The growth in women’s football is starting to be reflected in transfer fees. But how does this impact the rest of the football economy?
By Rachel Gore 13/2/24
Above: Kaitlyn Torpey broke the Australian transfer record when she was signed by San Diego Wave.
Last week, on February 6, Kaitlyn Torpey signed for San Diego Wave FC for a record-breaking fee. The Australian defender was reportedly sold by Melbourne City for $75,000 that record transfer was almost immediately eclipsed by Lysianne Proulx‘a move to Bay FC. Previously a rarity, the increasing spending on transfer fees have has sparked a conversation on money within the women’s game.
Recent years have seen numerous transfer records be broken. In the summer of 2022, Kiera Walsh moved from Manchester City to Barcelona having been sold for a rumoured $750,000. This made Walsh the most expensive women’s footballer to date. One year later, in 2023, Jill Roord had a record WSL transfer as she moved from Wolfsburg to City for $580,000.
Seemingly, female players are being sold for increasing sums of money, the first million Euro transfer seems inevitable, which leads us to question how clubs are generating their funding.
In England many women’s teams are dependent on financial support from their affiliated men’s teams – to a degree these men’s teams have been subsidising the women’s game.
It’s not only men’s teams that are funding women’s football, but also men’s leagues.
In 2022 the Premier League announced financial support for FA Women’s National League clubs. This investment totalled to just under £10 million and had a key focus on the tier 3 and 4 leagues; £3 million was dedicated to supporting their matches and £1.5 million was given for improvements of their stadiums. As part of this, the Premier League also pledged to fund £1.75 million annually for 3 years to the FA’s Girl’s Emerging Talent Centres.
Further to this 2022 scheme, on February 8, 2023, Sky News reported on a loan being approved for WSL and Women’s Championship teams. This £20 million loan, given by the Premier League, is to be interest free and only repaid once thecombined revenue of these leagues reaches £100 million.
To close the gap between the Women’s Championship and the WSL, Championship clubs are also in line to receive 25% of the combined leagues’ commercial income; nearly all of this comes from the WSL.
Clearly new funding has contributed to higher transfer fees. As well as becoming more expensive, women’s transfer fees have also gained more attention in recent years; previously they have not been publicly discussed but now they are spoken about across the media.
Last week, the Daily Mail wrote an exclusive piece stating that Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) is hoping to sign Chloe Kelly, the Lioness who scored the winner for England at the 2022 Euros, with an offer that could make her the best paid player outside of the NWSL.
This transfer rumour was then posted on the Instagram account Soccerdonna. Soccerdonna has over 80,000 Instagram followers and focuses on women’s football news and transfers, including those that are only speculations.
The newfound attention on women’s transfers is likely due to the growth in the game.
In 2022 WSL attendance increased by 227%. Following on from this, in December 2023 Arsenal beat the record for the highest ever attended WSL match as over 59,000 fans travelled to the Emirates to watch their game against Chelsea.
Financial company Deloitte has noted how this rising match attendance has led to numerous companies sponsoring women’s teams. They found that 60% of teams in major women’s leagues now have different sponsors on their shirts than the sponsors for the men’s teams at the same club.
According to Women’s Sport Trust, in 2023 women’s sport had over 46 million viewers in Britain. Matches from the 2023 Women’s World Cup were streamed 25.7 million times on BBC iPlayer, this is a 75% increase in streams from the number at the 2019 World Cup.
Attendance at these World Cup matches was also huge, the average match attendance was 30,000 and almost 2 million fans travelled to the stadiums in Australia and New Zealand to watch their countries compete.
In Australia’s domestic league, spectatorship has also increased. The 22/23 season saw a 13% in attendance at Liberty A-League matches.
In an ideal world, This increase in spectatorship leads to an increase in money being drawn into women’s football clubs and therefore higher player transfer fees and an improved quality of play. As quality of play improves, more fans attend matches, and the cycle continues.
However, not all leagues are equal and with many of the A-League clubs charging no admission, there are local concerns about the game’s financial growth.
These higher transfer fees are having numerous knock-on effects within clubs as they have become a new revenue source.
One of these effects is that contract lengths are getting longer. In the past, most contracts were only for a year or less, but now players tend to sign longer term contracts. Another of the effects is that more players are being contracted to clubs. In the Australian A-League 274 players were contracted in the 22/23 season which was a 42% increase from the 17/18 season.
As they are in the men’s game, women’s transfer fees are becoming apart of club’s revenue strategies both incoming and outgoing expenses, and transfer windows are starting to gain widespread media attention.
