[ad_1]
Good morning. 2022 will be looked back on as a defining year for women’s football in England. It finally returned to its home country. After her 2-1 win over Germany in the Euros this summer, it was the Lionesses who got it back. The moment was witnessed by her 87,192 fans who packed Wembley Stadium. It was the highest ever for a European Championship tournament, peaking in TV viewership for her at 17.4 million, plus he had 5.9 million online her streams. The match saw Lioness and manager Salina her Wiegman cement her status as a legend in the hallowed halls of football history, while one of its stars, Jill Her Scott, became her I’m a Celebrity… Helped me win Get Me Out of Here!
The magnitude of that achievement is immeasurable. But it’s also important to note that women’s soccer has been one of the fastest growing sports in both popularity and publicity in the country for years, with viewership for the game steadily rising. It is on the rise, and since 2017 he has doubled. Last year, the Football Association announced a record £8 million a year deal with Sky Sports and he the BBC for the women’s Super League broadcast rights. We welcome it as a “landmark” moment. The derogatory and sexist attitudes that have stood in the way for so long are now starting to fall by the wayside, and people are being given the chance to see it and engage with it in entirely different ways.
In today’s newsletter, we spoke with sports writer Sarah Rendell about where the women’s game stands in the new year and how it’s changed.
Details: “More girls realized where they could be”
It has been just over a century since England’s FA voted to ban mainstream women’s football by banning women’s football from FA-affiliated football fields. For 50 years, the women’s game was relegated to a small pitch, out of the sight of the media and the general public. The story couldn’t be more different now.
Euro win aftermath
The Lionesses victory over Germany felt like a historic moment. “After England won the Euros, I knew there would be an impact, but I didn’t expect it to be so immediate,” says Sarah. In the season for clubs like Reading his ticket sales increased by almost 500% in the weeks following the victory. The game’s media coverage meant fans who didn’t necessarily know how accessible it was. “I think there’s a big impact there. More people are actually getting involved,” says Sarah.
The Euro win also solidified a broader trend among spectators, especially women’s football. This is not as an add-on, but as a core and idiosyncratic part of the viewing experience: According to a report by Visibility Uncovered, 5.9 million new viewers for his WSL in 2021 will be I had never watched any other sport.
Impact on other women’s sports
The growing popularity of women’s soccer has influenced other women’s sports. More than a quarter of her 15.8 million new viewers of women’s sports this year watched more women’s competitions such as cricket in August and her September. In October, two million viewers watched her marshall women’s boxing match between Claressa Shields and Savannah. “The Women’s Rugby World Cup was held in New Zealand and the match started at 3:30 am, but ITV showed 1.7 million viewers to the final, which had to kick off at 6:30 am. And it’s a record that has been broken,” says Sarah.
Overall, Sarah says the scale of growth is largely limited to women’s football. “Each individual sport will need its own women’s Euro to unlock these breakthrough opportunities,” she says.
next year
It’s not just the increased marketing and monetization of women’s football that is showing change. There’s also the feeling that “it doesn’t have to prove itself anymore,” Sarah says. “People in the sports world have been frustrated for a long time because they obviously knew there was a product, but now it seems like the whole country is catching up.”
The World Cups in Australia and New Zealand, like the Euros, follow the WSL season. So while this momentum will only build into the new year, the priority is to maintain this steady growth in a sustainable way. “The league is good at knowing where they are and pushing it at the same time. Axel he is not about pedaling and booming,” Sarah says.
As more and more people get involved with women’s football, Sarah cautions against comparisons to men’s. “This is not necessarily the case for the WSL, but various leagues in Europe are still amateurs. Belgium, for example, are not even paid to play. You may not even have a coach for ,” explains Sarah. This kind of complexity can be lost to casual fans.
outside of major league
But it’s not all about big leagues and international competition. Despite not taking part in the Championship, Newcastle were able to draw a huge crowd of around 25,000 to St. He James Park and were not even in the Championship. “Chelsea had around 38,000 at Stamford Bridge, so these teams are now competing in the WSL crowd, which is impressive,” says Sarah.
There has also been a trickle-down effect on grassroots players as more people want to participate and more brands want to invest in smaller teams. announced the launch of an initiative to sponsor a grassroots women’s soccer team.
“I think it helped more girls feel like they belonged,” says Sarah. The visibility of women’s teams means that more girls than ever are considering pursuing the sport professionally as an option for them. A study commissioned by the charities Women in Sport and Sports Direct found that nearly 70% of girls who love sports dream of reaching the top level. . That’s up from her 50% of girls two years ago.
Things are certainly not perfect. The wage gap within sports is huge. According to one BBC study, the average WSL player makes £47,000 a year and the average Premier League player makes £60,000 a week. The England team has serious issues with racial diversity. Nonetheless, many people are keeping a keen eye on where the women’s game will go next, as the women’s game will never be the same again after this year.
For more information on women’s football progress, visit Moving the goal posts, weekly women’s soccer newsletter
today’s focus
Can I tell you a secret? Can you catch up?
The Guardian’s Daily Podcast is taking a break for Christmas.Use this time to tell us about his six-episode podcast on The Guardian, The Guardian Journalist silicone explores the story of Matthew Hardy, a cyberstalker who has terrorized people in and around his hometown for over a decade.
His harassment often starts the same way, with a fake profile posing as a young woman and asking the simple question, “Hey, can you tell me your secret?” In this series, we will try to unravel his web of deception and find out how and why he wreaked havoc on so many people’s lives.
best upside
A look back at the good news of the year
Thursday, August 25th If you’re wondering if it’s too late for your second act, consider the following: A 92-year-old man has just passed his GCSE exam after getting the highest marks on his math paper.
Derek Skipper, from Orwell, Cambridgeshire, may be the oldest person in the UK to obtain a GCSE. Earlier this year, he took a foundation-level exam in a hall full of teenagers, who felt that as a child he never fully understood mathematics. He professed he was “delighted” when he found out Thursday morning that he had achieved a level 5 (low he is equivalent to a B).
Because of his poor eyesight, he used a magnifying glass to look at paper and carried the slide rule he used when he took a math exam at school in 1946. You’re not good at that,’ he said. “If you have the opportunity to learn and embrace it, that’s great.”
Sign up here for The Upside’s weekly roundup sent every Sunday
[ad_2]
Source link
