2023 has everything to be the year of women’s football. With the world Cup which will take place in July, the modality is moving towards receiving great visibility from the media and sponsorships, but it still has a long way to go.
FIFA’s benchmarking report covering women’s football found that the number of women’s leagues with main sponsors increased from 11 to 77% after 2021. In addition to sponsorships, the number of competitions that guarantee broadcast revenue increased from nine to ten .
The most recent survey found growth across the board from game day sources, broadcast, commercials and cash prizes. Clubs reported a year-on-year commercial revenue increase of 33%, indicating growing interest from sponsors.
The second edition of FIFA’s report, which analyzes 30 leagues and 294 clubs, also revealed that 7% of clubs generate more than US$1 million from match, broadcast, commercial and prize money sources.
In an exclusive interview with EXAME, Bia Loducca, head of communication at sports marketing company Outfit, said that 2023 has everything to be the year of the women’s football market. “This year will be very fertile. The idea is to see much stronger championships and with that the interest of the brands also grows. Naturally, being a World Cup year, we see more spotlights on the modality”.
Women’s football challenges
Bia also mentioned the difficulties that the modality still faces: “The challenges of women’s football are many! When we talk about the year 2023 as the year of women’s football, we need to look at it as a long-term construction. We need to understand that we have a historical gap of several decades of non-development that needs to be repaired”
“In addition to the world cup, we see a very interesting number of sponsorships and when we talk about Brazil, we need time and good management. The responsibility of the federations is to look closely at competition calendars and investments in grassroots championships. For clubs, it is also important. I need to have greater stability of projects and investments”, he added.
