Women's Football: Rise to the Top

My absolute respect for Women's football and everyone involved.

The growth that women's football has experienced recently is undeniable. Things have really gone from strength to strength and it finally appears to be on its way to receiving the recognition it deserves.  Step by step, the engine of growth is gaining momentum, challenges are being met and women's football is on its way to stardom in the sports industry.

Ever since I was little, I've always admired the idea of ​​women participating in football. Through my research times trying to find out more about women in football, for the most part, Football always appeared as a male domain and female players have always struggled to be taken seriously. For obvious reasons, it is known that particularly when most sports started, they were started by men, for men. Women are perceived as fragile and delicate beings and should not participate in activities that involve any kind of physicality. Traditional female roles where I come from require women to be limited to their homes and kitchens and their main interests to be limited to looking sexy and getting married. But that has completely changed now. The sporting experience has become an important part of the culture for women. Women are also interested in sports, always have and always will. The late 19th century and turn of the 20th century saw women's growing interest in sports as participants and spectators.

Women nowadays have more opportunities and this also applies to football. Women's struggle for their rights took a long time to bring the world to its modern state. Women fought for equality and the opportunity to participate in all kinds of sports that men play. Today we can see women's teams and leagues in all kinds of sports, even those that for a long time remained an exclusively male privilege, such as weightlifting, wrestling, boxing, or rugby.  Certainly, women's experience in sport and athletics has gradually improved over the past few decades. Even so, some questions remain not on the legal side, but on the practical side of equality and difference between men and women in sport.

From being told the sport was too difficult for their delicate constitutions, to later being allowed to have their own league, albeit largely relegated to the background, women's football is finally getting the attention and investment it deserves. With each passing day, records are being broken in sport, especially when it comes to women and football. From skyrocketing stadium crowds to improved salaries, cash prizes and sponsorships, female football players are finally starting to feel the recognition they should have received decades ago.

The flywheel is already in motion, on its way to a greater good and it should only continue to get stronger.

The last two or three seasons have served as defining moments for women's football in general.  The 2021/22 season saw the Women's Champions League finalists FC Barcelona welcome a record 91,648 fans against Wolfsburg during the Champions League semi-finals. The FA Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester City had a combined attendance of 49,094 fans at Wembley Stadium, while the Women's Champions League final in Turin was personally witnessed by 32,357.

The 2022 WAFCON saw a crowd of 45,562 watch the semi-final between Morocco and Nigeria, with the final also between Morocco and South Africa beating that record again with over 50,000 in attendance at the Príncipe Moulay Abdellah Stadium in July. The biggest crowd in history. — Overall, women's Euros 2022 attracted 574,875 spectators, more than doubling the number that passed through the turnstiles of the last women's Euros. Where a crowd of 68,871 watched hosts England defeat Austria in the opening game at Old Trafford. And also England and Germany setting a new attendance record at the European Championships after 87,192 spectators gathered for the final at Wembley.

Not only has fan participation increased, but TV ratings, investments and sponsorship deals have also increased significantly as the sport has expanded to women.

Ratings are multiplying, which is driving an increase in TV broadcast deals. For example, the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France had a total of 1.475 million viewers worldwide (considering TV and Digital Platform viewers) and the final was watched live by 260 million viewers.

This growth directly influenced new sponsorship deals and cash prize movement as well. For example, FIFA and VISA have signed the largest sponsorship pledge to date in women's football, with a total of US$20 million, and the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is expected to award approximately US$60 million to participating teams, double what was offered in the 2019 tournament.

All of this would not have been possible without the love and support of the fans, all coming together to understand a certain course. To see how well and better we could do if we worked together with the same purpose and direction.

Reality is a social construction reinforced over time.

Social transformation will only happen when change is implemented and replicated as a community effort.

Through the journey towards great success in the sport, some big steps have been taken in an attempt to break even more barriers and open up financial opportunities, a more equal future in the sport.  For example, in February, the USWNT finally won its long-standing equal pay agreement with the U.S. Soccer announcing that it would guarantee players of both sexes equal pay, even in regards to World Cup prize money. After, Spain offered bonuses to the women's team as part of the new agreement announced by the Spanish Football Federation. And the Dutch women's team also received bonuses equal to their male counterparts before the Euros in July.

As the main sponsor of the Women's Super League, Barclays already fulfilled the same role in the second tier of women's football in England – the Women's Championship – from September. And the Italian women's Serie A will finally become a professional league starting this new season for the first time. This is a great accomplishment and a ridiculous level of accomplishment. — Look, I've always said that I believe in women's football and they have what it takes to get on the wave of success in the sport and we've seen that, we've seen the best example of whatever, at club level and international level.

What women's football shows us is a lot of heart, skill and competitive spirit. Their game is growing at an exponential rate, especially when you look at Olympique Lyonnais, which is one of the most successful teams in Europe, or the US national women's team, which is just a few leagues ahead of the rest of the world, as their university program continues to manufacture world class superstars. Like men's football, women's football has grown and developed attitudes, emotions, interest and approach to sport on a collective and individual level. When you look at the profiles of some elite female players who weren't there two or three years ago and who are there now, you can see that there's been a fantastic progression.

It's a win for everyone, but perhaps especially for girls who are getting role models, who are seeing people like them playing, who are abandoning all the old sexist stereotypes and can see a path to sport professionally or as a leisure activity. This is great for them and great for our society that for so long, in one way or another, has unfairly excluded so many women from football and sport. For many of today's women to say they play football for a living, for them to be footballers like men without juggling another job, is the fulfillment of a dream they didn't know would come true when they first kicked a ball as kids.

The hike is only halfway through, but the climb has been impressive, and everyone deserves a pat on the back for that.

Do you want to see women excel in football? You have to give them the ability to be successful, which I think is one of the basic levels of being successful.

The thing to do with women's football is exactly the same thing you do with men's football, you support and you invest!

This is an extremely exciting time for women's football. With a huge investment in all areas of the game, and allowing girls/women to be more adventurous in football and giving them the privilege to play at any level, you will realize that there really is no limit to the sport. My maximum respect to everyone involved in the #LetGirlsPlay movement in the UK, such incisive and positive awareness should be spread across the four corners of the world. With all of this being consistently followed, I could see myself as a proud father watching and rooting for his daughters to play professional football in the near future.

But until then, show some respect to the women's game. Because that's what sport is all about. Respect.