Ambitious plans have been unveiled by the Football Association and Women’s Super League for England to boast the first billion-pound league structure in women’s football.
A month on from the Lionesses’ reaching a second consecutive major final, the finer details on independent company NewCo, a crucial next step in the development of the women’s game, are drawing to a conclusion.
The FA currently owns the WSL and Women’s Championship, but this will change going into the 2024-25 campaign when NewCo take over the running of the two divisions, which will result in a restructure of power in a move similar to the Premier League’s 20-club governance model.
A working group, which contains key figures from Premier League clubs alongside FA director of women’s football Baroness Sue Campbell, was set up by the FA in February led by Nikki Doucet, a former director at Nike.
Progress on the structure, financial model and governance of NewCo has been made and plans are in place for WSL and Women’s Championship teams to receive the relevant information they require by the end of 2023 to run the two divisions from next season.
While WSL chair Dawn Airey, part of the working group, recognises the challenges that will come, she is excited about the potential of England’s
top-two divisions earning a potential one billion pounds in revenue.
Airey said: “We are making good progress (on NewCo) because this has to be resolved before we go into the next season. That is the timetable that we’ve committed to.
“I’d say it’s been incredibly collaborative. It’s been a bit of a bit of an eye opener for some of the chief executives to really understand some of the challenges that the leagues face, but the challenges are opportunities.
“Somebody quoted me an amazing statistic – it just resonates – which is the whole of women’s sport globally gets a billion dollars in revenues from sponsorship and gate.
“Men’s sport gets half a trillion. That’s an enormous difference and it shows the enormous potential. The enormous potential for women sport and women’s football in particular.
“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.”
The WSL has grown enormously during the past 12 months, with 94 of the division’s players appearing at the World Cup, 31 more than from the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League.
Airey’s billion-pound plans, which are backed by Baroness Campbell, are based on the revenue of clubs from both the WSL and Women’s Championship, currently a semi-professional league that gets a 25 per cent split of the revenue going into England’s top flight division.
WSL chair Airey added: “The Championship is a really, really important part of this ecosystem so the billion revenue, that isn’t a figure we just plucked from the air.
“It is based on a pretty decent and detailed business plan over the course of the next 10 years.
View this post on Instagram“There is potential for clubs to think differently about their revenues and actually that is both the Championship and the Super League.”
Baroness Campbell acknowledged the gulf currently between the WSL and Women’s Championship, which will go fully professional in the long-term, and revealed plans for cost controls to be brought in alongside the need for investment in infrastructure.
“The women’s game is at a really critical point here, both for itself and for what it can accomplish in wider society as a whole,” Baroness Campbell said.
“So, we’re really excited about the year ahead. The Championship’s started, one of the big challenges for us as we move forward is how do we make sure the gaps between Super League and Championship and the Championship and National League don’t just get bigger?
“Those are big challenges for us going forward.”
Meanwhile, Baroness Campbell admitted VAR will eventually be introduced into the WSL after a version with less cameras compared to the Premier League was used for a Chelsea friendly with Roma earlier this month.
“At the end of the day, it has to come in. So, we just got to find a way through it,” Campbell revealed.
The FA’s director of women’s football explained VAR’s introduction could be linked to commercial investment and the WSL TV rights will go to market around the end of this year, with the current deals with BBC and Sky Sports expiring at the conclusion of the upcoming season.
“What we don’t want it to be is just a few very rich clubs and to be fair to the CEOs of those clubs, they don’t want it,” Baroness Campbell insisted.
“A league of four isn’t going to be sellable to broadcasters and isn’t going to be commercially attractive, so we need a league that really is vibrant. Everybody gets that.”
Bayern Munich confirm shock appointment of Kompany
Bayern Munich have confirmed the appointment of Vincent Kompany as their new head coach.
Kompany has joined Bayern on a three-year deal, and comes in as Thomas Tuchel's replacement.
The former Manchester City captain, who began his coaching career in Belgium with Anderlecht, could not keep Burnley in the Premier League in 2023-24.
Indeed, the Clarets were relegated following a 2-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Turf Moor in their penultimate match of the season.
Yet, less than two weeks after the campaign's conclusion, Kompany has been installed as boss of one of Europe's biggest clubs.
The 38-year-old joins Bayern after Tuchel confirmed talks over potentially reversing the decision for him and the club to part ways, which came in February, had ended.
Bayern lost their last game of the Bundesliga season to finish in third place, having failed to win any of the four trophies they were in contention for, seeing their dominance of Germany's top tier ended by Xabi Alonso's unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen team.
Alonso had been Bayern's primary target, but their former midfielder has elected to stay at Leverkusen for next season.
