THE RISE OF WOMEN’S FOOTBALL
BOOM IN FANS AND SPONSORS I t is a great time for women’s football – for the clubs, the players and of course the fans. Recent years have seen
A MAJORITY OF FOOTBALL FOLLOWERS GLOBALLY ARE INTERESTED IN THE WOMEN’S GAME, REGARDLESS OF ITS STATE OF DEVELOPMENT LOCALLY Very interested Fairly interested Neither / Don’t know Fairly uninterested Not at all interested
significant growth for the women’s game. Interest amongst football followers typically peaks around the time of major events such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup, but this research has shown that even outside of major women’s football events, the overall trend of interest continues upwards. In the last few years we have seen record-breaking match attendances, online information searches and social media mentions, as well as fans predicting their interest will grow, all of which point to a lasting change in attitudes towards the game. In addition, we have seen increased commercial interest and sponsorship, for example, recent high- profile campaigns by companies such as Just Eat Takeaway.com, EA SPORTS and PepsiCo. Despite the women’s game being at different stages of development across markets, there is consistently a strong audience for women’s football. Across all markets we surveyed (except for Japan), a majority of those who follow football are interested in the women’s game; less than one in four overall say they are not interested.
76% 76% 60% 57% 54% 54% 53% 53% 52% 51% 51% 50% 46% 59%
11%
23% 25% 23% 22% 22% 20% 20% 20% 14% 16%
26%
35%
45%
35%
36% 34%
31%
31%
31%
32%
31% 33%
32%
9
37%
34%
41%
17%
31%
20%
19%
18%
20%
19%
17%
25% 22%
20%
19%
18%
13%
24%
17%
15% 13%
10%
13%
16%
6% 13%
11%
16%
12%
10% 12%
6% 17%
15%
14% 14% 14% 17% 13%
13%
7%
5% 10% 11% 11%
1%
CHI
USA
NED
MEX
FRA
UK
GER
SPA
BEL
SWE
ITA
SCO
JAP
NET
Source: ECA/MTM Sport Future of Fandom tracker, July 2022, QY2 – How much do you follow women’s professional football? Base: All football fans by market, May 2022 to July 2022: Total (5,400), US (912); China (905); Netherlands (303); Mexico (310); Germany (305); France (305); Spain (311); Belgium (304); Sweden (322); UK (321); Italy (318); Scotland (304); Japan (309)
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