For the Game. For the World.

91,648 people. This is the number of spectators who attended at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, in April 2022 the women’s football match between Barcelona Women and Wolfsburg in the Women’s Champions League.

The average football audience increased by 106% from the 2015 Women’s World Cup to 17.27 million viewers in 2019.

570 million USD generated the 9th edition of the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand from 2023 reaching profitability for the first time in its history, and for the first time almost 2 million fans attended a tournament of women’s football.

In this article I am discussing the rise of women’s football, the factors that generate interest in it, its importance in the development of the next generation of athletes and what is needed to further increase its popularity.

But first, let’s see why we still love football so much?

Football is the sport that periodically awakens our most intense feelings, from anticipation, tension, to joy and ecstasy … or total disappointment, pain and rage, depending on whether your favorite team wins or loses. Football transcends race and class differences, because it can be played anywhere, anytime. Even if you live in a poor environment, you will have a street which can be turned into a “field” where you and some other spontaneous fellow players can hit the ball.

Football has managed to do what few social and political movements or different organizations have managed to do: Football has brought countries from all over the world together under its umbrella, bringing hope and exhilaration even when societies go through the most difficult moments. For example, during the covid pandemic, and during the war in Ukraine, when the world was drained of energy and in a depressing state due to the restrictions and the brutality of the war, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar from 20 November 2022 to 18 December 2022 was an event that brought back the joy of life to people from all around the world, through the energy and enthusiasm of the participating teams and the fans in the stands who put on a special show on their own. During the World Cup 2022, it was as if time and all worries stood still.

Football is followed by all the countries of the world, attracts billions of followers and is practiced by almost all people from all walks of life.

But along with the enthusiasm for men’s football, in its shadow, the popularity of another less visible side has begun to emerge. We are talking here about women’s football, which is growing more and more. In some places, the popularity is so great that it has surpassed that of classical football perpetuated by men. For example, in the USA, there are 390,000 female soccer players in high schools and in the colleges and there are more women’s soccer teams than men’s! (1). Moreover, women’s football has had the biggest increase in the number of sports practitioners in colleges in recent years.

A brief history of women’s football: pioneers and key moments

Women’s football was actually very popular at the beginning of the 20th century, as women have been playing football for a long time, but they faced obstacles and quite difficult times, which slowed down the development and popularity of the sport. At the beginning of the 1890s there were matches between women’s teams. The first match with a large audience was in England in 1895 between two teams, “North” and “South” which was attended by a considerable number of 11.000 spectators, and unlike previous matches, women were no longer required to wear shoes, and were able to wear football boots, just like men.

In 1902, unfortunately, the football association forbade women to play football, until WW1, when women workers from the munitions factories resumed taking part in football matches and in 1917 a tournament was organized for them. The first international women’s football game between a British and a visiting French team took place in 1920 when a considerable number of spectators, 25,000 attended the match. Due to the extent of the popularity of the game, overtaking some men’s matches, in one case even reaching a number of 53,000 spectators, women’s football was once again blocked by the football association in 1921 as being “unsuitable for women ”, thus no longer allowing the match to be played on the association’s grounds. During that period, in other countries such as France, Germany, women’s football was marginalized, just like in England. Although tournaments were held during that period, obstacles were felt in the development of women’s football. Only in 1969, on the occasion of the increase in the popularity of men’s football, women formed their own federation (Women’s FA) and in 1989 they started to have media outlets. The first women’s world cup took place in 1991. (2)

In the last decades, significant progress has been made in women’s football. In the 1970s, Italy was the first country to have partially professional female soccer players and the first country to transfer international players such as Susanne Augustesen (1956) from Denmark and Anne O’Brien (1956-2016) from Ireland. In 1988, Sweden founded the Damallsvenskan, being the first country to have a professional women’s football championship.

In the United States, the national women’s soccer team (soccer being the US-American version of the European football, so that the difference between “classical football” and “American football” is clear) was formed in 1985 and later there were attempts to form professional championships such as WUSA and WPS, but they only lasted a few years and finally the NWSL appeared, which was launched in 2009 and which is currently the professional soccer league in the United States.

Which events in women’s football attract record audiences?

The Women’s World Cup and the Olympic Games are the most popular tournaments in women’s football. Additionally, The press reported the largest audiences from these tournaments. The Guardian’s coverage of the 2023 Women’s World Cup generated 22.9 million article views, almost four times more views than the 2015 tournament and almost three times more views than the 2022 European Women’s Football Cup.

In 2022, the UEFA Women’s Football Championship had an audience of 365 million viewers and the final game, in which England beat Germany, had 50 million followers.

The championships in European countries have become very strong, the appearance of professional soccer teams being another indication of the growing popularity of the sport.

The Women’s Super League is England’s first women’s football league with 12 professional teams. La Liga F is the first league with the highest level of football in Spain and Serie A Femminile is the first league in Italy with 10 professional teams.

Other countries follow suit, with strong championships involving professional and semi-professional teams, still relying on support from companies to finance themselves, unable to fully self-finance for now.

What are the factors contributing to the current rapid growth of women’s football?

While men’s football attracts huge audiences, massive sponsorships, and spectacular matches, why does women’s football suddenly become interesting?

