Increasing popularity of women's football

In France, 10.6 million people were watching there women’s football team win against Brazil at the World Championships. This is more than the number of viewers during the group matches of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In the Netherlands, around 3.5 million people watched the Dutch Lionesses win against Japan. In comparison, 7.2 million were watching the openings game of the Dutch national team against Spain during the World Cup of 2014.

Belgian newspaper De Morgen, says this trend is due to the improvement in techniques of the women’s football matches. The games are getting faster and therefore more exciting to watch, which plays a major role in determining whether the sport is suitable for television. According to Thomas Peeters, Sports Economist at Erasmus School of Economics, the most important element in the revenue model of football clubs are the TV rights. These are however still too low to organise a Champions League without making a loss. ‘That has also been the deficit of the BeNe League (a Belgian-Dutch women’s football competition that got terminated in 2015). The high travel costs had to be covered with TV money, but that didn't work out.’

Peeters sees a big pitfall in the further evolution of women's football: there is a big difference between international tournaments and national leagues. ‘Take a look at hockey and volleyball. These are sports that we only hear about in an international context. Nobody is interested in what happens at team level. It is questionable whether women's football succeeds in doing so.’

In Belgium, talks are said to be going on to oblige Belgian first league teams to invest in women's teams. However, this could not be confirmed to newspaper De Morgen. ‘In itself, that wouldn't be such a crazy idea,’ says Peeters. ‘Today, teams are required to invest in the youth, this could be accompanied by an additional obligation.’