As English women’s football enters a new era, the task of steering the Barclays Women’s Super League and Championship into its next phase falls to CEO Nikki Doucet.
Last month, a deal was finally agreed to transfer the ownership of the top two tiers of the women’s pyramid to a new independent company, temporarily named Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL). For the first time, the women’s game will be governed by a dedicated organisation solely focused on advancing the sport.
Speaking at the Barclays WSL‘s 2024/25 season launch media day, Doucet discussed what fans can expect from this new look ownership, the importance of collaboration, and what still needs to be done in the early stages of the company’s development. What is clear, is the ambition to create a more competitive and sustainable future for the women’s professional game.
“Some part of me definitely believes we’re here and another part of me doesn’t believe we’re here but it’s super exciting,” Doucet told reporters in her opening statement.
“I still feel we’re at the start of our journey.
“Our company, as of a couple of weeks ago, is up and running. We’re going from being a cost-centre within the governing body – that’s how it had to be developed because of where we were – to a standalone entity where you have a professional team that wakes up every single day thinking ‘how are we going to grow this?’ and ‘what is best for the game?’ That’s just so different.”
The Premier League will also play a key role in the early stages of the company’s development, through both collaboration and a funding agreement. This includes vital capital in the form of a £20m interest-free loan, but Doucet was also eager to express the importance of partnerships, not just with the Premier League, but continued work with the Football Association, who drove the growth of the women’s game for so many years.
“I think based on the size of the business that’s the right amount of capital today,” the CEO added, when speaking about the loan. “It comes with a co-operative agreement so that means we have access to tap into the best bits of the Premier League.
“We share a lot of the same shareholders. There can be co-operation when we think about scheduling, shared stadiums and they are putting on arguably the best football competition in the world so what can we learn from that?
“We also have a shared services agreement with the FA for the next couple of years to help us as we build out the company to be independent. We still have office space, so we’re still at Wembley stadium. Over time, when it’s right, we’ll find our own standalone space because building that culture and having differentiations are positive.
“As part of the new company, similar to what they have with the Premier League, the FA has a special share. As part of that special share they sit on our board, but I actually think that is really important because they are also running the National League, and the grassroots plus England connection is really important.
“People in the FA have the knowledge about talent pathways and the pyramid, so we need to make sure we’re continuing to have that positive relationship.”
One of the biggest women’s football stories of the summer has been away from the top flight, but instead centres around the contrasting fate between two clubs in the second division. On one hand, Reading, who competed in the WSL until the end of the 2022/23 season, succumbed to the financial strains facing the wider club.
In June, they reluctantly withdrew from the Women’s Championship due to their inability to meet mandatory criteria ahead of the new season, and will instead compete in tier five of the pyramid. It was a significant fall from grace for a club that broke into the top five of the WSL only four years ago.
Yet, elsewhere in the division, London City Lionesses responded to last season’s relegation battle in impressive fashion. Michele Kang expanded her women’s football empire at the end of last year, adding the London club to her impressive portfolio, which also includes French giants Lyon and NWSL side Washington Spirit.
London City were the talk of the transfer window as they acquired former Paris Saint-Germain manager Jocelyn Precheur, and bolstered his squad with the likes of Swedish duo Kosovare Asllani and Sofia Jakobsson. They also completed a stadium move to Hayes Lane in the London Borough of Bromley, and confirmed the purchase of their training ground to provide an exclusive facility for their first-team and academy squads.
Doucet believes figures like Kang will be crucial to the game’s development moving forward, and finding owners that believe in the trajectory of the sport and are willing to make that long-term investment. “Having Michele in the room changes conversation,” she continued.
“Her voice is so important. It goes back to the new company and what we do. She wakes up every day thinking about how she is going to grow women’s football – there is no competing priority. I think that’s unique and really important for our game.
“It brings a different mindset. We have to perform and she’s going to challenge everybody to do that. I think for all the owners, we have to find the ones that believe in the future and see the path that will take more investment. We’re investing ahead of revenue, but revenue at the moment is growing faster than cost which is a really positive thing.”
One of the first things Doucet and her team will need to address now the takeover is complete is a TV deal beyond the 2024/25 season. In April, it was announced the BBC and Sky had renewed their rights with the WSL for a further year, in a continuation of the initial agreement which began in 2021.
“A one-year rollover was the right thing because our focus obviously was getting the deal done,” Doucet explained. “So, we are back in the market to sell the rights for the next season, which will be 2025/26.
“The sooner the better but we’re in the market at the moment, so once we feel like we’ve got the right deal – we have incredible partners right now with BBC and Sky, I think they’ve made significant investments – but we’re exploring what is right for the next phase.”
As well as media rights and growing audiences, the product on the pitch and building sustainable foundations in the game will also be integral to Doucet’s legacy as chief executive. The women’s game, particularly in England, is in a unique position given it is technically still in its infancy.
The WSL only became a fully professional league in 2018, and the success of England’s Lionesses in recent years has served as some much needed fuel for the growth of the game. With different audiences to consider, and an almost blank canvas to work on, Doucet insisted they cannot be afraid to fail when making decisions.
“We have to be able to try new things,” she concluded. “Our fanbase is somewhat complex because we have people who have been in it for so long, who are in some ways the innovators of our game, to people who have never watched it before and are coming in for the first time.
“How do we bring everybody together to attract more and to keep what we love about it. One of the fans said before – it’s the passion without the poison. We all know that there’s something special about the women’s game that we don’t want to see lost.
“I think that’s part of the fear that I hear sometimes from some of our core fans. But, I think we can test and learn and see what works and doesn’t work. We’re not going to get it all right.
“I think we’re more of a community versus tribalism. People will want to join that because it feels good. It’s the joy of sport. It’s the power of sport. People want to be part of that.”
