CGTN Europe interviewed Jennifer Haskel, Insights lead for Deloitte's Sports Business Group
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00:00Welcome back to Global Business Europe.
00:03The popularity of women's football has soared in recent years, bringing a surge in profits for their clubs.
00:09Analysis of the game's top 15 clubs last season showed they brought in more than $120 million,
00:16passing the $100 million mark for the first time, a rise of 35% year on year.
00:22But that is still just a fraction of what the men's teams and their players earn.
00:27Let's talk to Jennifer Haspel, who's from Deloitte Football Money League, who carried out the analysis.
00:32Good to see you, Jennifer. Welcome to the program.
00:34So we're now seeing that the amount of money generated by women's teams has passed 100 million euros,
00:40roughly $100 million for the first time.
00:43Are we now seeing women's football taking its place as something that people really want to watch and get behind?
00:50Thanks so much for having me, first of all.
00:53Yes, I think we're seeing an incredible growth story on the revenue front,
00:57but what we're also seeing are the metrics far and beyond just revenue.
01:01So we're seeing increases in attendance, we're seeing increases in engagement and commercial partnerships
01:07that are really amplifying the visibility and the audience of women's football.
01:12And that's allowing other metrics to continue to rise as well.
01:16And we're seeing further investment in both the leagues and the structures,
01:20as well as grassroots participation, which we know is important for so many other things beyond just professional sport.
01:27Let's talk about some of the specifics.
01:30The highest earning team, Barcelona, but eight of the top 15 high earning teams are English.
01:37Why are English teams doing so well?
01:41I think what we're seeing is a lot of investment in terms of the match day culture.
01:44We're seeing a lot of test and learn happening across WSL clubs.
01:49But what we're also seeing is that in the past season, in the reportable season,
01:54all of the WSL clubs actually had an English Premier League equivalent on their men's side.
02:00So while we're recognizing that the growth of women's football is happening in a different and unique way,
02:08there is also that ability to work with a longstanding brand like an English Premier League club.
02:16So I think that's one thing to consider.
02:19But also we're seeing now that the leagues are being run by an independent company.
02:26You can see further growth in their commercial partnerships and future growth in their broadcast revenue,
02:32which will further entrench them in the European landscape.
02:35So is it a case of building audiences and the rest will follow?
02:39Or is there more that can be done by women's football to generate more money?
02:45I think there's always more that can be done.
02:47We think that audience and fan engagement is going to be crucial to the growth of women's sport
02:51because it not only brings further revenue and further eyes and visibility to women's football,
02:58but it is bringing new fans, new partners, and new investors into the sport as a whole.
03:04So all in all, it's beneficial for the sport to grow,
03:08but it's also beneficial in recognizing that we can uplift a lot of these women athletes
03:13and give young girls and boys role models for the future.
03:17So great to see women's football making these gains.
03:20We should, of course, point out that it's still a very long way behind the kind of money the men's game generates.
03:27There's more to be done, isn't there?
03:30Definitely, and I think we're seeing positive growth signs when it comes to the investment,
03:34whether that be in infrastructure, whether that be in the fan engagement metrics.
03:39We're also in a fairly nascent stage where we're looking at women's football as almost a venture capital stage.
03:46It's early investment, it's high growth, high potential,
03:49and so we're looking forward to seeing it break more barriers in revenue,
03:53which is just one metric, but also across attendances, engagement, and visibility in coming years.
04:00Jennifer, thanks so much for coming on the program.
04:02Good to talk to you. That's Jennifer Haskell from Deloitte Football Money League.