UEFA has launched The Business Case for Women’s Football, a report that highlights the potential for growth in the European women’s club and league game over the next decade.
A record-breaking UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 showcased the popularity and potential of international women’s football, but the game has also made huge strides at club level, with the successful launch of a new format for the UEFA Women’s Champions League with centralised marketing and TV coverage and ever-increasing professionalisation across domestic leagues.
The Business Case for Women’s Football provides justification for investment that will be required in order to maintain momentum and will be read with interest by all stakeholders from National Associations to clubs to media and sponsors.
The new report is based on an unprecedented range of research and data and provides comprehensive reasoning for increasing investment in women’s football. 162 clubs, 42 leagues and 11 commercial partners contributed to it.
Focusing primarily on the club game, it gives a clear understanding of the sport’s potential for growth, outlines the benefits increased investment can bring and offers guidance on how to maximise return on this investment.
Key Findings
The key findings of the report make for exciting reading.
A potential doubling of the fan base is something that a mature industry and sport like Men’s football could only dream about and where there is growth there is value.
Allied to this is the potential for a six-fold increase in commercial value, something that the ownership cohort buying into clubs will see as a major incentive.
Sponsorship Value
The value of club sponsorship also has the potential to rise significantly and that will arise from the currently deeper levels of engagement and advocacy that the Women’s game has.
The numbers that go to see Men’s internationals at the Aviva Stadium are currently higher by a significant factor but that gap will diminish and if you have not yet been to Tallaght Stadium for a game you will have to take our word that the engagement is remarkable.
The ‘buy-in’ of fans is also registered in the report with almost double the broad levels of key promoter metrics that could form the centrepiece of any internal sponsor presentation.
The report finishes strong as well in terms of outlining five key actions that need to happen over the next decade in order to deliver on the promise of the game.
Strategic planning will be vital, as will continuing to focus on raised standards of professionalism on and off the field.
Ensuring that growth is sustainable by building youth structures is listed as is the need to raise visibility through consistent content across traditional and digital channels.
Finally, it speaks of having the confidence to invest in the teams and the players as strong identities in their own right, not just as a female version of the male game. Understanding the difference and embracing it will develop over time but will be a major part of the strength.
Exciting Trajectory
“Women’s football is on an incredibly exciting trajectory, with growth being seen across nearly every metric and across all of our stakeholders across Europe,” said Nadine Kessler, Chair of EUFA’s Women’s Football.
“The potential of the women’s game is limitless and we believe we are on course to take women’s football to heights that were unimaginable just a few years ago.”
“As this report shows, now is the time to capitalise on the momentum we have created together, now is the time to get involved, now is the time to invest.”
