by One of the things I find most amusing about women’s football in England is the sheer level of fumes and grief that ensues when a controversial refereeing decision is made. “We need VAR now,” cried the incessant cry. The only possible answer is: guys, maybe be careful what you wish for? And if you put aside the obvious result that maybe people like to be mad, this is a situation that gives a good insight into the women’s game in this country at the moment. It prides itself on being different from men’s football. But also, offensive and a little outraged.
This is perhaps the central tension in a sport caught between two competing, almost paradoxical forces: the insistence on being a distinct counterpoint and alternative space to men’s football, with its greed and toxicity and its disastrous capitalism all, and the demand to imitate his. growth and wealth, to success and prosperity. Right now, those two forces are colliding in strange and unpredictable ways.
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Last week the 24 teams of the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Championship announced the formation of a new competition that would finally break from the control of the Football Association. Led by former investment banker and Nike executive Nikki Doucet, the new series will begin next autumn following a consultation process led by a 12-member working group, eight representing the big men’s clubs.
Gradually, these are brave new lives. Due to the exponential growth of the women’s game in recent years, it is expected that it will be on the verge of reaching the jackpot, after decades of subsidies and scarce information leaflets. The next round of domestic broadcast rights is attracting a lucrative bidding war between Sky and TNT that will destroy the current £8m-a-season deal. US private equity firms are reportedly queuing up to get a piece of the action. “Everyone has agreed with this new club-owned entity to bring a laser focus to the women’s game,” says Kelly Simmons, the FA’s former director of women’s football.
Of course everyone knows what that laser focus is and, even if Doucet diplomatically avoided mentioning it in the statement announcing her appointment, others were happy to do it for her. Current WSL and Championship board chairman Dawn Airey has said the new competition could be the first £1bn league in women’s sport. Outgoing Chelsea coach Emma Hayes has called for women’s football to be “businesslike” and for the new competition to develop closer links with the Premier League.
You see that laser focus, too, in the proposed 75%-25% revenue split of the new league, widening the financial gulf between WSL and Championship clubs, while cutting out the rest of the pyramid entirely. Meanwhile, the Championship clubs will have no vote on commercial and broadcasting matters. And unlike men’s football, there is no financial balance or effective cost cap. Women’s football is already an arms race, and the biggest clubs are about to hand over the keys to the gun room.
I wonder where Bristol City fits into this vision. This year they became the first team since 2018 to win promotion to the WSL without the support of a men’s club in the Premier Division. Their homegrown coach, Lauren Smith, inherited a team with just six senior players and steered them through three competitive Championships on a shoestring budget. They play in the same stadium as the men’s side and last week attracted a crowd of 14,000 to Ashton Gate for the visit of Manchester United.
In short, Bristol City are doing almost everything you want a club of that size to do. Their reward: bottom of the WSL with four points, and in all likelihood a return to the Championship just in time to achieve a share of that 25%. Chelsea have already signed their star defender, Brooke Aspin. If they ever threaten to survive, Aston Villa and West Ham can dip into their pockets in January, as Tottenham did last year when they signed Bethany England. Reading were ruined that season, forced to go part-time and now third from bottom of the Championship. Ambition is good. The growth is good. Except, it seems, to a certain extent and for a few.
There are plenty of ways for women’s football in this country to grow in ways that don’t threaten the entire ecosystem. There are remedies available that don’t involve turning the WSL into a more PR-friendly replica of the Premier League. Truly radical models of financial redistribution. A commitment from the bigger clubs to help smaller clubs with the increased costs of professionalism. Sources of income that do not derive from the proceeds of autocratic regimes and do not require the destruction of private equity. Flat rate cost controls that do not hamper the ambitions of smaller clubs but will prevent the kind of uncontrolled investment that has turned the men’s game into a backstop.
Instead, the marketing people will tell you that the only way to generate a strong product is to submit wholesale to vulture capitalism and its excesses: spiraling transfer fees and super agents, more fixtures and longer seasons ( three cheers for the welfare of the players, by the way!), maybe even a closed franchise league further down the line. Perhaps this is what many people need right now. But before long, from the names of the teams at the top to the leagues reachable under VAR, things will start to look awfully familiar.
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