Why FIFA Esports should capitalise on the success of the Lionesses in England and Euro 2022

The summer months gave us mixed feelings about Women's Football, something that is replicated in Female FIFA Esports that we see everyday at ECL Gaming.

The mix of adulation and support that the Lionesses managed to capture and also of concern. Concern that many men wish to gatekeep football, tabloids and influential social media outlets are happy to goad along click bait stories and whip up sexism and misogynistic comments. Something all too familiar in the Esports and Gaming space.

We have seen grown men commenting on social media posts looking to merely sell England shirts for the Euros descend into absolute mind boggling prejudice. Something that I have seen last night from the Daily Mail here. Facebook alight with thousands of laughing faces and derogatory comments. Why?

Women's football is growing in England and is now the largest participation sport in the country for women to take part in. The FA took over Women's Football in 1993 and although the journey was long, we now have the best Women's team in Europe and possibly globally.

Naturally you will expect to see more females picking up EA Sports FIFA 23 which for the first time also features a female player (Sam Kerr of Chelsea) on the cover of the ultimate edition. A second revenue stream or even a full time career is possible with the correct support from the very beginning of women's esports and gaming careers and ECL exist to facilitate this.

In the FIFA Esports world this is likely to not even see more than a few females venture into the world of FIFA content creation or esports from England, why? There are many reasons why, some of which we will cover below:

• Lack of Investment - ECL have worked with tournament partners Rush GG who kindly provided prize money for the worlds largest Female FIFA tournaments in FIFA 22 and will continue in FIFA 23. Without prize money these events cannot exist. We have also worked with brands and sponsors who have leveraged the ECL audience to make inroads into the gaming and esports industry. We need more of these types of brands to come forward and support women in gaming.
• Sexism and misogyny - Female players and creators are often targeted my men who for some reason try to gatekeep FIFA esports and Football for themselves. This is why ECL partnered with Her Game Too. By creating gaming and esports ambassadors to help fight this behaviour and to educate as to why this is not ok. Many women fear showing their identity in game or online due to the abuse they receive.
• Lack of ROI - FIFA is a tricky esport to monetise for orgs, we know this is the truth. We are now seeing females in the space command some of the highest fees for content creation and broadcasting. With many females that ECL have worked with signing for teams like Manchester City, Portland Timbers, JLINGZ esports, SAF and many more. ECL creator Sara Guzo has just spent the summer activating for Nike and Adidas. The truth is that brands need diversity and adding females into your org adds this and makes your content more appealing if its not 100% white males.
• Lack of events - Whilst EA Sports and FIFAe have a full calendar of events open to all. Representation for women is still limited to just 2 females having competed in these events, both of which have participated in ECL events in FIFA 22. ECL are hosting the only all female FIFA tournaments that closely match the qualifying for these events and act as a way for orgs to identify the best talents.

There should be more women in the FIFA esports and gaming space in FIFA 23 due to the success of the Lionesses. For this to be a reality we need to give females a safe place to play, create formats and tournaments for them to take part in. We need brands to support and orgs to be curious as to who they sign.

If you would like to support us on this journey in any way please reach out to [email protected] for player related enquiries and [email protected] for partnership enquiries.

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