Football’s governing body, FIFA, has published a report titled “Setting the pace”. The report in an in depth analysis of the women’s football. In the report’s executive summary, FIFA President Gianni Infantino writes “this report will remain an essential tool for all who are passionate about the women’s game”.
The report provides valuable data and insights that will help the clubs, teams, and all the other important stakeholders of the women’s football to drive the sport ahead. The report is a “roadmap” for the progress of the game.
For the report FIFA interacted with 86 leagues and 669 clubs world over to generate the data that was eventually used to analyse women’s football. The findings have been split into six categories: sporting, governance, financial landscape, fan engagement, data and digital and the players.
Here are the key findings in each of the following six categories:
1. Sporting
On average, leagues that had three different winners over the past three seasons saw higher broadcast revenue ($325k) and partners (2.8) compared to leagues with one winner ($251k and 1.3, respectively).
Worldwide, 42% of referees per league were female, ranging from 57% in Tier 2 to 25% in Tier 3.
55% of leagues use referee communication systems, indicating their widespread adoption, video assistant refereeing (VAR) technology is less prevalent, present in only 9% of leagues.
Women remain under-represented in coaching roles. Only 22% of the head coaches surveyed for the report and female.
2. Governance
Over 91% of women’s football leagues are overseen by the member association or an affiliated entity. 7% of the leagues are operated independently.
The ownership of women’s clubs is relatively even, 33% are member‑owned associations and 35% privately owned.
3. Financial Landscape
Tier 1 generated $4.4million of operating revenue compared to $239k in Tier 2 and $76k in Tier 3.
Leagues in Tier 1 incurred a significant proportion of expenditure on staffing (33%) and administrative costs (21%).
62% of women’s football leagues received financial support from the government, member associations, confederation and/or FIFA.
4. Fan Engagement
Leagues in Tire 1 enjoy a higher average attendance (1,713) than those in Tiers 2 and 3 (480 and 380, respectively).
OTT (paid/subscribed) remained the most-used channel to show matches for the leagues in Tire 1. In contrast, the Tire 2 and Tire 3 leagues use social media to engage with the fans.
23% of clubs played some matches at a venues that was not their regular stadium.
Only 20% of clubs offered season tickets.
Food and beverage (F&B) options, pre-match and half-time entertainment are the most popular choices for the clubs as fan engagement initiative.
5. Data and Digital
There is a strong correlation between a league’s data and digital capabilities and its ability to attract sponsors.
The clubs that are data‑driven for fan engagement and to make business decisions had higher attendances.
Over 20% of high‑performing clubs, i.e. those consistently finishing in the top two league positions, demonstrate advanced data and digital maturity.
6. Players
95% of leagues in Tier 1 have a players’ association that represents female players. The percentage stands at 71 and 36 respectively for Tier 2 and Tier 3.
66% of leagues had regulations restricting the number of foreign players permitted in a club’s squad.
In terms of support for pregnant players in leagues, it primarily came in the form of maternity leave.
Globally, the average gross salary for players is around $10,900 per annum and for Tier 1 clubs it is around $24,030 per annum , however, this is significantly skewed by a small number of clubs in Tier 1, where there are 16 clubs across seven countries that paid an average gross salary of over $50,000 per annum per player.
Clubs which paid salaries of more than $5,000 per annum. were significantly more likely to provide non‑financial benefits, such as housing benefits or health insurance.
According to FIFA the popularity of the women’s football is on a rise and that is realised from record-breaking attendances in women’s matches and increased media coverage.
The Sportz Planet Desk
