Treasure the victories but don't settle for them.

“Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them.”

– Mia Hamm

I feel like I say this in every newsletter but, if it’s true and it's awesome, shouldn’t we repeat it?

What a month for women’s football !! This month there was a lot of focus on the women’s professional game and where we will focus our attention today.?

UEFA released its annual report which gave some great insights into its objectives and the result of the Women’s Euros on fan engagement, sponsorship, social media, players’ technical development, and many other stats. It was also a breakthrough month for the professionalization of women's football, in large part to UEFA developing a new revenue distribution model. All clubs who had players taking part in the tournament were compensated in a similar fashion to that of the men’s game, an unprecedented event. This new model meant that there was a significantly large prize pool. Meaning that all teams received at least? €600,000, which is double that of the previous edition in 2017, and the winners England received €2m.

This coming fall, 2023, UEFA plans to introduce a new national team competition system. The European qualifiers will now be connected to a women’s Nations League. UEFA believes this will create a more competitive environment, which should lead to greater sporting success and inevitable positive commercial interest.??

For most people they believe the French League, D1 Arkema, is a professional league. How could it not be when it has one of, if not the greatest and most storied women’s team in the game - Olympique Lyon, and the global powerhouse Paris Saint Germain. Yet, they are not in fact a professional league. They have professional clubs such as the aforementioned clubs, and a couple others - otherwise the league is not professional. This will all be changed starting next season. At a recent meeting at the French FA, an action plan for the future of women’s football was put in place. Starting with an additional investment of €4 million to €5 million. The league will stay under the umbrella of the FFF and not be run by a separate entity like its male counterpart. There will be a playoff system implemented to win the league and the D2 and D3 tiers will be restructured, giving way to a better academy system which each competing club in D1 will be required to have.?

It’s not just in Europe that we are seeing unprecedented amounts of money entering the women’s game. With the official announcement of the Bay Area entering the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) . We see the most amount of money to ever be invested into the game. Sixth Street , as an asset management company who is no stranger to football (having already invested in teams like FC Barcelona and Real Madrid), believes there is a financial benefit to be reaped in the NWSL through media rights contracts, stadium ownership and sponsorship deals. That’s why they have invested an unprecedented US$125 million. According to the firm it is the most money to ever be invested into any women’s sport franchise.?

The focus on professionalization doesn’t come without its downfalls. More visibility, more fans, more funding means more games and a more intense workload for players and this has led to a bigger chance of injury. In Europe, we have seen way too many injuries and especially ACL injuries in the last year from Alexia Putellas and Marie-Antoinette Katoto missing the Euros to most recently England captain Leah Williamson falling victim to this horrific injury that seems to plague the women’s game much more than the men’s. Is it an over-packed schedule? Inappropriate training? The correct training starts too late in the athlete's career. Unfortunately I don’t have the answer and nor does Andy Williams - a leading knee surgeon who shared his opinion on a recent podcast with The Athletic . But there is always a rainbow to the storm and that might be in the recent partnership between KINEXON , a wearable tracking provider, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to develop products and technology to better serve female athletes. Could this be the answer to so many players' problems with ACL injuries? Will we finally have data tailored to women’s bodies, injury risk management, performance, menstruation, and body measurements?

Just like Mia Hamm said, we have to cherish the victories, of which we have seen so many in recent months, but we cannot settle for them. We must keep pushing forward through collaboration and innovation within the women’s game and not settle for what we are given but strive for where we can be.?

As always, I’d love to hear from you and what you think of the past month in women’s football. What was your favorite milestone or event??