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Women’s football Football Association sets WSL attendance target at strategy launch

THE Football Association has targeted an average attendance of 6,000 for the Women’s Super League by 2024 in a new strategy for the women’s professional game launched on Tuesday.

The FA says the aspiration overall is to build the “best women’s leagues in the world,” with the WSL and Championship “the most competitive, watched, attended and followed.”

The three-year strategy – which has been led by the WSL and Championship board in conjunction with clubs and other key stakeholders – states the main objectives being to “produce and attract world-class talent,” “maximise and engage audiences” and “grow commercial revenue and financial sustainability.”

As well as 6,000 for the WSL, it includes an average attendance target of 1,000 for the Championship and the goal of selling out Wembley for the Women’s FA Cup final by 2024.

The average attendance this season up to the fifth round of matches in the WSL – which is in the first term of a three-year broadcast deal that sees matches televised on the BBC and Sky Sports – is 2,282. The figure is 544 for the Championship.

Kelly Simmons, the FA’s director of the women’s professional game, was asked on Tuesday if she was concerned about current attendance levels and if she felt they had taken a hit due to the availability of games on television under the new broadcast deal.

She said: “We were at around 3,000 (for the WSL) pre-Covid but that was skewed by some really big attendances on the back of the Women’s World Cup (in 2019).

“I think when you pull those out, we’re sort of back to where we were in terms of the women’s grounds. We obviously want to keep building on that.

“Research we did (shows) there are still concerns amongst fans in terms of coming back to big live events and using public transport.

“We have a fantastic opportunity with Sky and the BBC to build that awareness and sign-post fans back.

“I’m sure there probably is an element of, for those maybe who are nervous, you have access now through BBC, Sky and the FA Player. But I think it’s more about recreating those habits and building the profile back up.”

The strategy also targets a minimum of 50 per cent of head coaches across the WSL and Championship being female come 2024. Currently in the WSL there are seven male and five female coaches, and each of the last four managerial appointments made by clubs in the division were men.

Simmons said: “I think all we can do is make sure we do everything to develop the pipeline of female coaches and give them the best chance to succeed. There’s lots of work going on behind the scenes.”

With regard to players, a new homegrown rule of eight in 25 has been introduced this season, and the strategy also states an aim is to “optimise and diversify the youth player pathway.”

When asked about plans to reach talent in less well-off or urban areas, Simmons said: “We’ve been in a process here of reviewing the youth player pathway and working with some pilot clubs around how we do that and make sure that is more diverse.”

The launch of the strategy – the targets of which Airey says can be achieved regardless of how England Women fare at next summer’s home Euros – comes ahead of the third Women’s Football Weekend happening in the next few days.

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