UEFA celebrates growth of women’s soccer after Barcelona’s UCL win

SPORTSAREENA.comMay 27, 2024

5 3 minutes read

It was an evening of celebration for Barcelona after one other Women’s Champions League title, and for the ladies’s sport normally after one other season with important growth within the sport.

Barcelona defeated Lyon , 2-0, to win its third European trophy and so as to add to its latest dominance within the sport on Saturday, capping a 12 months that noticed elevated attendance, further income and extra participation by ladies throughout all ranges of the game.

A report crowd of 50,827 was available to see Barcelona elevate the trophy after beating report eight-time champion Lyon with targets by stalwart gamers Aitana Bonmatí and Alexia Putellas on the packed San Mames Stadium in Bilbao.

The Barcelona victory got here as soccer officers celebrated the success of a five-year plan to spice up the ladies’s sport, a plan that was renewed forward of the ultimate to maintain the game rising.

The “Time for Action” challenge was put in place by UEFA in 2019 to attempt to enhance women’s soccer. The European soccer physique aimed to double the quantity of ladies and women taking part in the sport, and mentioned it greater than doubled that concentrate on with almost three million ladies and women at the moment taking part in soccer because of “investment in key initiatives” resembling “UEFA Football in Schools.”

UEFA mentioned there are actually 47 associations with a technique in place for ladies’s soccer, and famous that just about 20% of its committee members are actually feminine. Centralized media and industrial rights helped enhance the competitors’s worth greater than four-fold, UEFA mentioned, “funding a financial distribution model which extends the benefits across the entire women’s club landscape.”

“The investments and changes to the UEFA Women’s Champions League and UEFA Women’s EURO, plus a highly successful commercial program, have meant that we have exceeded our expectations in terms of doubling the reach and value of these flagship competitions,” mentioned Anne Rei, chair of UEFA’s Women’s Football Committee. “This has also gone a long way to changing perceptions.”

What additionally helped revitalize the Women’s Champions League was the introduction of a brand new group stage forward of the 2021-22 season, with 4 teams of 4 groups taking part in one another residence and away so as to add “strength in depth.” Beginning in 2025-26, UEFA will introduce a single-league stage that includes 18 groups and a second membership competitors in women’s soccer.

UEFA mentioned “both steps will give the chance to more clubs within the football pyramid to compete at the highest level, promoting domestic growth and competitive balance.”

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin mentioned forward of the ultimate in Bilbao that the European soccer governing physique “prioritized the growth of women’s football” and achieved “significant progress through a focused strategy, substantial investment, and a commitment to making the sport accessible to all.”

“The UEFA Women’s Champions League played pivotal in this process, highlighting the skills of top players, breaking remarkable attendance records, and inspiring generations of girls to engage with our beloved sport,” he mentioned.

UEFA this season additionally launched a brand new nationwide staff competitors system with the Women’s Nations League and the Women’s European Qualifiers. The objective was to “help develop the national team game in the same way that the Women’s Champions League is reshaping the club landscape” and “improving competitive balance.”

Playing matches in Europe’s prime stadiums additionally “boosted visibility and delivered a surge in interest,” as did the brand new media rights partnership with DAZN to assist “showcase the best of European women’s soccer to new global audiences.”

Inside the stadiums, the typical attendance of the 4 semifinals of the Women’s Champions League this season was 35,933, with Chelsea setting a club-record of 39,398 followers for his or her second leg in opposition to Barcelona in England. Eight-time champion Lyon set a brand new report with 38,466 followers for the primary leg of the semifinals in opposition to Paris Saint-Germain.

In the quarterfinals, 35,997 Ajax followers broke a Dutch report for a ladies’s sport, surpassing the 33,147 from final season’s last in Eindhoven.

Barcelona a pair of years in the past broke the attendance report for a women’s soccer sport with 91,648 spectators watching the primary leg of the Women’s Champions League semifinal in opposition to Wolfsburg at Camp Nou Stadium.

“To see a stadium full for a women’s soccer match is gratifying,” mentioned Maria Luisa Llorens, a 58-year-old Barcelona fan who was on the San Mames on Saturday. “It helps show that women should be valued equally to men, and that the new generations will keep wanting to play the game.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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