Bayern were also linked with Roberto De Zerbi, who has just left Brighton, and Brentford coach Thomas Frank, while they were turned down by Austria coach Ralf Rangnick. Mauricio Pochettino, who left Chelsea on Monday, was also rumoured as a potential option.
Kompany, then, is a surprise pick, but Bayern will be hoping he rediscovers the magic touch he had during his first season at Turf Moor in 2022-23, when he guided the Clarets to promotion from the Championship, earning 101 points in the process.
However, Kompany's possession-based, front-foot approach was badly exposed in the Premier League, with Burnley winning just five games on their way to taking 24 points as they finished 19th, going back down alongside Luton Town and Sheffield United.
He leaves Burnley having managed 96 games, winning 41 (42.7 per cent) of those matches.
In a statement, Burnley said they were "initially confident" of keeping Kompany at the club, but claimed "the changing dynamics of the situation made this impossible".
"We understand the allure and prestige of a club like Bayern Munich and respect Vincent's ambition to explore new opportunities," the statement continued.
"We wish only the best for Vincent and would like to put on record our appreciation for his dedication every single day he was a part of this football club.
"Our priority remains the stability and success of Burnley, and we will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure that our ambition is realised, namely our return to the Premier League."
Mitrovic clinches last-gasp success for Saudi Pro League champions Al-Hilal
Aleksandar Mitrovic produced a last-gasp winner for Al-Hilal as the Saudi Pro League champions signed off with a dramatic 2-1 victory over Al-Wedha on Monday.
Jorge Jesus' side finished the league campaign unbeaten across the 34-game season, though needed late heroics from top scorer Mitrovic to snatch all three points.
Mohamed Kanno opened the scoring for the visiting champions in the first half but Yahya Naji's second-half leveller pegged Al-Hilal back at King Abdulaziz Sports City Stadium.
Yet Mitrovic provided the decisive moment in the 92nd minute, converting a Mohammed Al Burayk assist for his 28th league goal of the season.
The Serbia international ranks only behind Cristiano Ronaldo in this campaign's scoring charts, after the Al-Nassr forward claimed a piece of Saudi League history in a 4-2 victory over Al-Ittihad.
Ronaldo moved past Abderrazak Hamdallah's 34-goal tally – in the 2018-19 season – after his deadly double took him to 35 strikes and broke the single-season scoring record in the competition.
Victory for Al-Nassr means they finish second behind the impressive Al-Hilal, while Al-Ahli had already secured third in the standings before their 1-0 victory over Al-Fayha.
Roberto Firmino scored the only goal of the game in that narrow triumph, finding the net after 85 minutes at Prince Abdullah al-Faisal Stadium.
At the other end of the table, Abha Club – who had Marcel Tisserand sent off late on – suffered heartbreak on the final day after losing 2-1 to bottom-placed Al-Hazem to seal their relegation.
Ahmed Abdu opened the scoring to boost Abha's survival hopes but second-half goals from Muhammed Badamosi and Mohammed Al Thani proved their undoing.
Al-Akhoud beat the drop after overcoming Al-Tai, who went down with Abha and Al-Hazem, 2-0 thanks to goals from Saviour Godwin and Leandre Tawamba at Prince Abdul Aziz bin Musa'ed Stadium.
Al-Nassr 4-2 Al-Ittihad: Ronaldo breaks Saudi Pro League scoring record in final-day win
Cristiano Ronaldo claimed a piece of Saudi Pro League history after scoring twice in Al-Nassr's 4-2 final-day victory over 10-man Al-Ittihad on Monday.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner was on target in either half at Al Awal Park, moving to 35 goals across the 2023-24 league campaign in Saudi Arabia.
Ronaldo opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time after receiving a long ball from Mohammed Al-Fatil, before doubling his tally – and Al-Nassr's lead – with a header from Marcelo Brozovic's corner.
That second finish after Suwailem Al Manhali was dismissed for the visitors saw Ronaldo eclipse Abderrazak Hamdallah's 34-goal tally – in the 2018-19 season – for the most strikes in a single campaign.
Abdulrahman Ghareeb then added another from the penalty spot before Meshari Al Nemer made sure of three points after late goals from Farhah Al Shamrani and Fabinho had pulled Al-Ittihad back into contention.
Having already been unable to stop Al-Hilal secure the title, Al-Nassr finish second in the table – ending on 82 points after 26 wins from the 34-match campaign.
Data Debrief: Al-Nassr dominance pays off
Much will be made of the record-breaking Ronaldo, who has scored 50 goals in as many games across all competitions this season.
Yet Al-Nassr were dominant from the off in this one, mustering nine shots on target to Al-Ittihad's three, while accumulating 2.73 expected goals (xG) – far superior to the visitors' 1.43 xG.
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