attend a women’s football match,” she continued in front of journalists. Video assistance refereeing (VAR) should in future be used in the WSL and financed in part by television broadcasting rights, held by the BBC and Sky Sports until the end of the season which resumes on Sunday. In anticipation, a camera-reduced system was tested at the beginning of September during a friendly match between Chelsea and AS Roma.
Entrusting the governance of women’s football to club leaders, as in the Premier League, however, raises fears of the monopolization of power and money by a handful of clubs at the expense of the majority of teams participating in the two main championships. “A league with four (clubs, editor’s note) would not be sellable to broadcasters and not attractive from a commercial point of view, so we need a really dynamic league. Everyone understands that,” tried to reassure Sue Campbell, director of women’s football within the English Federation.