Why Women’s Football is Growing: The Rise of the Women’s Game in England
Women’s football in England has changed beyond recognition over the past decade. Record crowds, primetime television, a professional league expanding its reach every season and, more importantly, almost a million girls playing the game in a formal setting. This article looks at the numbers behind that growth, addresses the criticism the women’s game still faces, explains how the English football pyramid works for women, introduces the players who shaped the modern era, and sets out how young girls can get involved in competitive football today. For families thinking about next steps, Looking For Soccer offers elite football camps for girls at professional club facilities across Europe.
Women’s Football by the Numbers: How Much Has the Game Grown?
The statistics tell a story that would have seemed implausible twenty years ago.
- Participation: A Sport England Active Sports report published in December 2024 found that 845,000 girls play football in a formal setting in England an increase of 176,000 from the 2018 survey. Football is now the top participation sport for women and girls in the country, with almost three million registered female players under the FA’s remit.
- Attendance: The WSL’s record single-game attendance stands at 60,160, set at the Emirates Stadium in February 2024 when Arsenal hosted Manchester United. The highest season average attendance in WSL history was 7,363, recorded in the 2023-24 season. Arsenal became the only women’s club in the world with an average home league attendance of at least 20,000 in 2024-25. The Women’s Championship also broke records in 2024-25, with the Newcastle-Sunderland derby drawing 38,502 a new Championship record.
- Broadcasting: Sky announced a landmark deal to broadcast 118 WSL matches per season from 2025-26 more than three times the previous number, with 78 games shown exclusively. The BBC will show 14 live games and share seven more on digital platforms, alongside clips from every fixture published on the BBC Sport website and app.
- International: England’s Lionesses reached the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final in 2023, following their UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 triumph on home soil at Wembley. Both achievements produced measurable spikes in domestic participation and WSL attendance in the seasons that followed. The WSL saw a 200% increase in attendances in the season following England’s Euro 2022 triumph.
The trajectory is clear. Women’s football in England is not a niche sport on an upward trend. It is a mainstream product still in the early stages of realising its full potential.
Why Is Women’s Football Sometimes Criticised?
Honesty matters here. Women’s football does face criticism, and some of it is worth addressing directly rather than ignoring.
The most common argument is physical: that because women are generally smaller, slower, and less powerful than men, the quality of the game is inherently lower. It is true that top-level women’s football is played at a different pace and physical intensity to the men’s game. That is not in dispute. What is worth questioning is whether that makes it less worth watching or less valuable as a sporting product.
Women and men play on pitches of identical dimensions, with the same ball, the same goal size, and the same rules. The physical difference between the games is real but it does not define whether the football is good. Tactical intelligence, teamwork, technical quality, and competitive drama are not contingent on physical output. Many WSL matches feature the same qualities that make football compelling at any level.
A second criticism is around media coverage: that the women’s game is promoted artificially, pushed by broadcasters and governing bodies rather than driven by genuine fan demand. Attendance figures tell a more nuanced story. In the season following UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, the WSL recorded the largest absolute growth in average attendance of any top European women’s league, with an increase of over 3,300 per game. That is not the profile of a sport being propped up it is the profile of a sport responding to a moment of genuine cultural visibility.
The honest summary: women’s football is a different product to men’s football. It is growing on its own terms, with its own audience, and it does not need to be the same as the men’s game to justify its existence or its investment.
The Women’s Football Pyramid: How the English System Works
England’s women’s football system operates on a pyramid structure of interconnected leagues, with promotion and relegation connecting the grassroots game to the professional top flight. Understanding this structure is useful for any family whose daughter wants to progress through competitive football.
