WEURO 2022 – The Boost Women’s Football Needed

At the time of writing this, the English Women’s football side just matched the performance of the Men’s side last year by making it to the final on Sunday against Germany, causing ripples of huge proportions throughout national media and television, with people discussing the women's side of the game more than ever before.

There has certainly been a change in attitudes towards the women's side of the game, even in what would be usually deemed as ‘progressive’ nations, the emergence of women’s football is still passed off as a taboo topic by some cynics. In England, the FA banned women from playing football in 1921, and only lifted this ban in 1971, being now only 51 years since this, the women’s game is still technically making its first baby steps. To put it into perspective, the ban was only lifted five years after England won their first and only ever world cup in 1966.

In terms of viewer figures, the Women’s Euro 2022 has been the highest viewed ever in the competition’s history, surpassing the previous one in the Netherlands in 2017, with the viewer base growing larger with each tournament. England’s 4-0 win over Sweden earlier this week had a peak viewership of 9.3 million at one point, one of the largest amounts ever for a women’s football match in the UK, which helps showcase the growth in the popularity of the female side of the game. Compared to the men’s game, it is still far off, as the Euros final between England and Italy amassed 42 million viewers in total, with even the semi-final against Denmark surpassing over 23 million viewers, almost triple the amount of the women’s semi-final this week.

The women’s game’s target audience is drastically different from the men’s. This Is partly because of the archaic opinions some of the older and misogynistic generations have about this side of the game. Whoever is marketing the tournament is doing so in a clever way, the social media generation tends to be those with the most progressive views and a younger audience, who can be cultivated and made to have a longer-lasting relationship with the game and pass that down to future generations. On social media, during the group stage alone the tournament generated more than 152.4 million interactions, of which TikTok accounted for 39.7%, Instagram for 26.1%, and Twitter for 19.1%. UEFA has revealed that 54% of viewership for the group stages of Woman’s Euro 2022 was driven by neutral followers, illustrating the tournament’s success in reaching new audiences. And the use of social media has been crucial in achieving these feats.

A catalyst for marginalised groups within football is Ian Wright, former Arsenal and England striker who is a staple on all the BBC’s football coverage, both Match of the Day and national football games. He has been a staple in promoting black players such as Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka, whom he thinks are unfairly treated and are not given enough credit by the wider media for their performances. And after England defeated Sweden earlier this week, he did not get caught up in the emotion and celebration of others, he gave a powerful speech about how this tournament needs to be a Kickstarter in bringing more girls into the game of football, as he said ‘Whatever happens in the final now if girls are not allowed to play football just like the boys can in their P.E. after this tournament then what are we doing?’.

These comments and the tournament's success will go a long way toward achieving FIFA’s goal of 60 million women and girls playing football by 2026, with them around 30 million.

As all marketers know, marketing with stars and influencers makes it so much easier to grow a brand or an idea, with the influencer marketing industry projected to reach $16.4 billion in 2022. Stars such as Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Ella Toone and after THAT backheel, Alessia Russo will all be giving girls all over the world positive role models to liken themselves to and get themselves on a football pitch.

Furthermore, when Women’s International football was put on Fifa 16 in late 2015, it helped garner a whole new audience for that side of the game, with further developments and squads added in the following edition of the game. This year’s upcoming game Fifa 23 will be adding the English WSL, with players being able to play with English clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea, rather than just international sides. This move alongside the growing social media presence of the game will help cultivate a younger audience to loving women’s football…

Will you be tuning in this Sunday?