How to stop WSL boredom
Back to back weekends of one-sided fixtures has led to a lack of on-pitch drama. How can we fix it?
There’s been a lot of talk of competitiveness in the WSL over the last few weeks.
Chelsea’s dominance as the five-time consecutive champions doesn’t look great from the outside, even if the majority of those league titles have been won by a matter of points, goal difference, or, in the case of the Covid season, by points-per-game simulation.
However, this piece is not about competitiveness. There’s been enough discourse about that. I want to talk about entertainment.
Last weekend, there were 28 goals across six WSL games. That seems fairly hectic and potentially interesting. But if you dig deeper into the score lines and results it was a typically one-sided weekend. You had all of the top four winning by at least three goals and an even greater gap opening up between the bottom half of the table and the top - the haves and the have nots of the WSL.
This weekend, we face a similar scenario where there isn’t an out-and-out heavyweight clash to draw football fans in. Neutrals would probably say Liverpool-Arsenal has the biggest opportunity for jeopardy, but given Liverpool’s struggles so far this season and a 4-0 defeat to Manchester United last time out, it should be straightforward for Arsenal.
The WSL has always been quite a one-sided league. Ever since Manchester City arrived in 2014, the league has been driven by three big sides, now four, as Manchester United have joined the party.
That dominant ‘big four’ has led to some exciting box office clashes that often decide the title race or Uefa Champions League standings. But it feels like most of the season is about waiting for those games. No disrespect to the teams not involved in those clashes, there is still drama to be found, but realistically those games pass us by. It would also be more challenging and interesting for sides lower down the table if they didn’t just expect a 4-0 defeat every time they played a side in the top four and had more to play for in the middle of the table. Last weekend, it took a penalty and a set piece for Spurs to see off Everton, not exactly thrilling attacking football in the mid-table section.
Fans crave those anomaly upsets that we get a handful of times a season.
Chelsea losing to Reading in 2021, Manchester City losing to Brighton last season or when Tottenham Hotspur claimed their first-ever North London Derby win this time last year. Those matches are like rare Pokemon. We collect them, we saviour them and we talk about them as part of the wider WSL lore. But they’re too rare and because of that we get weekends where there are no storylines or narratives. We all know drama is critical to the growth of a league.
The men’s Championship is not the most high-quality league in the world but it’s often lauded as one of the most entertaining. The reason so many love it is because literally anything can happen. You can have a team with the biggest budget in the league, who are on a 10-game unbeaten streak, and still lose to a side in the bottom three.
So how can we bring more drama and storylines to the WSL? Here are some of my ideas.
Relegation and league expansion
At the moment only one team goes down from the WSL to the second-tier Championship and this means lots of teams can coast. There is so little jeopardy for the bottom seven or eight clubs because they know that they’ll never be relegated so they can just get by with three wins a season and a few draws. I can’t be the only one that thinks this is extremely dull.
There has been a lot of discussion about increasing the number of relegated teams to two and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it soon, given some of the ambition of the teams in the Championship.
Ahead of the new season, I spoke to Nikki Doucet, chief executive of the company running the two divisions, and she emphasised that the league was looking at many options to ensure the entire pyramid thrives and also both leagues remain competitive. That particular change can’t come soon enough.
There are quite a few teams and club owners who need a bit of a wake up call and risk of relegation is definitely one way to do it. Although we will still get apathetic owners, it’s women’s football after all.
Increasing the number of teams will naturally create more competition too as we’ll have new clubs attempting to establish themselves as part of the WSL’s elite.
Money
In football, most of the time money equals success. It’s not a surprise that the teams with the biggest budgets often end up finishing higher up the table.
Club owners need to raise the standards by giving their women’s teams more financial backing to close the gap on the top four. That will ensure stronger competition, more upsets and different winners across all of the competitions. Until 2020, the League Cup had only been shared between Arsenal and Manchester City. Chelsea now have two titles.
The spread of investment also has to come in the form of prize money and bonuses. If there was serious money to play for then we would see stronger competition as teams would be challenging for a bigger slice of the pie.
There is prize money for the WSL champions, most recently reported as £500,000 back in 2019. That is good money that can be re-invested back into a team but it’s going to the champions, who are likely going to spend that sort of money regardless.