The pyramid has seven formal tiers, with county leagues extending further below. Here is how the top five work:
| Tier | League | Level | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) | Professional | 14 clubs from 2025-26. Top club qualifies for UEFA Women’s Champions League. |
| 2 | Barclays Women’s Championship (WSL2) | Semi-professional | Expanding. Promotion to WSL subject to licensing criteria. |
| 3 | FA Women’s National League (Northern and Southern Premier) | Amateur / semi-pro | 72 clubs across 6 divisions. Top two promoted to Championship from 2023-24. |
| 4 | FA Women’s National League Division One | Amateur | North, Midlands, South East, South West divisions. |
| 5+ | Regional and County Leagues | Grassroots | Eight regional leagues at Tier 5. County leagues extend to Tiers 7-10. |
Sources: The Football Association Women’s Football Pyramid Regulations; Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL); FA Women’s National League 2025-26.
The key structural change in recent years is the separation of governance at the top. Since August 2024, the newly created Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL) has fully controlled Tiers 1 and 2 the WSL and the Women’s Championship while the FA continues to oversee Tier 3 and below. This mirrors the relationship between the Premier League and the FA in the men’s game, and signals a clear ambition to operate the top of women’s football as a professional business.
For a young player, the pyramid matters because it means there is a clear pathway from county-level football all the way to the professional game, with promotion and relegation at every stage. No club is permanently locked out of the top flight in theory at least.
For more on how identification and talent development work within this system, see our guide on how to become a professional female footballer.
Famous Female Footballers Who Changed the Game
Women’s football in England has been shaped by a succession of players who redefined what the position, the game, and the sport could look like. Here are the figures who matter most to understanding the modern era :
- Kelly Smith is widely regarded as the most technically gifted English player of her generation. A forward who spent much of her career at Arsenal and played in the United States, she was named England’s all-time greatest female player in a 2016 BBC poll. Her career straddled the amateur and semi-professional eras, and she is a direct reason why the generation that followed had a different set of expectations.
- Fara Williams holds the record for the most England caps of any female player, with 172 international appearances. A central midfielder known for her passing range and leadership, she competed in an era when international recognition far outpaced domestic professional opportunity.
- Lucy Bronze has won more trophies than any other English female footballer, including multiple Champions League titles with Lyon and WSL titles with Manchester City. Regarded as one of the best right-backs in the history of the women’s game, she is the benchmark by which a generation of young full-backs in England measures itself.
- Vivianne Miedema, though Dutch, is the WSL’s all-time leading scorer with 80 goals a record that may stand for a long time. Her performances at Arsenal and subsequently Manchester City demonstrated what elite technical quality looks like week-in, week-out in English domestic football.
- Beth Mead won the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 Golden Boot on home soil, scoring six goals in the tournament. Her performances that summer and her subsequent recovery from a serious knee injury made her one of the most recognisable figures in English women’s sport.
- The 2022 Lionesses as a collective deserve mention. Sarina Wiegman’s squad won Euro 2022 in front of 87,192 fans at Wembley Stadium in what became a defining cultural moment not just for women’s football, but for British sport. Players including Ellen White, Ella Toone, Chloe Kelly, and Leah Williamson became household names almost overnight.
How Young Girls Can Get Involved in Football
The pathway into competitive football in England starts early and is well-structured. Here is how it works in practice, and where Looking For Soccer fits in.
Start at an FA-affiliated club. Girls can compete in organised football from age 5 and join FA-affiliated competitive clubs from age 7. This is where technical foundations are built and the first steps towards county and regional identification begin. Finding a club with a dedicated girls’ section and qualified coaching staff makes a meaningful difference at this stage.
Progress through the county and regional pyramid. As a player improves, she moves into stronger teams and more competitive leagues from local club football to county FA level, then regional competitions. Performance in these environments is how scouts and talent development staff identify players. There is no application process it is entirely performance-driven.
Use elite camps to accelerate development. Between seasons and during school holidays, training at a professional club environment gives young players exposure to a standard of coaching and infrastructure that local clubs cannot always provide. Looking For Soccer selects elite football camps for girls at partner professional clubs across Europe, available in girls-only or mixed formats. Browse our full selection of the best football camps for girls or find the right summer football camp for girls based on your daughter’s level and goals.
