The problem with limited funding from the FA Women’s Super League
Across the Atlantic Ocean, the United States Women’s National Team has finally one their lawsuit against the USSF after fighting extensively for equal pay and equal opportunities. Despite the overwhelming successes the women’s football team saw in the past couple of years, they were still not awarded the rightful bonuses and prize money that their male counterparts receive had they performed in that way. Player wages in female sports are significantly less than those of men, which at times is logical. The amount of money a male team accrues due to greater fan bases, higher paid sponsorships, and just mere seasonal revenue brought in through various channels (particularly in countries outside of the US) tends to surpass those of women by thousands if not millions of dollars.
But the UK is different, and the FA Women’s Super League (WSL) has created a vastly different structure, one that has very limited funding for the women’s side of the game, thus creating an imbalance felt throughout every team in the league. Women were banned from competitive football until 1971, almost 100 years after the creation of the Football Association (FA). Football has been around in the UK for a significantly longer time than in the US, meaning the traditional structure will be hard to upend, much harder than in the US.
Female teams throughout the WSL continue to fight for the opportunity to merely play, that is, fund a team and make it affordable, find training grounds, host games, and win matches. Most of the tier three teams and beyond (that’s roughly 90%) must look for alternative ways to support themselves and sustain a female team. Bradford City is only one of the teams in the local area that works tirelessly to find supporters in the local community that can donate and finance the women’s team.
Chris Hannes, first team manager of Bradford City Women’s Football Club, a tier four team in the Division one North has been working in the women’s league (WSL) for almost three years now and continues to run into the same questions…how do we rally support to continue the team here at Bradford City? “There is no money that has come down from the top,” states Chris, referring to “the top” as the FA or Premier League who provides most of the money for the league. This year the Premier League has announced they will increase funding to improve the women’s side of the game and the players in Tier three and Chris is hopeful they will see some of that. “Everything is self-made really”, states Chris after discussing his role as manager which includes coaching and finding sponsorships for the players and the team.
The women’s game continues to grow, though certainly most teams have difficulties finding the support and sponsorship they need. There are around 71 teams (6 tiers) in the women’s league and only the first tier will see reap the benefits and see improvements from the grants provided by the FA and the Premier League. The rest of the divisions are left to support themselves through commercial deals, player sponsorships, some support from community foundations, or players themselves who end up owing the club money to play.
Charlotte Stuart, a current player-coach at Bradford City has still had to work out finding a sponsor top continue her soccer career. She felt “awkward and uncomfortable” when asked about her experience looking for sponsors. “It’s the worst thing ever, especially now that I am older,” though it’s vital if she wants to continue pursuing the sport that she loves.
Many of the individuals that keep the women’s side running are volunteers. Unpaid coaches make up the U23 team, photographers capture photos for the club social media accounts for free, and various other individuals give of their own time to keep the team afloat. Emmie Penkett, a journalism undergraduate student at Leeds Beckett University has been the voluntary match-day reporter for almost every game this past season. Her support and engagement with the club has taken up extensive amounts of time but she is not paid, because she can’t be. “The club secretary said that it’s not that they don’t want to pay me, it’s just they can’t, despite my role being vital to the team”. Traveling to and from a game every Sunday and writing articles, Emmie spends around 25 hours per week doing unpaid work for the club. “I’ve done extensive reports on matches, and I even got the club into she kicks, a magazine for women’s soccer, which increased the clubs engagement a lot with the community.”
Only recently have people begun to make a concerted effort to fund and sponsor female players to engage in high level competition and fund the teams. Yet it's still not enough. Quasim Akhtar has worked in various roles as a coach and manager and is now the Chairman of the Bradford City Club. He works extensively hard to find the sponsors stating it is a “self-sustained club, they’re not funded by anyone.” It is no small feat for a club to keep itself up and running in a country like the UK. “Football is such a saturated market in this country, and everyone wants a piece of the pie,” states Chris. “I think because the women’s game is playing catch up, there isn’t the support from the fans side that the money is needed.”
Both Quasim and Chris are working day in and day out to find individual and team sponsorships to support the first team. Being associated with the men’s Bradford city football team has had some impact and is sometimes a benefit for the women’s side of the game. “When a woman’s team is associated with a men’s team, they tend to have far better support,” says Chris when asked about how beneficial it is for the women’s team to be affiliated with the men’s professional squad at Bradford.
When a team in a lower league does get sponsorship, the struggle is then forecasting and conjuring up benefits that the club is able to give in return for their sponsorship. Charlotte was able to offer her sponsor a handful of benefits including a framed photo of a player of their choice, goodie bags, invitation to sponsorship events and a few other perks. The costs to run a women’s team in the league is around £30,000; if each player is sponsored at £250 per player, that still leaves almost £25,000 needed to cover the total costs. A few years back during her time at university Charlotte set up paid Saturday morning sessions for junior league kids in the surrounding communities to not only invest in the local football community, but to also use that money and cover some of the costs to cover her player fee. “That brings in money obviously because the kids pay to come and play.”
And if asking for money wasn’t already challenging enough, requesting sponsorship money after the economy has suffered through two years of a pandemic has made that process even more difficult. “It’s hard and especially after the pandemic, money is tight right? It’s even harder now.” She currently doesn’t have a sponsor for the next season but plans on getting one by the time the 2022 season begins in August.
Though a large majority of individuals are volunteers for Bradford, as is the case with probably most of the tier three leagues and beyond, the opportunities are beneficial and can pay off in the long run for those that need them. As a budding sports journalist, Emmie has thoroughly enjoyed the company of the Bradford community and feels grateful for the opportunities the club has been able to give her. “I feel like it is such a tight knit community, and they’re always trying to help each other out. Bradford also made me realize I wanted to go into sports journalism.” The club is also in need of a game analyst for this upcoming season; it appears the most affordable way to find volunteers is to offer students in need of volunteer hours unpaid positions.
So, where does that leave a team of female athletes, a group of volunteers and a club sustained by the compassionate and giving hearts of a community? What must change, considering they’re so far behind? Chris does believe there are several people that want to get behind and support the women’s game. “It’s 100 years behind the men’s game, there must be some subsidizing for it, but it then needs to become self-sufficient and how that’s going to be done, I do not know,” states Chris. “We rely on peoples good will, but I do think there has to be a culture shift.” Chris encourages his team to ask questions such as “are we engaged with the fans when they attend matches? Are we thankful for their presence and do we give good interviews?”
It’s difficult to change the culture of an entire society, but it’s slowly happening as engagement with the community increases. Quasim hopes to see an increase in involvement from both the players and the residents in the Bradford and surrounding community this upcoming season. Though it is likely the women in the UK will not see successes like the one seen this past week in America, one thing is for certain, female athletes are encouraged when new steps are taken to continue the support for the women’s game.