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WSL WSLIT’S A WHOLE nEW BALL GAME American megastars and world-record transfers have hogged headlines in the Women’s Super League this summer – but behind the scenes, an ambitious revolution is transforming the female game in England beyond recognition. FourFourTwo hears from those on the frontline with their fists held high 54 November 2020 FourFourTwo Words Joe Brewin
page 55
Whoever said that all publicity is good publicity obviously didn’t support West Ham United. In October 2016, BBC News beamed footage of the Hammers’ female players pounding the pavements next to a busy, streetlit road, having apparently been barred from using the club’s own gym facilities. If that wasn’t bleak enough, chairman Stephen Hunt also claimed that the club – then competing in the third-tier FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division – had been prevented from finding their own sponsors, couldn’t afford travel to matches, and were even playing in the previous season’s kit (with the names of former players helpfully peeled off). Oh, and West Ham were ignoring his emails, too. “It’s beyond negligence,” huffed Hunt, drawing his daggers. “Someone had to say something and it may as well be me.” In terms of PR, a public brawl was Pretty Rubbish. But from it came the swift action that Hunt had wanted all along. That month, he was gone. In a swift statement rebuking his many accusations, West Ham claimed to have already been in the process of joining the growing number of clubs taking their women’s teams ‘in house’ and out of the dark ages. Sure enough, they did just that: fast-forward to 2020, and the rebranded West Ham Women – led by the 20-year-old Jack Sullivan, son of majority owner David – are into their third WSL campaign and rising fast. Appointing the joint-chairman’s teenage son was ridiculed in 2017, but now the Irons are used for the BBC’s programme-making, rather than depressing news footage. Sullivan became the subject of Britain’s Youngest Football Boss in 2018, then his side starred in 2020 follow-up Squad Goals. Football changes fast. Even so, in the UK, the women’s game is evolving with particular speed. A record 11.7 million viewers tuned in to see England’s agonising 2019 World Cup semi-final loss to the USA – a smidgen more than those who beat (or embraced) their food comas for the Gavin & Stacey Christmas Day special – and 38,262 supporters watched November 2019’s North London Derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The Women’s Super League (WSL) is no longer playing catch-up with Europe’s elite divisions. In a stunning summer of transfer activity, Chelsea completed a world-record deal for Danish attacker Pernille Harder, while Tottenham snared Alex Morgan – the USA’s most marketed female footballer – until the end of the season, and each Manchester club completed a double swoop for their own trophy-toting Americans. City also convinced England internationals Lucy Bronze and Alex Greenwood to swap the behemoths of Lyon for burning ambition back home, and Everton made a statement by bringing in France No.9 Valerie Gauvin, supplementing the superstar forwards in a league that already boasts Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema and Chelsea’s Australian icon, Sam Kerr. The financial honey pot of English football is becoming all the sweeter for the world’s WSL leading players – but the truth is much more nuanced than that. All around the country, women’s football is going through seismic change on an unprecedented scale, as men’s clubs and commercial partners finally begin to get serious about it. The games are just beginning. THIS IS ENGLAND Believe it or not, coronavirus wasn’t all bad for English football this summer. When the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the USA cancelled its season in June and arranged only a mini Fall Series to replace it, the nation’s top stars faced a decision: stick around to see what happens next, or, with next summer’s Olympics in sight, find game time elsewhere. “COVID-19 has somewhat helped in terms of transfer activity,” admits Aaron Little, the Above Spurs have got in on the action, drawing a bona fide superstar in Morgan Top right Bronze and Kaagman: two impressive signings, for different reasons Above right Meet the Press: Christen Press, Manchester United’s new arrival general manager of Everton’s women since February 2017. “It allowed some of the best talent to come and play in the WSL, which probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise. I think the interesting thing in terms of the recruitment this summer is how it affects the next one. Can we retain that sort of US talent here, or will they go back and force clubs to fill in the gaps?” The WSL is now an increasingly attractive proposition, having been fully professional since 2018. That aforementioned spread of high-profile arrivals has served to highlight its competitiveness among teams as a key selling point – unlike in France or Germany, for example, where Lyon (champions 14 times running) and Wolfsburg (just the four times) dominate. There are chasms between some WSL clubs, as 9-1 and 9-0 victories for Arsenal and Chelsea have shown this term, but competition is fierce. ODD O NE OUT The Premier League big guns are leading a WSL charge – with one exception There had to be one unlucky side relegated after two-thirds of a curtailed 2019-20 campaign –  but with just one win from their 14 games, Liverpool deserved it. A glance at the Merseysiders’ 2019 accounts goes some way to explaining why. By their own definition, Liverpool consider full-time employees to be those working more than 20 hours per week – yet unlike WSL rivals, their entire playing squad of 19 was considered semi-pro. A turnover of £1.08m was dwarfed by that of Chelsea (£3.33m), Manchester City (£2.05m) and even long-awaited second-tier debutants Manchester United (£1.25m), while the wage bill was more comparable with also-rans and drop-dodgers than title-chasers. Such investment levels should still have kept them up, but ultimately they paid an even heavier price in embarrassment. While the women’s side suffered, Liverpool’s men proudly trumpeted pre-tax profits of £42m in their own accounts last year, prompting some fury. “Their women’s team is a token gesture,” fumed Reading’s Jess Fishlock, Wales’ most-capped footballer. “There is no way you should have arguably the world’s best [men’s] team, yet allow the women’s team to be relegated.” FSG president Mike Gordon claimed the club’s women were “an exceptionally important team” at Anfield – but actions will speak loudest as the Reds aim to make their second-tier stay a brief one. FourFourTwo November 2020 55

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Whoever said that all publicity is good publicity obviously didn’t support West Ham United.