Transfer fees, however, are not the only financial factor being affected by the increase of women’s football fans.
In a bid to give young girls the opportunity to play football, the UK government and the FA have provided £30 million to fund 30 new state of the art 3G pitches and accompanying facilities. This funding, which was announced in November 2023, will give grassroots women’s and girls’ teams a place to train and play.
Similar funding has been granted in other countries. In Australia, following the World Cup last summer, Football Australia has launched the Growing Football Fund to support the growth of women’s football. This fund gives community clubs and associations up to $5,000 to support programmes that promote women’s or girls’ football.
Although while the game, and the money in it, is growing, a review led by ex-England player Karen Carney in the summer of 2023 found that more is needed to be done. A recent Guardian article also demonstrated that more needs to be done in Australian community football.
Carney spoke on how the FA should be exploring potential partnerships with investors. Having investments in the women’s game will help with the short-term costs of developing the sport until it begins earning the amount of money necessary to fund its own growth.
In 2022 analysis carried out by the BBC found that the average WSL player earns £47,000 a year. At this time the average Wolves footballer that played in the Premier Leagueearnt £4.7 million, making their salaries 100 times more than those of the women’s.
One of the suggestions from Carney’s 2023 review was that a minimum salary should be set for players in the English leagues. Minimum salaries already exist in the US and Australian women’s leagues; in Australia the minimum salary for players is $25,000 and in the US the minimum is $35,000.
In Spain, the top women’s league also has a minimum wage. In September 2023 players in the Spanish league called off a strike after agreements were made to increase the minimum salary to €23,500 (£20,000) by 2025. Prior to this agreement, their minimum salary sat at €16,000 compared to the men’s league minimum of €182,000. Even by 2025 the difference in minimum salaries will be over €150,000, emphasising the financial differences in the Spanish leagues.
While the WSL does not currently have a minimum salary for its players, it does have a salary cap.
Originally, when the WSL began in 2011, the league had a strict salary cap which meant that a maximum of four players in each team could be paid over £20,000 a year. This aimed to keep the most talented and experienced players spread out across all the clubs in the league.
However, in 2014 these caps were softened and currently the WSL salary cap is 40% of the revenue taken by the club.
In October 2023 the owner of Crystal Palace called for tougher salary control in women’s football. This call echoed the thoughts of many, including Francesca Whitfield who is the head of planning at Manchester United. Whitfield commented on the current WSL cap system; she claims that it is an issue that the 40% cap includes revenue from the entirety of the parent club.
Larger clubs, with men’s teams in the Premier League, benefit as they earn more revenue and are therefore allowed to spend more on women’s players. This is creating a large gapbetween squads and allowing the league to be dominated by just a handful of clubs.
Due to the way the current WSL salary cap works, the argument that a stricter salary cap should be reimplemented, and put in place across the European leagues, has emerged – it would ensure that all clubs in the top women’s leagues have access to similar players allowing competition to remain fresh and exciting.
Salaries in the women’s game have been a point of discussion for years. Top players have had to work alongside playing in the top professional leagues due to the lack of money in the game.
Star Arsenal and England player Alex Scott spent time during her professional career washing the kits of the Arsenal men’s squad to earn money.
Sarah Langman, a goalkeeper for Central Coast Mariners, has played for the Australian A-League for nine years and yet still works part time; Langman was not paid for her first season and today commutes for training whilst working as a massage therapist.
According to Professional Footballers Australia 60% of female players in the A-League work alongside playing for their clubs, this compares to only 15% of men. In addition to this, nearly all of Australia’s national team players play abroad in leagues where they can earn better salaries.
This information about the Australian A-League suggests that having a minimum salary for players is not enough. The A-League, unlike the WSL, has a minimum salary but Australia’s top players are still more likely to move abroad for football. This is partly because there is a high likelihood that they would have to work alongside competing if they remained in Australia.
Kaitlyn Torpey is one of these Matildas that has now made the move abroad, away from the Australian A-League.
Torpey’s history making transfer to the US has most certainly created intrigue into the finances behind women’s football. Her move to the other side of the world is exciting, and will no doubt be the making of her career, however, it is unlikely that her transfer fee will remain the most expensive one that Australia has seen for long.
The number of fans attending and watching women’s football is only growing, and therefore there are set to be many more record-breaking transfers in the future. Alongside these, we are likely to see higher salaries for players and staff alike.
The women’s game is an example of how boosts in spectatorship boost revenue and how this leads to not only money for players and their clubs, but also money for communities.
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