In the early 1990s, representatives of the member clubs of the old First Division met in a series of cloak-and-dagger gatherings. Their shared ambition? Making their clubs as commercially successful as possible. They realised that they could rebrand, create a product that captured more commercial interest from around the globe, sell sponsorship packages and TV rights, and basically make more money.
And so the Premier League was born – an entity in its own right that would break away from the old Football League system. In scenes reminiscent of that milestone moment for English football, the Women’s Super League (WSL) has also decided to cut ties with the Football Association and forge its own path.
The New Way
With interest and participation in women’s football reaching all-time highs, the WSL and its second-tier division, the Women’s Championship, have decided to unleash their own Premier League moment. Their member clubs have voted to break away from the governance of the Football Association (FA), with the two leagues now set to be run by the private firm, NewCo, instead.
NewCo will be owned and ran by the member clubs, with a board of directors employed to oversee the operations of the WSL and the Championship. NewCo will also welcome investment as part of a traditional share-sale model. The change will be implemented in time for the 2024/25 season, with Nikki Doucet – the former Nike director and NewCo chief – confirming that the breakaway was necessary to improve the commercial standing of the WSL in particular. She states,
It’s all about the investment on the pitch. We need to have the best players want to come and play here.
We need to have the most competitive league, and the better the football, the more fans, and ultimately that will make it the most successful league in the world.
The Football Association will retain a ‘golden share’ in the new venture, having made it clear in recent years that they were happy to stand aside to allow women’s football in England to grow into a more commercially successful operation.
It has already been insinuated that change could be afoot. In the same way that the old First Division was renamed as the Premier League in the men’s game in readiness for that inaugural season in 1992/93, it has been reported that NewCo may be considering a name change for the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship as well. Any name change could be implemented in time for the 2025/26 season.
Breaking Away
It should be said that the FA will still be able to exert a level of control over NewCo thanks to their special shareholding in the group, although detractors in the men’s game believe that the Football Association’s golden share in the Premier League ultimately amounts to very little power being wielded.
The FA, to some extent, gave the nod to the foundation of the Premier League in 1991, although the founding members of the EPL had so much power over the governing body that ultimately the Premier League would have been created with or without the FA’s blessing.
One of the reasons the Premier League was founded was because its members grew tired of losing revenue. They didn’t want to give handouts to lower league clubs, and they wanted to make more money from a better TV deal – both could be accomplished by the EPL’s more commercialised approach that effectively saw its member clubs distance themselves from the rest of the English football pyramid.
Today, you would be hard pressed to argue that the move hasn’t been a great success. The Premier League is the richest, most commercially viable domestic league in world football, with the largest collective TV audience too – it’s no wonder that NewCo want to replicate such a successful template in the women’s game.
But the EPL is not without its flaws. Yes, it’s a meritocracy in principle, with all teams having the same access to the points that can win titles or avoid relegation. But in truth, the richest clubs continue to thrive, while the three teams promoted to the Premier League find it almost impossible to thrive – competitive integrity is, perhaps, at an all-time low.
Doubts about the veracity of financial fair play rules have hardly helped – Manchester City have spent more than £1 billion on players in less than a decade, and to now have avoided a formal punishment from the Premier League.
The introduction of a squad cost ratio model, which allows clubs to spend 70% on their revenue on their playing squad, will only serve to help those with huge commercial pull worldwide; the same teams that happen to be successful on the pitch already. While the lure of the revenue-based model is hard to resist, it can bring as many problems as it does opportunities.
Be Careful What You Wish For
With the Football Association effectively divesting power in the running of the English top-flight to the Premier League, it has led to many issues in how the EPL operates – rejecting a fan-owned model in favour of overseas investment, private equity and a money-backed race to the top.
There’s a feeling that English football, certainly the Premier League at least, has lost its soul – but that the division is able to exist in its own bubble beyond regulatory control. But a breakthrough came in March 2024, when it was revealed that the introduction of an independent football regulator – as part of the Football Governance Bill – is very much in the offing. The scope of the power of the independent regulator is not yet set in stone, but three of its draft objectives include:
- Improving financial sustainability of English clubs
- Ensuring financial resilience in English football
- Safeguarding English football’s heritage
It’s not known, specifically, how the regulator would achieve these goals, but the fact that such an overseer is needed in English football is evidence of how the rampant capitalism of the Premier League in particular is considered to now be out of control. And so, in that sense, NewCo and its member clubs are minded to be careful what they wish for in terms of the commercial growth of the women’s game.
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