In October 2016, BBC News beamed footage of the Hammers’ female players pounding the pavements next to a busy, streetlit road, having apparently been barred from using the club’s own gym facilities. If that wasn’t bleak enough, chairman Stephen Hunt also claimed that the club – then competing in the third-tier FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division – had been prevented from finding their own sponsors, couldn’t afford travel to matches, and were even playing in the previous season’s kit (with the names of former players helpfully peeled off). Oh, and West Ham were ignoring his emails, too. “It’s beyond negligence,” huffed Hunt, drawing his daggers. “Someone had to say something and it may as well be me.”

In terms of PR, a public brawl was Pretty Rubbish. But from it came the swift action that Hunt had wanted all along. That month, he was gone. In a swift statement rebuking his many accusations, West Ham claimed to have already been in the process of joining the growing number of clubs taking their women’s teams ‘in house’ and out of the dark ages. Sure enough, they did just that: fast-forward to 2020, and the rebranded West Ham Women – led by the 20-year-old Jack Sullivan, son of majority owner David – are into their third WSL campaign and rising fast. Appointing the joint-chairman’s teenage son was ridiculed in 2017, but now the Irons are used for the BBC’s programme-making, rather than depressing news footage. Sullivan became the subject of Britain’s Youngest Football Boss in 2018, then his side starred in 2020 follow-up Squad Goals.

Football changes fast. Even so, in the UK, the women’s game is evolving with particular speed. A record 11.7 million viewers tuned in to see England’s agonising 2019 World Cup semi-final loss to the USA – a smidgen more than those who beat (or embraced) their food comas for the Gavin & Stacey Christmas Day special – and 38,262 supporters watched November 2019’s North London Derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The Women’s Super League (WSL) is no longer playing catch-up with Europe’s elite divisions. In a stunning summer of transfer activity, Chelsea completed a world-record deal for Danish attacker Pernille Harder, while Tottenham snared Alex Morgan – the USA’s most marketed female footballer – until the end of the season, and each Manchester club completed a double swoop for their own trophy-toting Americans. City also convinced England internationals Lucy Bronze and Alex Greenwood to swap the behemoths of Lyon for burning ambition back home, and Everton made a statement by bringing in France No.9 Valerie Gauvin, supplementing the superstar forwards in a league that already boasts Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema and Chelsea’s Australian icon, Sam Kerr.

The financial honey pot of English football is becoming all the sweeter for the world’s

WSL

leading players – but the truth is much more nuanced than that. All around the country, women’s football is going through seismic change on an unprecedented scale, as men’s clubs and commercial partners finally begin to get serious about it.

The games are just beginning.

THIS IS ENGLAND

Believe it or not, coronavirus wasn’t all bad for English football this summer. When the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the USA cancelled its season in June and arranged only a mini Fall Series to replace it, the nation’s top stars faced a decision: stick around to see what happens next, or, with next summer’s Olympics in sight, find game time elsewhere.

“COVID-19 has somewhat helped in terms of transfer activity,” admits Aaron Little, the

Above Spurs have got in on the action, drawing a bona fide superstar in Morgan Top right Bronze and Kaagman: two impressive signings, for different reasons Above right Meet the Press: Christen Press, Manchester United’s new arrival general manager of Everton’s women since February 2017. “It allowed some of the best talent to come and play in the WSL, which probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise. I think the interesting thing in terms of the recruitment this summer is how it affects the next one. Can we retain that sort of US talent here, or will they go back and force clubs to fill in the gaps?”

The WSL is now an increasingly attractive proposition, having been fully professional since 2018. That aforementioned spread of high-profile arrivals has served to highlight its competitiveness among teams as a key selling point – unlike in France or Germany, for example, where Lyon (champions 14 times running) and Wolfsburg (just the four times) dominate. There are chasms between some WSL clubs, as 9-1 and 9-0 victories for Arsenal and Chelsea have shown this term, but competition is fierce.

ODD O NE OUT The Premier League big guns are leading a WSL charge – with one exception

There had to be one unlucky side relegated after two-thirds of a curtailed 2019-20 campaign –  but with just one win from their 14 games, Liverpool deserved it.

A glance at the Merseysiders’ 2019 accounts goes some way to explaining why. By their own definition, Liverpool consider full-time employees to be those working more than 20 hours per week – yet unlike WSL rivals, their entire playing squad of 19 was considered semi-pro. A turnover of £1.08m was dwarfed by that of Chelsea (£3.33m), Manchester City (£2.05m) and even long-awaited second-tier debutants Manchester United (£1.25m), while the wage bill was more comparable with also-rans and drop-dodgers than title-chasers. Such investment levels should still have kept them up, but ultimately they paid an even heavier price in embarrassment. While the women’s side suffered, Liverpool’s men proudly trumpeted pre-tax profits of £42m in their own accounts last year, prompting some fury. “Their women’s team is a token gesture,” fumed Reading’s Jess Fishlock, Wales’ most-capped footballer. “There is no way you should have arguably the world’s best [men’s] team, yet allow the women’s team to be relegated.”

FSG president Mike Gordon claimed the club’s women were “an exceptionally important team” at Anfield – but actions will speak loudest as the Reds aim to make their second-tier stay a brief one.

FourFourTwo November 2020 55

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