Women’s football has witnessed remarkable growth over the last decade, from packed stadiums to soaring broadcast figures, the progress seems unstoppable. Yet beneath this success lies a tangled web of challenges, particularly within the media ecosystem of the sport. Despite increased attention, the industry that journalists like me hold so dearly is persistently plagued by tokenism, shallow coverage, toxic cultures, and a lack of genuine investment.
Jamie Spangher, journalist and long-time observer of the women’s game recognises a fundamental problem: the media’s relationship with women’s football often stops at tokenism. “They just committed to the tokenism of women’s football, which is why it was see-sawing for so long, because they didn’t know what their identity was,” says Jamie of some organisations. Their half-hearted embrace of the women’s game meant coverage was often superficial, with little long-term strategy nor understanding behind it.
Georgia Goulding, another journalist who has worked in women’s football among other sports, echoes this. “They love the idea, and then they go, ‘Oh, actually, we didn’t think this through.’ And I think a lot of places have kind of shut down their women’s departments.”
The result of this is a precarious environment which all too often relies on unpaid or underpaid labour, where passion is exploited and sustainability is a rarity.
Women’s football coverage isn’t a charity case
Georgia laments, “Companies are taking advantage of people’s passion, getting someone to write about women’s sport who would do it for almost nothing.” Irish sportswriter Tom Maher adds, “A lot of people who work in women’s football space do so for free.” The harsh reality is summed up by Jamie, who highlights that in some cases, “We really want to be here, but it doesn’t make us money, so we can’t be in this space anymore.”
Jamie, Georgia, and Tom all devote huge portions of their time to publishing material for volunteer outlets (namely The Halfway Line and Her Football Hub) and thus are all acutely aware of the vital role non-profit digital publications play in the world of women’s sports.
The question remains though, how do we begin to bridge this gap between the well-known ‘journo pack’ and the next generation of reporters?
Sport is suffering from “a thirst for headlines”
One of my personal gripes with my chosen career path is that, as a freelancer, I have found myself instructed by editors to focus on the wrong things. Instead of serious analysis or celebration of athletic skill, the spotlight too frequently falls on players’ personal lives or controversies that fuel clicks rather than understanding.
“I would like there to be a world where the women’s footballers and their personal lives are completely not related,” Jamie tells me. Even in the realm of women’s football, a place frequently viewed as a purer product in comparison to its male counterpart, clickbait thrives on gossip and sensationalism. She warns, “If you feed the headlines, there’s gonna be a thirst for headlines.”
The consequence of this is coverage that is often shallow and contradictory, that praises the sport’s growth on one hand while trivialising it on the other. “We need more detailed highlight shows with analysis,” Tom insists, “currently it’s just ‘Oh, they should do better next week.’” Speaking generally, he continues, “They don’t know the women’s football day to days, the ins and outs. You know, they don’t care what happens when West Ham and Crystal Palace face off… they only care about getting the clicks.”
It is indeed noticeable that some professionals lack real familiarity with the sport’s nuances. Budgets can be tight, but each time a Premier League reporter begrudgingly picks up a Women’s Super League fixture without having done their prep, it’s a slap in the face to those who work tirelessly to shine a light on the women’s game and have yet to see the reward.
Discriminatory environment “is not what we’ve built”
A more insidious issue is the way women’s football has sometimes been weaponised to push external agendas. The tirade of misogynistic, transphobic, and racist abuse inflicted upon Barbra Banda was unjustly exacerbated by Oliver Brown’s Telegraph article headlined ‘Barbra Banda’s BBC award is proof women are being trolled’. More recently, Ben Rumsby (again for the Telegraph) described Lewes FC, who were the first side to announce equal pay for their men’s and women’s teams, as ‘the football club that went woke’.
“You have a prejudice towards something in the world, and you’re using women’s football as a weapon to be able to harness that prejudice,” Jamie says when I ask her about the role the media plays in dispelling harmful narratives. She adds, “It’s almost like using women’s football as a laundering-type system, because women’s football is so squeaky clean compared to the men’s, if you’re writing about women’s football, then surely you’re not a sexist.”
Hostile environments stunt diversity and undermine the quality of coverage in women’s sports. “If you work in men’s football,” Georgia explains, it’s predominantly men who are doing the coverage. There can be atmospheres where they’re so used to it just being ‘the lads’ working.”
Supporters’ culture around women’s football, whilst passionate, is not without problems either. “It takes you aback when you see things like cases of transphobia, homophobia, racism, because it’s kind of like, this is not what we’ve built. This is not what we’re about,” Georgia reflects.
“You need to see these people as people, not just athletes,” she says, highlighting the importance of recognising players’ humanity beyond their athleticism, a factor often overlooked by a media landscape eager to reduce stories to simple narratives.
Women’s football is on an upwards trajectory, but barriers persist
A widespread infantilisation of the sport also persists. Fans and pundits sometimes treat women’s football as a quaint, family-friendly novelty rather than a fiercely competitive sport. Georgia recalls a moment where her reaction at a game was met with shock. “I shouted something and there were audible gasps around me. They turned around, it was almost like pearls clutched, children’s ears covered.”
As women’s football becomes more professional, it faces growing pains. “We’re moving away from [the perception of] it being just a cheap day out where kids get in free and people treat it as something to do when there’s nothing else available,” Georgia explains. This shift is proving difficult to make, but will be a crucial one if women’s football is to be taken more seriously by wider audiences.
At its core, women’s football and the media around it still struggles with identity. Are they genuine advocates of the sport, or simply riding a trend? Until sports journalism in its entirety and WSL Football both commit to serious, knowledgeable, and sustainable marketing and coverage that goes beyond tokenism and controversy, the sport’s true potential risks being undermined.
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