What Happened: A new Russo, Brighton bounce and some bumper TV rights

Flo Lloyd-Hughes takes a look at what went down in the WSL over the weekend and highlights the latest pieces to read on The Cutback

Credit: Bels Staff

Welcome to another edition of The Cutback’s newsletter What Happened. This is your weekly round-up of the biggest talkings points in the WSL and beyond.

Yesterday, we hosted our first in-person event in London. We teamed up with the amazing Baller FC team to put on a WSL watch party with a twist. We had live in-match analysis from myself, Jessy Parker Humphreys and Max Radwan. Our resident Fantasy WSL expert Ro Thomas was also the Stat-Ro for the day, updating everyone on the goals as they went in and also delivering a special predictions game on the day.

Thanks to everyone that came down, it was loads of fun and we will definitely be doing more soon. The aim is to go beyond London too. So watch this space.

It was another busy week in women’s football. We had news of a brand new media rights deal for the WSL, with five more years of Sky Sports and the BBC. It’s great news for fans, find out why below.

A reminder, if you haven’t yet subscribed to The Cutback then do that now, what are you waiting for?

In today’s issue: Alessia Russo back to her best? Brighton bounce and media rights.

Russo resurgence

Arsenal will be very disappointed not to have got the win at Leigh Sports Village yesterday. They dominated most of the game against Manchester United, created more than enough chances but again end up not making it count as the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

There’s been a lot of that for Arsenal this season and a point doesn’t do much to invigorate hopes of finishing in third place. However, there was a big positive for Arsenal fans yesterday; we saw some signs of the old Alessia Russo.

Russo had a great international break with England, playing in a system that suits her and throwing off some of the shackles that she’s had playing for her club this season.

She carried that form into her performance against her old club. Maybe it was a return to United that motivated her even more, but whatever it was it worked. She got her first WSL goal of the season and just looked energised.

Max Radwan unpacked the Arsenal striker’s performance in more detail in this piece.

We’ll be getting the United side of things in Conner’s piece later this week.

Brighton won’t be moved

I’m not sure many of us would have predicted Brighton to be third in the WSL in November but here they are still playing with the big boys. While it’s been a very mixed season for the teams that we all would have expected to be pushing the top four (Spurs, Liverpool, Villa), Brighton have been quietly working away picking up big wins and only losing to Manchester City.

Yesterday in a 1-0 win against Leicester, it was Nikita Parris who scored again, her third goal of the season.

Brighton had another busy summer with lots of comings and goings. It didn’t work out last season with such excessive turnover, but this year there seems to be more balance and stronger, more experienced WSL characters to blend into the squad.

Dario Vidosic has got his team playing an impressive brand of football that can be quite high risk but when it pays off they’re reaping the rewards. Brighton aren’t afraid the play it out from the back but can also go long when they need to or play quickly to capitalise on space the opposition has left.

Our next Underrated Scout team profile is on Brighton so keep an eye out for that next week as the team go deeper in to Brighton’s style of play and tactics.

Five more years

Last week, there was some very good news for the WPLL (organisation in charge of the WSL and Championship) as a brand new media rights deal was announced with Sky Sports and the BBC.

The WSL’s current TV deal was due to expire at the end of the season and in this new era it was critical that the WPLL secured a big cash rights fee to boost revenue and support league growth. The WSL and Championship have been independent from the FA since the summer - this means new income streams and financial autonomy for the first time. It’s exciting and daunting and there has been pressure on the WPLL to secure lucrative new commercial deals, especially as the NWSL recently secured a big TV deal worth around $20 million per season.

The WSL’s new five-year deal is worth £13 million in cash per season with additional spending on marketing and production. The value for the whole period of the deal is said to be £120 million but that includes lots of additional spend that it is hard to accurately quantify, like promotion spend and airtime. It’s a huge deal for the WSL. The expectation was that reaching between £10-12 million per season in rights fees would be a success but this is a serious achievement. The last deal was worth between £7-8 million per season.

This new deal is long and things could change a lot over the next five seasons but it gives the league much-needed security and a strong foundation in this new governance structure.

In terms of the broadcasters, keeping the league on Sky Sports is a win in my opinion. Sky deliver the highest-quality football coverage, have shown their commitment in terms of level of broadcast and they have the breadth of channels and content streams. The ancillary coverage is also much more interesting and exciting on Sky, there’s interviews and extra content on YouTube and TikTok. It’s what football and sports coverage should be.

It also means there is just one pay-TV destination for the league which is important when the WSL is still in a growth period. The last thing you want to do is spread the coverage across multiple subscription packages. Sky will be showing 118 games a season, 78 of them exclusively. Sky also has the option to show matches from the Championship and League Cup for the first time.

There will still be games shown on YouTube and the BBC is also continuing its free-to-air coverage, something that is important for exposure. The quality of the BBC coverage is low, we only ever get 15 minutes or so of pre and post-match coverage, but having a game on a prime-time Sunday slot on BBC One or BBC Two is still valuable for sheer numbers alone.

After some rocky moments at the start of the season for the WPLL, this a huge one to celebrate.

If you want to listen to a bit more on media rights on women’s football, check out our recent special on Counter Pressed. Recorded before this big news.

Elsewhere on The Cutback:

Our resident Fantasy WSL expert Ro Thomas gives some fantasy top tips and answers your dilemmas.

That’s it from me today. See you same time next week.