In terms of broadcast revenue, WSL clubs claim 75% of total revenue with Championship teams receiving the remaining 25%. That money is increasing with every rights cycle with the next five-year deal with Sky Sports bringing in £13 million a season. However, it’s still not transformational sums.
As we know with the Premier League, even with a fairly democratic split of league revenues we can see the same winners season after season. However, the Premier League is considered the greatest league in the world, depending who you ask, because of the entertainment factor. The ambition of the clubs and what they have to play for certainly drives that.
Additional competitions and incentives
The EFL and Premier League also have the luxury of extra competitions and important league positions that create even more jeopardy and interest.
Since Manchester City have been dominating and the title race has, at times, been sown up weeks before the season ends, the race for Europe and fight against relegation has become the main narrative for the climax of a campaign.
The fact that even the chase of place in the Uefa Conference League is something to be fought over just shows how excitement can come from anywhere.
The WSL’s Uefa Women’s Champions League places expanding from two to three instantly added more dynamics to the top-four battle.
Soon, women’s football will be getting a second-tier European club competition and that should really energise what is a really dry mid-table battle.
Another invention that has revolutionised lower-league football is the play-offs, the end of season party that sees four teams battle it out for promotion across three different divisions.
We see play-offs in the lower tiers of women’s football but adding an extra opportunity for promotion is always a guaranteed narrative-driver.
Fixture scheduling
It’s not an easy job and I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one in charge, but there’s a simple fix that could help spread the WSL’s big-ticket games across a season.
We often seen some of the most exciting clashes billed as double headers, for example the North London Derby falling on the same day as Chelsea-Manchester City this season.
Now, some brave souls did attend both games but realistically there’s a bit of an audience clash there.
It’s not just the headline games that sometimes get squashed. Last weekend, not for the time first time this season, we had all of the WSL fixtures on one day. It is simply impossible to cover all of the games and create storylines and interest when games are overlapping and competing for eye balls. In the end, everyone loses out.
The Sunday night Sky Sports fixture that comes after a Premier League ‘Super Sunday’ is one of the favourites for me as it has created some of the most chaotic and entertaining games, even when it’s not necessarily a big clash. Something about the 6.45pm kick off that becomes a bit of a witching hour. It always brings a bit of madness to the WSL. Who could forget Rosella Ayanne’s hand of god when Spurs beat City in 2021? That will forever be Sky Sports-Barclays gold.
It’s not any easy task to create drama when there simply is none, but when the WSL is marketing itself as the best league in the women’s game the on-pitch excitement has to deliver. Just like The Only Way is Essex or Made in Chelsea, sometimes the best drama has to be scripted. If we see some wider competition changes perhaps we could ensure that audiences don’t turn off.
 | A guest post by
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I‘ve been getting my drama fix this year from the Frauen Bundesliga, where there is a 4-way fight for the top spot. Helped by each top team being able to lose not only to other frontrunners but those lower down too. (Plus the added drama of Leverkusen - who no one expected to be up there - now having to replay a match they won due to a wrong refereeing decision!)
It’s a league worth looking at re relegation/league expansion: there are two relegation spots and it makes a difference, even if the two promoted teams are usually in most jeopardy. This year there’s only one relegation and 3 promoted, as the league is expanding. Lots of men‘s Bundesliga teams are paying more attention which is making more teams more competitive - partly due to expectations that their licensing might be tied to decent investment in the women’s game in future - that’s also one way to make clubs pay attention. (Though some traditional women’s clubs, eg Potsdam, are struggling.) I‘m hopeful the expansion will work out - could have lessons for the WSL.
Good article and this has been much on my mind...
1) Is the received version of the league structure actually beneficial to a 'start up' sport? I don't think its helping and an increase in relegation / promotion would help, but its not going to fix it
2) Whisper it......but the NWSL has been quite exciting this season and in many ways offers a better vehicle for development with the commitment inherent in buying a franchise and the comparative security in that investment
3) Already I can see a case for a 'European Super League' but a quick scan of the UEFA top Women's leagues shows the general gap between the top 2 in most leagues, and even then the UWCL knock out stage reveals no surprises at all in terms of qualification
I wish I had the answers, but as a WSL neutral the relegation battle is more interesting than the title as is the promotion race from the Championship.
With all that being said I see little hope for any promoted side and I do fear that this will choke investment.
Much to be done, and I do hope the WPLL can work out something good.
More money, more time needed.