WSL confident of becoming first billion pound women's football league

LONDON: England's Women's Super League is confident of becoming the first billion pound (US$1.24 billion) women's football league in the world within 10 years, the chair of the WSL's board said ahead of the new season that begins next month.

The top-flight WSL and second-tier Women's Championship are both run by The Football Association but there is an ongoing process to make the leagues independent and run by the clubs, under the umbrella of "NewCo".

The 12-team WSL signed its first commercial broadcast deal in 2021, worth around eight million pounds a season according to media reports, with a new deal to come after this campaign, which begins on Oct 1, and expected to be a lot more.

With interest in the women's game surging thanks to the Lionesses winning the Euros last year and reaching the World Cup final in August, chair Dawn Airey is sure the WSL, in partnership with the Championship, can become the most lucrative in the world.

"One of the stated goals that we have is to make this league the first billion-pound women's league in the world, that is league revenue and club revenue and there's no reason why we shouldn't do it," Airey told reporters at a launch day for the new WSL season in north-west London.

"That's our goal, at every level to get more finances in this business, as well as ... developing a pathway and the investment that is required at every level."

Airey added that they were still working on the new governance structure of "NewCo", with some select CEOs from WSL and Championship clubs included in the leadership, so that the semi-pro second tier can also thrive from new investment.

Airey also said they wanted a close relationship with the lower leagues and to avoid a revenue-governance split like the one