WSL and Championship rather than Chelsea.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67557863

WSL takeover: WSL and Championship clubs to move from FA to club-owned structure.

Women's Super League and Women's Championship clubs have agreed to form a club-owned organisation that will run women's professional football in England from the 2024-25 season.

It will take control of the WSL and Championship from the Football Association, with each club in the two top tiers acting as shareholders.

Former Nike director Nikki Doucet will be the organisation's chief executive.

The FA has run the WSL since it was launched in 2010.

• WSL takeover: what are key decisions before next year's takeover completion?

A takeover of the WSL has been planned for some time after the FA revealed in 2018 that it had no intention to run the professional leagues in the long-term and welcomed proposals - including from the Premier League - before settling on the creation of an independent body.

The FA formed a working group of 10 chief executives from clubs in the top two tiers of English women's football, chaired by Arsenal chief executive Vinai Venkatesham.

It is hoped the new structure will capitalise on the rapid rise of women's football in recent years, accelerated by the England's success at Euro 2022.

Doucet was appointed consultant to lead the takeover discussions and has gathered feedback from current players within both leagues and met with the Professional Footballers Association to get its views.

All 24 clubs backed the proposed structure and Doucet, a former investment banker, will start her role immediately, overseeing the transition to the new organisation.

The company is yet to be formally set up and the name NewCo, short for new company, is a working title at this stage.

She said: "This is an incredibly exciting time for women's football. Having already worked with the clubs and the FA for a number of months, I've been incredibly encouraged by the collective desire and shared ambition to make our leagues the most distinctive, competitive and entertaining women's club competitions in the world."

"It's a great privilege to help lead the next phase of this inspirational journey, which has been started by the FA through passion, investment and a steadfast commitment to the evolution of women's football."

Baroness Sue Campbell, Director of Women's Football for the FA, said: "The women's professional game is in the strongest place that it has ever been thanks to the hard work of everybody involved in its development so far, but we firmly believe that the NewCo will take it to another level entirely.

"Each of our 24 clubs and the league itself wants the WSL and Championship to be setting the standards for women's football around the world, and this venture into a new governing body is the next step in us achieving that ambition."

Edited November 28, 20232 yr by Boyne

I wonder what this will mean for television rights and if its a positive or not?

12 hours ago, Modueke said:

I wonder what this will mean for television rights and if it’s a positive or not?

It sounds pretty much like when the PL was formed. TV rights won’t sell for the stupid prices the mens game does so hopefully the likes of the BBC can afford them still. I’m hoping they can expand the leagues so we get more games.

On 29/11/2023 at 04:37, Modueke said:

I wonder what this will mean for television rights and if its a positive or not?

It is a massive positive. It is the first big step in club football becoming dominant over international football for women, which in turn is a boost for full professionalism, guaranteed pay etc.

It also means the WSL stands as its own product rather than merely an arm of the FA/mens' game.

For English clubs specifically, it is probably the best route to commercial success and breaking the Barcelona-Lyon duopoly. And for us at Chelsea, if there is one surefire way for Boehly/Blueco to get our club out of the mess they've made and and to actually increase the value of the club, it is to invest wholly and heavily into the women's team winning the Champions' League and ride the wave of womens' football. There is a real, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Chelsea to essentially establish ourselves as the pre-eminent club of the WSL, much as Manchester United did in the 1990s when the mens' game went through similar reforms.