On Monday, it was announced that the first and second tiers of women’s football – the WSL and the Championship – would now be united under an ‘umbrella’. The WSL would keep its name, while the Championship would become ‘WSL2’.
In the same announcement, Women’s Super League Football – formerly WPLL, formerly NewCo (there’s a theme here!) – would be the name of the company taking charge of this new venture.
As if this wasn’t enough fun for one day, a new logo also appeared, which looked like Julius Caesar’s crown – its near-elegance severely undermined by the strange font used to inscribe ‘WSL’ and ‘WSL2’ over it. A font that looked like something a kid messing around on their parents’ computer in the 90s might have picked because they thought it looked groovy.
Social media, ever the place to go for a quick chuckle in a moment like this, decided to take it and run.
‘I’d like to think the WSL were deliberately going for “double-CD dance compilation from exactly 1997”, so if anything they’ve nailed it perfectly,’ one user wrote. ‘As someone with a literal master’s degree in marketing, who the hell signed off on this WSL rebrand?’, said another.
The problem with constantly changing a name or a logo is the same rule that applies to tigers changing their stripes and leopards their spots – you can’t hide what’s underneath. And what lies beneath the stardust aimed at attracting the Taylor Swift generation is currently very little in terms of ‘vision’.
The new branding for the WSL and WSL 2, launched on Monday, with its groovy font
The announcement came with a smorgasbord of flashy images and buzzwords
England’s success in winning Euro 2022 at Wembley gave the domestic women’s game a boost
Over the last few years, the WSL and Championship have been building momentum, largely thanks to the successes of the England women’s team. Attendances at games have been on a general upward trend, and social media has experienced a widespread, women’s football-focused boom.
But at the same time, there are huge problems riddling the game.
Second-tier Blackburn Rovers players have expressed concern that they may not even have a team next season, with reports saying the club has failed to confirm its intention to finance their women’s side.
There is chronic underfunding of women’s teams, and no financial stability for the majority of players once their careers come to an end. Some go into media, but many are left juggling the endless PR opportunities that come their way during their playing careers, while they attempt to ease the pressure of their immediate post-playing days.
As for the top flight, Chelsea Women have forged an incredible team of superstars, breaking world records and club records in their search for the best in the land. It’s a genuine privilege to watch some of them play. Equally, is it really good for the league to see six consecutive titles all won by the same club?
Chelsea have a monopoly, and based on this record-breaking unbeaten season, their grip doesn’t look like it will loosen any time soon. Arsenal, with their huge fanbase, and the two Manchester clubs will scrap behind them – but, at the current rate, any dent they make will be short-lived.
Aside from the limited sense of jeopardy in the race among the Big Four for the three Champions League spots, the other end of the table tells a starker story: for the second consecutive season, the promoted club have been immediately relegated, unable to keep pace with the escalating demands of a league that is running away from them.
Women’s Super League Football – as they are now calling themselves – have experimented with their fanbase by suggesting they might scrap relegation, only to reverse the idea (for now) amid huge backlash.
Chelsea have won the WSL six times in a row and their dominance shows no sign of waning
Blackburn’s players don’t even know if they will have a team for next season
Chelsea, Arsenal and the Manchester clubs have formed a seemingly impenetrable Big Four
Maybe there will be play-offs for the title in the future. Maybe, too, WSL clubs will play an exhibition match against one of the American NWSL sides.
‘Alongside new colour systems that have been developed to give each league their own unique but intentionally complimentary [sic] identity so they can be used together, WSL Football’s new visual world captures the power and athleticism of the players and reflects the distinct nature of women’s football today,’ they wrote with their logo rebranding announcement yesterday.
While WSL Football try to Americanise our game and target a ‘new’ audience of Swifties with fancy logos and friendship bracelets and complementary colours, the concern is that the people at the top are being distracted from the genuine issues that could render any of their hopes for the future effectively redundant. And who said women’s football needed to attract a ‘new’ audience anyway?
These problems are not going away anytime soon, and we can only sit and hope that beyond all the marketing schemes and buzzwords, that genuine clarity will soon be delivered to our doors.
