Women's World Cup
Charlotte Harpur
Aug. 18, 2023Updated Sept. 5, 2023

The Brazil.

  • transfer deadline day

Brands of all types wanted a piece of the action. Any Lioness would do as long as they had that association. In just one year, the Euros has, in some ways, had a hugely beneficial impact on the domestic game.

But in other ways — even as Sarina Wiegman’s side stand on the brink of winning the Women’s World Cup for the first time —  nothing has changed at all.

The England team’s talks with the Football Association (FA) regarding performance-related bonuses and commercial deals — which began before the Euros — WC). Since the Euros, the discrepancy between the elite game’s shiny surface and its underbelly is even starker.

The Athletic has been told:

  • At some clubs, players have to pay for their own food when on site
  • Some players with boot deals give their spares to other WSL players
  • Women’s elite footballers do not have a centralised pension provision
  • Short contract lengths cause players anxiety
  • Some Championship clubs have “awful” facilities

“We don’t want to get to a point where we are successwashing,” says Fern Whelan, former England international and the Professional Football Association’s (PFA) women’s football equality, diversity and inclusion executive.

“We’re talking about the success of the Euros, broadcasting, the fan base, increasing participation. Well, we’re going to get all these girls to play, we want them to get into a professional league and what does a professional league look like? For some of the teams, it would be a hell of a shock. It looks all rosy from the outside, but when you go on the inside, it’s not where it needs to be.

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“There’s a danger the women’s game will run before it can walk. The game does not lack ambition. It’s about getting the basics right for the players before we start throwing big-money salaries and talking about how great the game has become.

“We have to be careful we’re not papering over the cracks. We’re still not there within the elite club level, let alone the Championship and pyramid below.”

  • The state of women’s football at grassroots level
  • The state of women’s football at semi-professional level

The Fan-Led Review of Football Governance, conducted in 2021, recommended women’s football should undertake its own review. After the success of the Euros, the government launched one in September 2022, chaired by England legend Karen Carney. “The professional environment… is the area where reforms are most urgently needed,” Tottenham Hotspur on September 24, and for a women’s club match in England (60,000) at their

Arsenal’s Women’s Champions League run captured the imagination of their fans (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

All clubs (except FA Cup final. The attendance of 77,390 broke the world record for a women’s domestic match but what happened to the other 8,000?

Big strides have been made, with every club (apart from because of a frozen pitch. It looked like a tinpot product on TV and summed up the gaping holes in the infrastructure of women’s football.

 The postponement of Chelsea vs Liverpool was embarrassing for the WSL (Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

Chelsea manager Emma Hayes called for undersoil heating, highlighting the complications of third-party stadiums, while the farce shed light on the issue of fans being short-changed by unsuitable broadcast slots.

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When asked about the successwashing statement, Simmons tells The Athletic: “We’re on a journey… a growth trajectory. We’re not finished. We’ve only been fully professional since 2018, had commercial partners since 2019, a new TV deal is two years in. It’s going to take time.

“This WSL season has been the most competitive… the title went to the wire and one of three or four clubs could have gone down. There are lots of interesting battles.”

The FA achieved the goals it set, although some argue it could have been more ambitious — its target was to reach a WSL season average attendance of 6,000 by 2024.

“There’s nothing wrong with setting a growth target and going after it,” says Simmons when asked about the FA’s priorities. “Increasing attendances is important for matchday revenues, fan experience and how the product looks on TV.”

It is, but at the same time, attention has been taken away from the fundamentals. There are other numbers to discuss.

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“While the Lionesses are admirably succeeding consistently on the pitch, real challenges remain within the domestic pyramid,” read the government review. “Some of the most compelling evidence heard by the review came from current and former players, who painted a picture of a game that is striving for success, but struggling to offer a working environment that fully protects and supports those working in it.”

“There is a lack of consistency in terms of infrastructure and facilities across the WSL and WC that need to be addressed,” says Marie-Christine Bouchier, player representative and head of women’s football at the PFA.

The WSL has 12 professional teams but the WC is a hybrid — some semi-professional, others professional. The minimum contact time is lower and players work multiple jobs to support themselves financially. More on that below.

“We need to be mindful about the standards and make sure players are protected in this journey because it’s fast-paced for them too,” says Bouchier.

“If we’ve got the expectation of players winning tournaments, they’re going to have to have the support systems in place to enable them to continue doing that.”

