1/1/24
Today sees the joining together of two women’s football sites to create a merged entity with over 120 contributors based on four continents.
Whilst Impetus and Since 71 have both built strong reputations covering the women’s game in their own individual rights, this coming together creates huge opportunities to grow coverage even further and diversify into other forms of media.
Impetus 71 was born from a collaboration between Impetus and Since 71 women’s football websites. Both launched with the same mission of promoting the women’s game and sharing stories that were not being told in the mainstream media at the time.
Both websites have grown organically since their respective launches to become two of the most respected women’s football platforms on the internet. In 2023 both were nominated as Women’s Football Platform of the Year by On Her Side, an accolade that was won by Impetus.
Since 71 was launched in the summer of 2018 by Stuart Barker. With a background in design and writing about art, music, and culture for the English South Coast-based blog Strong Island he decided to put his skills to plug the gap and build a home where he can share women’s football stories that were being left untold.
The name, Since 71, was inspired by the year that the English FA lifted the ban on female participation in the game.
As the website grew, so did the number of volunteer contributors, and a podcast was launched.
A year later, in September 2019, Impetus was launched. Run by an editorial board of seven volunteers, the site has over 100 volunteer writers, photographers, and TikTok content creators based on four continents. Over 60% of the team are female, and over 25% of their contributors are under the age of 21.
The site grew its audience consistently since October 2020 after an article in support of Sam Kerr after she received abuse on social media was read over 3,500 times around the world in the space of 48 hours. In 2023 the site was voted as Women’s Football Platform of the Year at the On Her Side Awards, with Impetus‘ graphics designer Paige Walder also named Women’s Football Designer of the Year at the same time.
Impetus attracts several thousand readers each week from around the world, with a particularly large audience in Australia, the UK, the USA, Canada, Sweden, France, and New Zealand.
Impetus’ founder Ben Gilby won the Women’s Sports Alliance’s inaugural media contributor award for women’s sport in April 2020. He is additionally on the Squared Ball Analytics judging panel that picks the NPLW Western Australia team of the week during the season.
In June 2022, the British Library announced that it was adding Impetus to its online archives due to the site representing “different aspects of UK heritage as well as important global events.”
Clearinghouse, based at the world-renowned Australian Institute of Sport, regularly includes links to Impetus articles on its daily bulletins which signpost the best articles on Australian sport, as recognition of the quality of the team’s coverage of Australian women’s football.
On 1st January 2024, both sites shared that they were merging under the single banner of Impetus 71 combining both names and both teams of amazing writers and content creators.
On the merger, Stuart Barker explains, “For a long time I have admired the team at Impetus. I have long believed that if the many exceptional women’s football correspondents worked together under one banner then there is enough talent to compete with the biggest names in the mainstream media. Therefore, I decided to approach the team at Impetus to see if there is an appetite to work together on a permanent basis by creating Impetus 71.”
Both Since 71 and Impetus have always sought to give back to the game by sponsorship of players and supporting clubs, most often within grassroots levels. The first collaboration between both sites was the sponsorship of Olivia Watson, then playing for Sutton United.
Read more: https://since-71.com/interview-sutton-uniteds-olivia-watson/
Both sites are Associate Members of the Football Supporters Association’s Women’s Game Network – the national democratic representative body for football supporters in England and Wales. The group played a part in the government’s recent reviews of football and specifically the women’s game review. This is something that will continue as we move forward as Impetus 71.
As well as regular content including match reports from all levels of the game, Impetus 71 will continue to run features on grassroots clubs. The volunteer contributors of our site believe passionately about supporting the women’s game and as well as producing content, we also come together using our own money to sponsor fourteen players for the 2023/24 season across the United Kingdom and Australia.
Miley Shipp, our teenage Moriarty Foundation scholarship holder in Australia.
Lauren Coleman at third-tier Scottish Championship side Rossvale
Modlen Gwynne and Ella Thomas at tier one Welsh side Aberystwyth Town
Lisa Topping of Chorley Women – FA Women’s National League (FAWNL) Division One North (T4)
Ashley Cheatley of Ashford Town (Middlesex) – FAWNL Division One South East (T4)
Emma Plewa of AFC Wimbledon – FAWNL Division One South East (T4)
Annabel Rutter of Moneyfields – FAWNL Division One South West (T4)
Gabriella Howell of Dartford – London & South East Premier Division (T5)
Evie Nebbitt of Saltdean United – London & South East Premier Division (T5)
Poppy Payne from Millwall Lionesses – London & South-East Premier Division (T5)
Otty Baker of Pride Park – Derbyshire Ladies League Division One (T7)
Sophia Demetriou of Corinthian-Casuals – Greater London League Division One (T9)
Karly Smith of Andoversford – Gloucestershire League Division Three (T10)
The site additionally has content partnerships with AFC Wimbledon, Ashford Town (Middlesex), Millwall Lionesses, and Pride Park.
Impetus 71 has a Charity partner, Moriarty Foundation, which work with Indigenous children in Australia through football to improve education and healthcare. One of their earliest scholars is Shadeene Evans, who represented the Young Matildas.
As part of our relationship with Moriarty Foundation, Impetus 71 sponsors Miley Shipp, one of their young female scholarship holders from rural Australia to help fund her top-level life-changing educational and footballing opportunities in Sydney.
As Impetus 71 we aim to continue to provide in-depth coverage of international football and are recognised media by the English FA, Football Australia, FA Wales, Football Association of Ireland, and New Zealand Football. Our French editor Jean-Pierre Thiesset holds accreditation to photograph for us from Olympique Lyonnais Feminin home games. Impetus 71 is proud to be part of a panel that selects the NPLW Western Australia team of the week as part of our extensive coverage of football within Australia.
Follow Impetus 71 on social media:
X (Twitter): @impetusfootball and @impetus71 TikTok: @Impetus71 Facebook: @Impetus71 Instagram: @Impetus_71 Threads: @Impetus_71
impetusfootball.org 