Fifa’s announcement is good news for the WSL. Here Tottenham Women face Arsenal Women in the WSL in November 2019. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Fifa has confirmed that its promised $1bn (£800m) investment into women’s football between 2019 and 2022 will not be cut as the organisation explores how it will financially assist football access the globe, as the industry as a whole struggles to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
“We can confirm that this funding has already been committed by Fifa and will not be impacted by the current Covid-19 crisis, ” a Fifa spokesperson told the Guardian. “This funding will be invested into a range of areas in the women’s game including competitions, capacity building, development programmes, governance and leadership, professionalisation and technical programmes.”
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News of the current ring-fencing of the budget for women’s football by the world governing body will be welcome after the chief women’s football officer for the global players’ union Fifpro, Amanda Vandervort, sounded warning bells about the potential withdrawal of funding across all levels of the women’s game.
“It’s critical to outline that we have deep concerns about investments in the women’s game being reduced or pre-crisis investments being withdrawn from the women’s game, ” Vandervort said.
Concern over the “existential threat” faced by women’s football, as Fifpro described it in its report into the effects of coronavirus on women footballers, has been growing as the time frame for a resumption of play has been extended. Many clubs are financially reliant on the philanthropy of their parent men’s clubs, making sustainability an aspiration but a long way off. Until sustainability is reached, teams and leagues are particularly vulnerable to purse-tightening.
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In addition to assuring the safety of the $1bn investment, Fifa has also looked to assuage concerns that women’s football would not be sufficiently included in its planned response to the crisis. “We can confirm that women’s football is being fully considered as part of this process in order to understand the various needs and impact on stakeholders within the women’s game, ” the spokesperson said.
“Fifa is currently working on possibilities to provide assistance to the football community around the world, including women’s football. The exact format and details of this assistance are currently being discussed in consultation with Fifa’s member associations, the confederations and other stakeholders.
“As part of these discussions, Fifa is in close contact with key women’s football stakeholders via the Professional Women’s Football Task Force and the Fifa-Confederations sub-working group on the impacts of Covid-19.”A decision by the BBC and Sky to invest £8m a year in the Women’s Super League puts the sport on a far stronger footing
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I n one sense it’s been a long time coming. Advocates of women’s football in England spent most of the last decade pushing for broadcasters and the Football Association to take the game more seriously. Nearly £20m of sponsorship investment by Barclays was a breakthrough. But regular attendances at matches have never taken off in the way that enthusiasts hoped, and longstanding clubs including the Doncaster Belles fell by the wayside when they were relegated.
Big television audiences and unprecedented levels of interest, particularly in the winning US team, ensured that the 2019 World Cup was heralded as a turning point. But the arrival of the pandemic meant that progress was checked. This week’s announcement of a £24m investment in women’s football over three years, by the BBC and Sky Sports, is the culmination of a process that has taken years. But the sheer difficulty of current circumstances, including the unfairness of pandemic rules that have seen girls’ football stopped while boys’ has continued, means that it has also come as a shock.
Starting with the 2021-22 season, women’s football will be much more prominent, with 44 live games on Sky channels and 18 on BBC One and BBC Two. Beyond these scheduling facts, what sort of change should the money be expected to bring? Facile comparisons with the men’s game are generally unhelpful: men’s football developed into its current form over many decades, and in parallel over different continents. In England, by contrast, women’s football was hardly played at all for almost half a century after 1921, when it was banned by the FA on the spurious grounds that it was harmful to female bodies. In schools, playgrounds and attitudes, there is much catching up to be done.
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But at last, the women’s game will have the chance to stand on its own feet. Under the terms of this deal, described as the biggest for any women’s football league in the world, the rights are decoupled for the first time from the rights to Premier League matches. Promises from broadcasters and officials to invest in marketing, commentary and what the FA’s Kathryn Swarbrick described as “story-telling around the WSL”, mean the clubs – and not just the top few – are guaranteed a powerful helping hand.
For the moment, any benefits for grassroots women’s and girls’ teams will be limited to improved status and visibility. With new funding flowing to the top two tiers, this is a boost from the top down. But the boldness of the deal-makers, including the FA’s Kelly Simmons and the director of BBC Sport, Barbara Slater, should not be underestimated. This is a huge decision, the aim of which is to transform women’s football and narrow the gap dividing the opportunities on offer to male and female players. In Mexico, Monday night became women’s football night. Regular TV slots for English women’s league games are still being agreed. Viewers and players have much to look forward to.Are you tired of profile picture NFTs? How about managing a real football club as an NFT holder? This week, let's take a look at WAGMI United.
WAGMI (we're all gonna make it) United is a unique NFT project. It is probably the only one of its kind. Holders of WAGMI United NFTs cannot flex a flashy PFP, but they can participate in the governance of a real football (soccer) club.
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WAGMI United bought Crawley Town FC, an English Football League 2 club (fourth-highest division overall in the English football league system). Crawley Town is based, not surprisingly, in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded in 1896.
The WAGMI United project was founded by Eben Smith and Preston Johnson. Their first attempt to acquire an English football club failed in December 2021, when they tried to buy fellow fourth-tier side Bradford City. On their second attempt in April this year, WAGMI United used traditional finance to complete its purchase of Crawley.
WAGMI United claims to be "the internet's football team." The project's mission is to bring web3 to sports. Co-founder Preston Johnson is a web3 veteran. Back in 2020, Johnson helped launch a company called Pixel Vault. Pixel Vault is, simply put, a massive NFT collection of superheroes, whose goal is to grow into a decentralized Marvel empire. Pixel Vault has generated about $200 million in sales volume. It received a $100 million investment from venture funds in February this year.
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This month, WAGMI United launched sales of their NFT. For the price of 0.35 ETH, buyers receive what Johnson calls "a virtual season ticket." According to the team, the NFT mint price is based on the fixed costs of running a football club. It is a ERC-1155 token and includes a range of benefits. Some are traditional offerings such as limited-edition jerseys and access to exclusive content, including interviews with players behind the scenes. Others are more novel, such as the promise of "special input and voting on the future." For example, last Friday NFT holders were able to vote on whether the team should strengthen in attack, midfield or defence. Crawley's season ticket-holders are invited to take part too. The full list of utilities is announced in the discord as below.
Partly due to the overall market conditions, the NFT sale is not going well. Out of the 10, 000 available pieces, 1, 937 pieces remain to be minted. While the mint price is 0.35 ETH a piece, price on OpenSea has already dropped to 0.15 ETH, less than 50% of the original price. Nevertheless, the project has already raised about 2, 822 ETH (~$4 million USD), which is a very significant sum for a League Two side like Crawley.
It is very common for football clubs to sell NFTs nowadays. For example, FC Barcelona plans to launch “In a way, immortal, ” the first NFT artwork by the club. It is a digital work of art recreating Johan Cruyff's legendary flying kick and goal in 1973. It will be auctioned at Sotheby's New York later this week.
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But football fans are not buying such NFTs. Liverpool, another legendary football club, partnered with Sotheby's to sell up to 171, 072 NFTs for $75 each – $12.8 million in total – in April this year. The NFTs were digital artworks of famous Liverpool players such as Mohamed Salah. Liverpool closed the controversial NFT sale after only 9, 721 pieces were sold, i.e., 5.7% of the total supply.
Unlike the failed efforts of the
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