The last WSL season has been described as the most competitive yet but it was also one littered with injuries. A particular concern for Whelan, a former

(Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

At the moment, it is not compulsory for clubs to have performance psychologists or rehabilitation specialists, something Whelan thinks should change. She also wants more stringent standards regarding clubs’ injury prevention programmes, rehab and management post injury before players return to avoid risk of re-injury. As of next season, clubs will have to have a player welfare officer.

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Nutritional support is another inconsistency within the women’s elite game. Some WSL players have to pay for their own food when in their club environment but Whelan argues it should be provided and of an elite-athlete quality.

In an interview with Women’s Health, England’s Alessia Russo opened up recently about her weight loss and how it contributed to injury. She is not the only player to have suffered like this.

Concerns about medical provision are juxtaposed with the glamour of commercial deals. Off the back of the Euros, every brand was queuing up “just wanting a Lioness,” according to Bouchier, representative for England internationals Lucy Bronze, Lauren Hemp and Esme Morgan. A range of brands realised the England team appealed to a wide market audience outside of sport.

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Before the Euros, around two years ago, an international fringe player earned around a couple of hundred pounds for one commercial appearance. Another earned a couple of thousand for a one-year deal with one brand.

Now, in-demand clients can expect to be paid well over six figures to represent brands for a year. According to Nielsen Influence Scope, each of Williamson’s Instagram posts could deliver an average of $38,708 media value to brands, $17,871 for Lauren James, $17,855 for Russo and $7,291 for Hemp. In return, according to one agency, a social media post and in-person appearance would pay at least £20,000.

These engagements were not available to players before the Euros. Of course, more experienced established England internationals would have earned higher before the tournament and also benefited from the post-Euros uplift. The difference between being a Lioness and not is vast but there is also a difference between the most well-known Lionesses and the more peripheral squad members.

As for a non-Lioness, one agency suggests the fees for a social post and physical in-person appearance could range from £1,000 to £10,000 depending on the player’s profile. League players who do not represent England could agree to a £5,000 or £10,000 one-year commercial deal, a lot of money when compared to their yearly WSL salary.

The Euros had a positive financial impact on non-Lioness WSL players thanks to the increase in media and commercial opportunities. But inevitably the biggest beneficiaries have been the highest-profile Lionesses.

“I don’t feel any resentment from the Euros,” says one player from a mid-to-bottom WSL club, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect her relationships. “More exposure for the women’s game is a positive — it’s just making sure it does not go too fast and is unsustainable.

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“The pay needs to be addressed. It’s growing at such a rate because of the Euros. People talk about the next £1m record transfer fee but a lot of WSL players are not getting paid enough for what they do.”

For women’s teams, it is a fine line between sustainably building a playing squad and paying players what they deserve.

While the highest-paid international WSL players are earning in excess of £350,000, the average WSL salary is around £47,000, a figure reported by the BBC in 2022 based on available published results from seven of the 12 WSL teams.

“The wages are increasing at an astronomical rate,” says Whelan. “Across the WSL, player salaries for the majority and for the non-Lionesses need to be better. There are definitely gains to be had in the women’s game, but it seems like a lot of the gains are for the top-end, elite Lionesses who earn well in excess of £100,000 per year.”

The discrepancy between players’ livelihoods at the top and bottom of the WSL is highlighted when discussing boots, for example. Sponsors will hand Lionesses and breakout WSL stars lucrative boot deals, with those players in turn giving their spare pair to others in the WSL who do not have a sponsor. Some will rely on a £300 boot voucher from the PFA to do their daily job, which does not go far when players get through at least a couple of pairs per season. By contrast, some Premier League clubs provide every youth male player with a pair of boots every season from a young age.

“Players in the league have been there for years, helped the league get to where it is and they’re the ones who can’t even get a pair of boots,” says Whelan. “As the game grows, we need to make sure we’re looking after the whole of the pyramid.”

The government review notes WC players could earn less than £5,000 a year from their football career due to the low number of mandated contracted hours, which means they have to juggle multiple jobs. In its written submission for the review, the PFA says: “Pursuit of a career within the women’s game is likely to still be viewed as a financial risk.”

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The government review recommends a salary floor for WSL players as part of licensing requirements for the 2025-26 season and for it to be introduced in the WC once revenues render it sustainable.