March 29, 2024

Football: the business case for the women's game | FT Scoreboard



Published June 5, 2023, 5:22 p.m. by Jerald Waisoki


The FT visits lewes, a small fan-owned football team in the south of england, which pays female players the same wages as the men’s team; and arsenal, which has a long-established women's team. As English Premier League clubs start to invest in the women's game, we examine whether women's football should replicate the structure and feel of the men's game or establish an identity of its own

#Football #women

See if you get the FT for free as a student (http://ft.com/schoolsarefree) or start a £1 trial: https://subs.ft.com/spa3_trial?segmentId=3d4ba81b-96bb-cef0-9ece-29efd6ef2132.

► Check out our Community tab for more stories on the economy.

► Listen to our podcasts: https://www.ft.com/podcasts

► Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/financialtimes'

You may also like to read about:



this is the story of opportunity

women's football depends on men's

football because it was never allowed to

develop on its own

[Music]

our foundations are fragile all women

support

it would be lovely to get the big

figures and

to get just enough money to live off at

times

[Music]

the world is designed by men for men

the top players don't have access to

basic and fundamental equipment

the battles that we fought to get onto

the field

are now being fought to get into the

boardroom and into the management team

you can't say you value something and

then

give it away for free

if we can continue to give the

opportunities to improve the product

that will awaken our companies to want a

piece of the sport

over the next few years we're going to

really see whether or not the women's

game can capture that opportunity

[Music]

the history of the women's game in

england goes back

over a century

[Music]

it was particularly popular towards the

late 19th century they were getting

crowd numbers that were in the tens of

thousands 53 000 was the famous record

from liverpool in 1920. but then in 1921

the english football association the

national governing body banned women's

football saying it wasn't suitable for

females when i began playing for the

national team there was no fifa

tournament there was no olympic

tournament we

weren't paid we once had to sew our own

national crest onto the track onto our

tracksuits

we wanted to train in a car park and

whether it was the kits that looked

amateur to the times of training which

were eight to ten twice a week you're

just trying to manage your working life

with your passion which is your

footballing life it took until the 1960s

for that band to be lifted for the

women's game to be more organized two or

three years ago you see players who are

playing the game but who are also

paramedics or teachers or nurses and who

are having to hold down two or three

jobs just to play some of the players

i've spoken to who were at the olympics

and at the world cup were homeless at

points and living out their cars because

they're just not making enough money

women's footballers had no choice but to

grow up within the structures and the

institutions that were created by men

to service the men's game they didn't

have access to fields or referees or

coaching courses broadcast revenues it's

taken a long time for governing bodies

to really understand that there's an

opportunity

the fa founded the women's super league

and now big broadcasters and sponsors

are coming on board now you give the

opportunity for players to play

professionally the standards obviously

have improved and that's very much

what's happened in this country with the

wsl

there has been football played here at

the dripping pan since 1885.

the club was the beating heart of a

community it's a small town lewis is

just 17 000 people

10 12 years ago the club nearly went

bust it was felt from a small group of

people that came together that it was

too important to fail they took the club

into community ownership in 2017 the

club took the decision to split revenue

equally between the men's side and the

women's side

the first club in the world to do it and

in fact still the only club to do it in

the world and it isn't just about pay

parity it's about equal decision making

across the club the women's team and the

men's team are level pegging and

considered the same we have the same

marketing budget we play in the same

ground

[Applause]

the women's team with that additional

support and investment and backing um

now sits in the second tier in england

we play in the same league as liverpool

and crystal palace punching above our

weight we are a club now that has two

revenue generating teams

on the women's side alone our attendance

is quadrupled within three seasons

we charge the same amount of money to

come to a men's game in a women's game

one of the most expensive women's teams

to to watch in the country

we had to put the prices up we had to go

out and tell people this is important

you can't do that if you're giving

tickets away for free and you can't do

that if you're giving them away for just

three pounds

rian cleverley center back number three

and louis fc club captain so i had a

really good year in the hack and lahar

france unfortunately got released a low

point in my career you can get released

from your contract and and it can mean

um obviously your job's gone at that

point my house was gone i was in france

so

i didn't really know where to live in

the men's game if you the equivalent and

you get released there's probably

another opportunity with the same sort

of money and and from from there that's

not always the case in women's football

you can get released and then you need

to find a full-time job

[Music]

