Nearly three-quarters of British football fans (72%) plan to watch the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup this summer, including 57% who plan to watch the England team – the ‘Lionesses’ – new consumer research conducted across the Irish sea has shown.
The survey of 1,000 UK football fans commissioned by Imagineear, specialists in media and technology for visitor experiences, showed that 60% of English club football supporters intend to watch the Lionesses play in the World Cup, which takes place in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to August 20, with an even split between male and female fans.
We don’t have similar research into viewing potential here but we can make an educated guess that with the profile of the team, and their appearing in a major tournament for the first time, allied to a significant push from sponsors including Sky, Cadbury, Aviva and Carlsberg, that the numbers here will be broadly in line.
“These findings demonstrate clearly that football fans are excited by the FIFA Women’s World Cup,” said Andrew Nugee, Chief Executive Officer of Imagineear. “It also shows that the more fans are able to learn about the players and the heritage of the women’s game, the more engaged they are, making them more likely to watch them play.”
Overall, 62% of football fans say they watch the England Women’s football team “at least sometimes”, including 30% who “always” or “often” watch the Lionesses’.
The younger the fan, the more likely they are to watch the team, with 69% of those aged 18-34 saying they do at least sometimes compared to 55% of football supporters aged 55+ at the other end of the spectrum.
A significant proportion of those that watch women’s football believe that learning more about the current players (35%), going to a live match (32%), and learning more about the history and advances in the women’s game (31%) could all enhance their viewing experience.
The Republic of Ireland will play france at Tallaght Stadium tomorrow night ahead of their departure for Australia and the opening fixture against the host nation in front of 82,000 fans on July 20th.
There will then be an opportunity to test the depth of the connection with the fans when they play Northern Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in September.
The Imagineear survey, conducted in May 2023, was representative of UK football fans across gender, age group, region, league, team affiliation, and level of engagement – it included a mix of football supporters who identified as being “massive”, “quite big” or “casual” fans.