The reality is that women’s matches have a high intensity, as many spectators well note, the technicality and quality have increased considerably, and recently superstars have appeared, as Georgie, a sports fan, says in an interview for Women’s Health:

“2021 is the first year in which women’s football made headlines and appeared on the front pages of newspapers. Female players were seen as superstars – Megan Rapinoe is now a household name. I think everyone was surprised by the level of play. Women’s teams are so tactical; it’s exciting to watch because it’s so fast-paced.” (3)

With the emergence of more professional teams, the quality of the games has stunningly developed, and many players can focus more on training and technical preparation. The passion, ambition and dedication of the players are growingly visible, which in turn attracts an increased number of male supporters as well: for example, more than half of the spectators of Arsenal’s women’s team matches are men.

The pivotal role of the mass media in the promotion of women’s football

Publications and televisions have contributed massively to the popularity of women’s football. The number of articles written in English in the global mass-media has increased sixfold from the 2015 Women’s World Cup to that of 2019, with gradually numerous front-page articles. The quality of the analyzes in the press has improved substantially, driving away those articles that sexualized the players, so that the analyzes focused more on the skills and performances of the teams and of the players. (4)

Important strategies to improve mass media engagement and increase social media impact

As a first measure, publications could cover more news and events about players and championships during the ongoing seasons and not only during major events such as the World Cup every couple of years. In addition, mass media ought to outline and describe the personalities of female players and promote them outside the football field, positively report more from their personal lives, just as is done in the case of male football players. Publications targeted at women could dedicate more space and visibility to football female players and sports to promote them a as positive social phenomenon.

Using digital platforms and social media to engage fans

Players like Alisha Lehmann from Aston Villa are tremendously popular, with over 14 million followers on Instagram and a very high engagement rate that can be valued at over 300,000 USD per post, yet companies do not seem as yet willing to invest that much in her social media presence: although the fan bases of male soccer players are larger, female soccer fans are much more engaged with them, and traction, especially online, is greater than that of men, thus offering many opportunities for sponsorship and brand promotions. However, there is still reluctance to offer real value contracts. (5)

Increasing financial support from sponsors and investors

Major federations and companies have difficulty in estimating the exact value brought by women’s football. It has become a kind of habit to grant small contracts and to benefit from the promotion of footballers at very low costs, somewhere below the true value of personal brands themselves. However, major sponsors are starting to emerge, such as the partnership between Visa and UEFA with a value of 28 million pounds or the Women’s Super League’s (WSL) with a sponsorship of 10 million pounds annually from the British bank Barclays.

On an individual level, Sam Kerr, striker of the Chelsea club, signed a contract with Nike worth 1 million USD per year for a period of 13 years. With the growing popularity of the sport, more and more companies will line up behind female players to benefit from their new promotional market for clients. (6)

Empowering the new generations of female athletes

Initiatives must be taken to encourage girls to play football from an early age, so that the importance of youth programs and academies becomes gradually widely accepted. Women’s football has benefited from a fulminant growth in recent years, but unfortunately, female footballers have faced various obstacles, from limited opportunities to detrimental stereotypes and poor funding.

Communities, parents and families play an essential role in supporting sports-women, encouraging them to pursue their passion and to develop their skills – and celebrating their successes. They must provide the modern sports facilities, the equipment and the necessary resources so that the footballers can train in the most optimal conditions.

Current stars like Christine Sinclair, who is still playing at 40 years old and won the Olympic gold medal for Canada in 2020, or Salma Paralluelo who is a formidable athlete winning medals in the 400 meters track, but is also a top scorer for Barcelona, have success stories that can inspire future generations of female football players as well as the larger female population to follow their dreams, to become strong and to develop confidence in their abilities. (7)

The role of stakeholders: The efforts of FIFA, UEFA and other organizations to promote women’s football

The leaders of the biggest football associations drew attention to the problem of financing women’s football and the measures that will have to be taken in the future by the interested parties. Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, discussed the problem of very low bids for broadcast rights and asked the television stations “to pay a fair price for women’s football, not just for the (FIFA Women’s) World Cup, but for women’s football in general, in all the countries, all the leagues, in all the competitions”. He also stated that “We have to start treating women and men the same way. I tell all women that you have the power to change. With FIFA, you will find open doors, just push the doors, they are open. And do at the national level in every country, at the continental level in every confederation, keep moving forward, keep the momentum, keep dreaming and let’s really move forward for full equality.” (8)

The pay gap with men

Men’s football attracts automatically much larger audiences and more generous sponsors, but with time, there is a good chance that women’s football will grow much faster and thus significantly reduce the differences in the pay gap between male and female football players. In recent years, thanks to the successes in the Women’s World Cups, the attention to women’s football has started to increase, and on this occasion, the salaries of the players, as well. Although the salaries of female football players are much lower than men’s compensation, in the case of whom they can reach tens of millions of USD, we have female players who constantly raise the bar and therefore better paid.

Chelsea’s Sam Kerr and Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema have contracts in the region of half a million dollars a year, and it certainly won’t be long before we hear about the first contract to reach $1 million a season for female players, too.

Conclusion

With the World Cup in 2023, the popularity of women’s football is on an accelerated growth trend. Women’s football is still young, it needs time to mature, but the auspices are great and the reactions from audiences show both engagement and excitement.

Women’s football, after a long period in which it was invisible, has the potential to break down stereotypes, empower the new generation of female athletes, and find its place among the most celebrated and popular global sports – where it belongs, after all