The chief of WSL Football, Nikki Doucet, is dreaming of a ‘massive moment’ for the sport if England beat Spain
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itted out in an “Everyone is Watching the Lionesses” T-shirt before boarding a flight to Basel, the WSL Football chief executive, Nikki Doucet, describes England’s extraordinary progress to a third successive major final as another “ignition moment” for the sport, but the international game has long since been on fire.
While not everyone has been watching in an increasingly fractured television landscape, ITV’s peak audience of 10.2 million for England’s dramatic semi-final win over Italy on Tuesday was its biggest of the year, and with live coverage of Sunday’s final against Spain shared with the BBC, more broadcast records could tumble.
The challenge for Doucet and the clubs is to convert more of the millions captivated by women’s football every other summer into regular fans, who attend matches, watch games on TV and buy some of the increasingly wide-ranging merchandise springing up in stores across the country. With 84 WSL players involved at a European Championship from which every match has been broadcast live on terrestrial TV, the past few weeks have been a marketing department’s dream, particularly with new heroes emerging such as Michelle Agyemang.