[Applause]

if you speak to anyone in the women's

game they've been through something like

that or unfortunately they will at some

point we play more for the love of the

game

guys this this right here is our captain

as women we kind of just get used to it

being rubbish which is it sounds awful

and then you come to a place like louis

and they do things a little bit

differently they treat you a little bit

differently and you're like actually no

we should be treated a little bit better

maggie one of her friends has a women's

football boot they design boots

specifically for women given us free

boots and they've tried it out they're

great women tend to have narrow heels so

we've narrowed the heel cup women tend

to have a different toe box so different

width here so we've changed the shape of

that so you don't get black toes when

you're playing women tend to have hips

that are

slightly further apart so where we

pressure load is different and so we've

really focused on designing a boot that

really works for the different surfaces

and specifically for female biomechanics

i find it incredibly frustrating that

the top players don't have access to

basic and fundamental equipment for the

game we're still seeing a range of

injuries in the game that potentially

are preventable there's a long way to go

when people are running off to work

straight from training and are they

eating right are they recovering right

but um i think that's where we can

progress in the women's game and there's

not enough research on women yet the

world is designed by men for men the

drugs that we receive in hospital if we

have a heart attack they've been tested

on men there's very little medical

research that's done on women car design

and crash test dummies and seat belts

none of that is tested on women with the

balance 50 years behind there's a

there's a long there's a long way to go

that we need to catch up on to be even

close to equal to the to the men's game

we don't have a big men's club backing

us so

every pound we make we have to make

ourselves somehow so we have to do that

through sponsorship or through match day

attendances or other things we have a

license if we don't adhere to the

license requirements we won't be able to

play in the league regardless of how

good our results are that can be a

challenge in terms of we look good and

we're attracted sponsors it's very hard

for some of the small clubs to keep up

the women's game is completely

unrecognizable to what it was 20 years

ago

in fact it's unrecognizable to what it

was even five years ago

[Music]

arsenal have been pioneers in the game

it wasn't tokenism it was something they

genuinely believed was right to give

opportunities

clubs like arsenal have been relatively

early

in investing in their in their teams and

when you speak to their executives i

think they're pretty upfront with the

idea that the women's teams that they

run are essentially unprofitable i do

think we're some way off just because of

the rate of increase of the salaries the

intention yes is to be much more

sustainable than what we are being at

the moment

some of the top players could probably

earn in excess of 150 000 pounds a year

we could see salaries hitting half a

million within the next couple of years

which is quite frightening because the

issue is at the moment where are those

revenues coming from to offset the extra

cost the growing cost we don't want to

stop the spend if we can help it we want

to bring the revenues up to offset that

spend if you invest now

from a low base into the women's game as

it builds as it grows over time they

will get to reap the rewards they will

have profitable women's teams and they

will be amongst the biggest teams both

in england and in europe and that is the

opportunity for them the traditionally

strong men's clubs especially in

traditionally strong football markets

have enormous clout an enormous ability

to

leverage those synergies into the

women's game you can get off a plane

anywhere in the world and people have

heard of chelsea they've heard of

arsenal so you know a bit like hollywood

takes ghostbusters and takes out the

male characters and puts in female

characters creates a spin-off that's

worth a lot what we could find is that a

successful women's game with more and

more

money flowing to the top of the game

could actually be bad for small clubs

like lewis the danger is that it

ironically becomes necessary to be

attached to a men's club for women's

football to succeed we've got our own um

personal um sponsor for arsenal women in

mastercard so that was a first three

years ago the recent broadcast cycle by

bbc and sky sports he's brought some

revenue into the league this deal with

sky and bbc worth about 24 million

pounds for the women's super league

compare that to just the premier league

the top tier of men's football that's

worth over nine billion pounds and

that's not even take into account the

fact that most of these clubs have full

big stadiums

massive sponsorship deals as well

the case for the women's game really is

is it worth investing in so that over

years and decades it can grow to similar

levels if we can continue to give the

opportunities to improve the product

then i think that will awaken our

companies to want a piece of the sport

we're not about to become sustainable

anytime soon i don't think we just we

just need more commercial partners what

we've seen with sport and the interest

of sport around around the world that if

you really do power up that interest you

make the game exciting you improve

standards people will watch that you can

have

good businesses behind that if you look

at tennis or if you look at golf the top

top earners in those sports they are

millionaires they do earn wages akin to

the best male players in their sports so

that is where football will want to go

into the future

[Music]

