In 2017 the Football Association launched its Gameplan for Growth for the women’s game. It was a strategy which set forth plans and targets for the development of women’s football from top to bottom. Three years on the FA had hit every target: doubling participation, doubling the fanbase, reaching the top three in the world in all England age groups and putting the senior England women’s team in good stead for the 2023 World Cup.
Now, we are two years into the new strategy, titled Positive Change. Already targets are being met, with England’s Euros success ticking off the ambition to win a major tournament. The momentum from that is still flowing and the World Cup, which will lift interest further, is only 10 months away. There is no better opportunity to accelerate the growth and development of the game, and to safeguard its future. But what are the key areas to address and what results should have been achieved when the 2023-24 WSL season starts next September?
School access
Three days after England’s 2-1 extra-time defeat of Germany in the final of the Euros, the Lionesses came together and wrote an open letter to prime ministerial hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak urging them to commit to access to football for every girl in every school. The FA’s ambition is that this is achieved by 2024. However Truss’s promise to “investigate what prevents schools from delivering the recommended minimum of two hours PE per week” falls well short of a commitment to match these ambitions. Schools are chronically underfunded and putting the onus on individual schools is not enough. The government must be pressured into increasing support for school sports, without forcing cuts elsewhere. Truss is considering ditching the plan to introduce an independent regulator for football but it is vital that the review into women’s football and its findings are not sidelined. A core component of that review should be looking at how school and college sports could be transformed by legislation similar to Title IX in the US, the 1972 civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in any school or educational programme that receives federal funding.
Target for September 2023: Every school providing equal access for boys and girls to play football, and football played at all single-sex schools.
Full-time referees
The new FA strategy falls short of committing to full-time referees for the women’s professional game. This, though, is essential to the development of refereeing in the WSL and Women’s Championship. Professional full-time leagues deserve professional full-time referees. Decisions are routinely criticised, with the broadcast rights deal putting decisions in the spotlight more than ever, and referees are being let down but the lack of a commitment to full-time contracts. Giving referees the time to hone their craft and develop at the same rate as rapidly developing full-time and professional teams is vital to closing the gap.
Target for September 2023: Full-time referees across the top two divisions.
View image in fullscreenThe referee Louise Saunders and her assistants Ceri Williams and Magdalena Golba lead out the Arsenal and Tottenham players at the Emirates in May 2022. Photograph: Action Plus Sports Images/Alamy
Protect the leagues
The FA has stated it is committed to moving ownership of the WSL into its own company in January and has rebuffed advances from private equity firms looking to buy the fledgling league. Chelsea’s manager Emma Hayes has expressed her desire for the Premier League to take over the running of the WSL. With the future of the league in the balance it is important that, by the time the 2023-24 season kicks off, enough has been done to protect the future of the league and to enshrine core principles that will allow it to develop democratically, sustainably and evenly.
Fan involvement in the running of clubs and the leagues should be on the agenda. The leagues must be safeguarded against profiteering. Every effort must be made to ensure the top of the pyramid does not get cut away from the amateur and grassroots game. The leagues should be expanded, and the northern and southern National League winners should not be going into a playoff for a single place in the Championship. Broadcasting and league sponsorship money must disproportionately benefit the roots of the game, while allowing for continued growth at the top. Minimum and maximum wages that offer players stability and allow for teams to remain competitive internationally, while not separating the top from the rest, must be considered.
Target for September 2023: WSL expanded to 14 teams and promotion of two clubs each season to the Championship. Safeguarding measures in place to protect the WSL from profiteering.
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Expand community projects
There must be a significant expansion of girl’s football projects in local communities. The FA has championed this work through programmes such as Wildcats but clubs must also take up that mantle and look at how they reverse the impact that professionalising their academy and scouting systems has had on the demographics of those academies.
Target for September 2023: More minority ethnic players in the academy system and England pathways.
Boost attendances
In 2020 the average WSL attendance was 3,092 fans. By 2024 the FA’s ambition is to increase that to 6,000. Close to doubling attendances seems ambitious, but when the existing bar is so low it is quite modest. That target must be met this season as a minimum. Stoking competition between teams on who will become the first to sell out their main stadium should be high on the agenda. The huge increase in season-ticket and ticket sales across the pyramid reflects the opportunity that is there. Arsenal’s success in selling more than 50,000 tickets for their first of six games at the Emirates shows how quickly the numbers can shift if the work is done.
Target for September 2023: Average WSL attendances of at least 6,000.