Consider a sport-study programme for year-round development. For players aged 11 to 18 who want a full-year professional training environment, Looking For Soccer offers sport-study academy programmes at partner clubs in England, Spain, France, and the United States. These programmes combine daily professional-level training with an adapted academic curriculum an environment that doesn’t exist in a standard school or club setup. They are particularly relevant for players who want to build a stronger competitive profile before entering the WSL talent pathway or before a college scholarship application.
Consider the college scholarship pathway. For older players who want to pursue higher education in a high-performance sporting environment, a university scholarship in the United States is a genuine option. The NCAA and NAIA systems offer competitive women’s football alongside fully funded degrees. Looking For Soccer supports families through the entire process, from profile evaluation to coach introductions and scholarship signing. For a full breakdown, read our guide on how to become a professional female footballer.
The Women’s Game Is Only Getting Bigger
The numbers, the structure, the players, and the investment all point in the same direction. Women’s football in England is not at its peak. It is still in the process of building what it will become. The infrastructure is now in place a professional top flight with broadcast deals, a pyramid that connects every level of the game, and almost a million girls playing in formal settings that simply didn’t exist a generation ago.
For families whose daughters love the sport, this is an exceptional moment to invest in their development. Whether that means finding the right girls football camp for this summer, looking into a sport-study programme abroad, or starting a conversation about a college scholarship in the United States, Looking For Soccer is here to help identify the right next step. Reach out to our team to talk through your daughter’s profile and goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is women’s football growing so fast in England?
Three factors combine to explain the growth. England’s Lionesses winning Euro 2022 and reaching the 2023 World Cup Final created an unprecedented surge in grassroots participation and WSL attendance. Structural investment from broadcasters Sky’s 118-match deal from 2025-26 has significantly increased visibility. And the formation of Women’s Professional Leagues Limited in 2024 to independently govern the top two tiers signals a clear long-term commitment to the professional game.
Why is women’s football sometimes seen as less exciting than men’s?
The women’s game is played at a different physical intensity to the men’s, and some viewers find that adjustment takes time. But the quality of technical football, tactical organisation, and competitive drama in the WSL is genuinely high. The question of whether it is “less exciting” is subjective and it is becoming less relevant as the game develops its own identity and fanbase, independent of comparison to the men’s game.
What are women’s football facts I should know about the WSL?
The WSL was founded in 2013 and has been won most often by Chelsea (8 titles). The record single-game attendance is 60,160 (Arsenal vs Manchester United, Emirates Stadium, February 2024). Vivianne Miedema holds the WSL all-time scoring record with 80 goals. The Women’s Championship set a new single-game attendance record of 38,502 in the Newcastle-Sunderland derby in 2024-25. The Women’s FA Cup Final has been held at Wembley since 2015.
How does the women’s football pyramid work in England?
The Women’s Football Pyramid has seven official tiers, with county leagues extending further below. Tier 1 is the WSL (professional), Tier 2 the Women’s Championship (semi-professional), Tiers 3 and 4 the FA Women’s National League, and Tiers 5 and below the regional leagues. Promotion and relegation connect every level, meaning a club can theoretically rise from county football to the WSL through sustained performance over time.
What age should my daughter start playing football competitively?
Girls can join FA-affiliated competitive clubs from age 7. The first meaningful identification opportunities typically arise between ages 10 and 14, through county FA events and regional competitions. What matters most in the early years is quality coaching, consistent play, and genuine enjoyment of the game. Elite training camps can provide a useful complement to club football from age 8 or 9 onward. Browse Looking For Soccer’s girls football camps to find the right programme by age group and level.
How can my daughter get scouted for a WSL academy?
Scouting happens through performance in competition county FA tournaments, regional leagues, and FA talent identification days. There is no application or trial process for most clubs. The FA’s Regional Talent Clubs (RTCs) are the primary identification mechanism from age 13. For more detail on how the pathway works and what Looking For Soccer can offer alongside the institutional system, see our guide on how to become a professional female footballer.
Also read: