Why we love the WSL deal
Mondays don’t normally have the best of connotations. But on the fourth Monday of March 2021, two Mondays on from International Women’s Day, something special happened. Women’s football in the United Kingdom is to receive its deepest ever monetary push as well as unparalleled levels of coverage, as the FA announced on the 22nd, the largest broadcast deal to date of any professional women’s football league in the entire world.
In December when we announced the Girls Super League (GSL) beginning this September, we explained how this was just another string added to the bow of growing optimism surrounding the women’s game. But, following the landmark news, it almost feels patronising to describe it as what it’s being touted as: a ‘big shift’, a ‘new age’, a ‘game changer’, a ‘huge step forward’, a ‘watershed moment’….
No.
The women’s game is well and truly here. Right now. For everyone to see. Literally too. The multimillion-pound deal sees Sky Sports and the BBC share the broadcast rights of the Women’s Super League (WSL); with the new deal beginning next season and running until 2024. It means that 18 WSL matches will be broadcast live either on BBC One or Two (until now the BBC’s live WSL matches have been shown on the BBC Red Button, iPlayer and online). Bringing live league women’s football to free-to-air channels for the very first time represents a monumental prospect for the sport, which has never been shown live at league level on those platforms, and it will also be the first time that regular live, top-flight football — male or female — has been on a flagship BBC channel since 1988. Add to this the 44 live games Sky Sports will show across their Main Event, Football, Premier League and Sky One channels, in which the managing director of Sky Sports, Robert Webster promised that the WSL will be given “the full Sky Sports treatment with lengthy build-ups and reaction to all live matches, plus a daily narrative of the league across Sky Sports News and our digital platforms”, the women’s game is about to endure unprecedented levels of exposure.
Sky Sports News on YouTube Sky on the ground breaking new deal with the Barclays Women's Super League.
The opportunity and ability to now connect to the widest possible audience is now available, female footballers are now being allowed to create paths on the biggest stage that will in turn make the path for all daughters more walkable. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and for every football fanatic our mantra is the ‘beautiful game’, well now this beautiful game can be viewed by so many more girls, women, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles and aunts, grandads and grandmothers. This has enormous potential; consumption of the sport will sky rocket and will create a long-lasting impact on the game, with Kelly Simmons, FA’s Director of the women’s professional game, stating that it could "slot behind the men's Premier League" as the UK's next most-watched division. This will inspire a new a generation of followers, a generation of girls who are looking for acceptance in men’s professional sports and feel validated by other women. Those who may not see themselves reflected in boardrooms of football’s governing bodies but will now see themselves on the big screens and on the pitches.
The Girls Super League London kicks off with 10 tournaments starting in April
We’re home to this inspiration with the launch of the GSL: a fun, inclusive and competitive environment, running on Saturdays from a centralised venue in London, combatting the problems facing the women’s game around pitch availability, refereeing quality and standardisation of games; a hub for girls football that will resolve the difficulty of girls not being able to find competitive games easily. Those young female ballers who feel inspired, have the chance to see what they love on the big screen and go do it themselves.
That’s why we love the new WSL TV deal.
