Women's football revamp back on after Championship clubs' U-turn

Clubs in the second tier of English women’s football have performed an abrupt U-turn days after rejecting plans to set up a new commercial structure with their top-flight counterparts.

Sky News has learnt that a letter on behalf of the 12 Women’s Championship clubs was sent on Thursday morning to the Football Association to confirm their desire to be part of a joint ‘newco’.

The letter will pave the way for a new company run independently of the FA that will administer the top two divisions of the burgeoning women’s game.

If implemented, Women’s Championship clubs will be in line to receive 25% of the combined leagues’ commercial income – the vast majority of which is generated by the Women’s Super League (WSL).

Sky News revealed earlier this week that the newco plans had run aground after second-tier clubs had objected to being stripped of voting rights on commercial matters.

The newco structure could be in place from as early as next season, and is expected to be funded with a £15m loan from the FA or, less likely, the Premier League.

Football’s administrators want to capitalise on an explosion of interest from fans in recent years amid continued success for the England national team.

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One club executive described the U-turn as “the only sensible outcome”.

The WSL has been determined to press ahead with the new structure to enable it to formulate a comprehensive broadcast rights package ahead of a tender process expected to begin early next year.

The WSL is led after seven games by Chelsea, with Arsenal in second place and Manchester City a further three points behind.

The division below is led by Charlton Athletic, with other clubs including Sunderland, Watford and Lewes.

Revived harmony between the two divisions should also facilitate the arrival of new leadership, with the FA lining up Nikki Doucet as the first chief executive of the women’s professional game in England.

She is widely expected to take the role once a newco is in place.

In September, Dawn Airey, the media executive who chairs the WSL and Championship, said she had set an ambition of the WSL becoming the world’s first £1bn-revenue women’s competition within a decade.

“That isn’t a figure we just plucked from the air, it is based on a pretty decent and detailed business plan for over the course of the next 10 years,” Ms Airey told the media.

“We look at the growth of attendances, we look at the growth of engagement and broadcast, we look at the increased interest in sponsorship and marketing opportunities, and then we start being more imaginative about what attending a women’s game means. Not just watching the game, but everything that goes on around it, is there potential for clubs to think differently about their revenues?”

England’s victorious Euro 2022 campaign and their narrow defeat to Spain in the women’s World Cup final earlier this year have further fuelled public interest in the sport, with attendances at record levels.

Last year, the WSL board proposed re-engaging investment bankers at Rothschild to evaluate other sources of capital to support the sport’s growth.

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Bridgepoint, a private equity firm which this year approached the England and Wales Cricket Board with a proposal to buy a stake in The Hundred, approached the FA about investing in the WSL in 2020.

Private equity investment is not thought to be under active consideration at this point.

An FA spokesperson said that “constructive talks are progressing about the best structure” for the women’s game.

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