this is a chance to invest in something

akin to a startup it's something that if

you

get in on at the ground level now you

can reap the rewards later

[Music]

we're in a world in a society that

understands professional football as

men's football

men's stadiums are quite forbidding

experiences to go through you go through

tight turn styles

very tribal

there's a debate at the moment about

whether women's football teams should

have a home and an away section

there's a different vibe at women's

games we don't need segregation in

crowds so far it's

not the kind of same aggression or

swearing or violence

i don't think women's football wants to

lose that because that is such a key

part of the the match day experience and

being part of this community that is

supportive and allows especially little

girls to dream bigger football in this

country has changed at the top level

so it used to be small community clubs

representing their local

areas and these have developed into

massive global businesses owned by

billionaires there's been a

disconnection from the community there

is a different journey that the women's

game is on compared to the men's

and i think that that can be maximized

through the engagement with the players

as well

you can get really close to the women's

players they spend a lot of time with

the fans they kind of get to know each

other

young girls can relate to them

the question for the women's game going

forward is whether or not it has to be

incubated into the structures that the

men's game have already produced what

we've seen in the women's game with the

clubs is is quite two different models

emerging one in the uk where the the

women's clubs are tied to the men's

clubs and one in the us where the

women's clubs are more standalone quite

a number of them are women-only clubs

they don't have a men's team of any sort

la city angels is owned by serena

williams natalie portman washington

spirit has chelsea clinton and jenna

bush as investors

there are a lot of challenges at the fa

with

the entire governance structure and

whether it's fit for purpose for

for women's football you see that in

decisions that i made around

allocation of fa cup prize money when we

went out in the fourth round to to

arsenal a couple years back arsenal won

three thousand pounds but if we were men

we'd have won

three hundred and sixty thousand pounds

i can do a lot with three hundred and

sixty thousand pounds but i can't do

that much with three 000 pounds equal up

their fa cup prize money allow us to

fight for it and allow us to win the

money so that we can invest it back in

it's the barriers that are put in place

they're kind of holding the game back at

the moment so

invest put the money in

equal prize money pay the players as

much as they should earn and then you'll

see the results

the bet that broadcasters like sky and

bbc are making is that if fans are much

more able to just watch these games

maybe they'll get hooked maybe they'll

get a team

this is a process that will take years

and decades

[Applause]

[Music]

in 10 years time i would like to think

that

we are turning away commercial partners

because there's too many

if you're a corporate and you have a

sports sponsorship budget and you're

spending nearly all of it on men's sport

you're going to have shareholders show

up at your annual general meeting

wanting to know whether giving 90 of

your sports sponsorship to male players

is in line with the corporate values

in recent years there's been such a push

to have a really glossy finished product

that looks good on tv and is ready to

sell because our foundations are fragile

all women's for it

it's really difficult to keep up with

the pace of change that sometimes feels

angled into short-term

glossiness to to sell as opposed to

longer-term investment into growing

attendances into medical support for

players into professionalisation into

staff into coaching staff

there's so many foundations that are

just not there we haven't had the

hundred plus years that men's sport has

had

just imagine how much easier it's gonna

get once commercialism and better

governance structures

take over but we're trying to leap and

jump very fast and

a club like guys can get swallowed up

you take the most popular game in the

world you take the half of the

population that's had so little access

to it over the years you put some good

focused management with expertise in the

women's game over the top of it and you

see it thrive

[Music]

you

Resources:

Similar videos

2CUTURL

Created in 2013, 2CUTURL has been on the forefront of entertainment and breaking news. Our editorial staff delivers high quality articles, video, documentary and live along with multi-platform content.

© 2CUTURL. All Rights Reserved.