Written evidence submitted by Lewes Football Club

The urgent case for a COVID support package for women’s football

NOVEMBER 2020

With Lockdown2 starting, women’s football can no longer wait for the support it urgently needs and deserves.

Elite men’s football will continue behind closed doors. Premier League clubs face more lost revenue, but they can fund their way through this, while EFL Clubs discuss support from the Premier League. However, men’s National League clubs were recently awarded a £10m support package from Government (via the National Lottery) to enable them to make this situation work economically.1

Elite women’s football continues behind closed doors, but without a single penny of support thus far. Indeed, the financial outgoings of every women’s team have significantly increased year-over- year as matchday revenues have been obliterated. Costs have increased to manage Covid and as part of a general ongoing trend requiring women’s clubs to increase their professionalisation without any extra money. Women’s National League clubs are having to shut down again during the second Lockdown.

Who is thinking about the women’s game? The recent short-lived “Big Picture” proposal from a subset of men’s Premier League clubs was noteworthy. Despite suspicions of a power grab in the middle of a pandemic, we couldn’t help but notice that one of the offers in the package was an emergency support package and a radically increased contribution to women’s football going forwards.

The FA’s contribution to women’s football is around £7 million per year, around 1% of its overall spending. The “Big Picture” proposal included a one-off £10 million emergency support package to the women’s game, exactly matching the £10m now given to the men’s National League. Even more interestingly, it proposed an annual contribution of £51 million per year to the women’s game. While still just a tiny fraction of the money in the men’s game, that would represent a step change in funding that might actually be the catalyst needed for women’s football to grow to the scale of its male counterpart.

We are delighted to see numbers of this magnitude on the table. It’s about time. And just because the “Big Picture” seems to have been rapidly rejected we don’t want those numbers to vanish with it.

Moreover, the time for a COVID support package direct to women’s clubs is NOW. If it’s right for the men’s National League, it is certainly right for the women’s game too.

Cont.…

1 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/10-million-lifeline-from-the-national-lottery-for-national-league-football-announced-by-culture- secretary We call on the Premier League and Government to:

(1) Provide immediate emergency financial support for women’s football. Women’s teams’ revenues have fallen significantly while costs have increased. Clubs are in peril – and that matters. DCMS publicly pledged to support women’s football as well as men’s football. The men have been given millions, Women’s clubs need that support too and urgently.

Proposed allocation of £10m fund:

 £5m shared amongst the 13 elite women’s teams (WSL and Championship) whose parent club is in the men’s Premier League – this money would be provided by the Premier League. It may be that Premier League clubs are already providing this support.  £4m shared amongst the other 10 women’s elite teams plus £1m shared amongst the women’s National League divisions, South & North. This combined £5m would be provided by the Government (who already supplied £10m to the men’s National League)  Relative allocations to clubs based on 2 median average attendances last season. BASED ON 2012-20 MEDIAN 2019-20 2019-20 Season This avoids the distortion of some clubs MEDIAN percentage Share of Sept to May attendance of total median £4,000,000 9 monthly having had the opportunity to play a WSL Birmingham City 858 16% £645,720 £71,747 WSL Bristol City 997 19% £750,329 £83,370 WSL Reading 815 15% £613,358 £68,151 fixture in the men’s club’s stadium before FAWC Coventry United 524 10% £394,356 £43,817 FAWC Durham 503 9% £378,551 £42,061 FAWC Lewes 503 9% £378,551 £42,061 Lockdown1 whilst others had not yet done FAWC London Bees 243 5% £182,879 £20,320 FAWC London City Lionesses 215 4% £161,806 £17,978 FAWC Blackburn Rovers 418 8% £314,581 £34,953 so. It also best reflects typical attendances, FAWC Charlton Athletic 239 4% £179,868 £19,985 TOTAL 5,315

removing statistical outliers and results in National League South & North 24 clubs to receive equal share of £1,000,000 £4,630 a reasonable allocation spread. per month each Allocation for women's teams not backed by Premier League club  Payments would be made monthly, backdated to September when the seasons kicked off.  Payments are made direct to clubs.  The Premier League may choose to follow the same methodology for the allocation of the £5m to Premier league backed teams but are at liberty to create their own one instead.

(2) Enter into open discussions with the FA to provide an annual £51 million of new funding to women’s football, starting with the 2021-22 season. In 1921 the FA began its fifty-year ban on women’s football, a decision rooted in chauvinism3 with grave consequences right down to today. Let the centenary of that shameful episode be marked by an intentional big positive step in restoring balance.

2 Source: FA Season Tracker presentation, 19-20 season 3 “the [FA] Council feel impelled to express their strong opinion that the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged”