Revenue growth is an important metric, but ultimately, it is not profit. The magic number is arrived at by subtracting total expenses from revenue. The resulting number is either profit or loss. All European leagues have been saddled with the latter since their inception, and a report by FIFA indicated as much, saying the leagues are at a phase akin to startups and that initial investment is key before profitability is realized.
FIFA’s assessment highlights a problem that has been largely ignored and is ballooning by the season. Most clubs outside Arsenal Women and FC Barcelona Femení recorded losses in the hundreds of thousands to millions, cumulatively season on season. It is a harsh truth that investors have to contend with alongside other unique problems.
Another big problem is the quality of the product. Comparisons between women’s football and men’s football are generally discouraged, but if the game wants to grow, it needs to draw the right comparisons. Particularly how to handle finances and how to run a financially sound organization.
The Barclays WSL is known for “indirectly” inciting conversations around how it is the best league, often by implying that other European leagues are bad and hardly watchable.
All European women’s football leagues are on par in every metric, real or virtual. None of the leagues is profitable yet, and most games get boring as soon as you put them on. Pointing fingers and implying that other leagues are inferior is childish and goes to show how far out the game still is from its best.
Liga F is a special case, however. It is home to the best European football club at the moment, FC Barcelona Femení, and multiple other good teams. Not that you would be able to tell. The league does little to promote itself. There hasn’t been much improvement in marketability since formation, even with marked growth in revenue.
Ahead of the 2021/2022 season, the Consejo Superior de Deportes in Spain granted Liga F the right to run the country’s premier women’s football league independent of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on paper. The state also granted Liga F some starter funds distributed over five years as course correction for the historical injustices suffered by women’s football.
The first season saw revenue of €18 million for the league. The gaps in revenue between individual member clubs at the time were hard to look past, and the problems did not stop there. Despite the big revenue number, expenses far exceeded what was flowing in. As stated earlier, this is a problem for all women’s football leagues, but the scrutiny has always landed differently on Liga F. For good reason.
While digging through Liga F’s partnerships, it becomes clear how much the league is dependent on La Liga’s technological infrastructure for matches, including but not limited to content protection. There is nothing wrong with this in itself, but it brings into question the extent to which La Liga is involved in other operations. La Liga itself is poorly run and is in no position to offer advice.
La Liga and Liga F’s goals and modes of operation are at loggerheads. La Liga is infamous for cagey financial regulations that have helped few clubs, devastated others and left the competition with very little revenue. So demonstrably little that the league winner makes less money in shared revenue than mid-table clubs in the Premier League do. Outside the top two clubs, La Liga has nothing to show. Hardly the organization Liga F needs lessons from, let alone cooperation.
Liga F needs flexible financial regulations because, like startups, the initial phase has featured losses. La Liga infamously factors the cost of women’s sections of respective clubs into their FFP calculations. This alone is a conflict that Liga F should be lobbying against and negotiating more financial leeway for its member clubs.
Questionable decisions have also plagued Liga F since the start. After the league compensated its stewards with a collective package worth north of €970,000, one would expect better decisions from them. Instead, the first title and competition sponsor of the league, Finetwork, passed on their obligations, a case whose resolution has not been formally announced, and more recently, Liga F made an ill-advised move by putting their broadcast rights on the market early, despite having a deal in place with DAZN.
As a result, a fan outside Spain has no straightforward way of accessing matches this season. It would be one thing if the league had significant leverage, such as a huge global fan base and mouthwatering bids on the table for the rights, but as it turned out, Liga F had no such things. Having such a high opinion of oneself is something that can easily be traced back to La Liga and its ever-present president, Javier Tebas.
Ties to La Liga and potential ties to the RFEF have hampered independent decision-making. Liga F will never admit it, of course, and there is nothing wrong with asking for guidance, but it has to be from organizations that do not have vested interests such as financial (in La Liga) and political (in RFEF). To make the leap forward, and avoid mockery from the likes of Barclays WSL, Liga F has to have the courage to stand on its own two feet and get better partners. A scary but necessary prospect.
The Barclays WSL severed ties with the English Football Association (FA) and now runs independently. By all metrics, everything is on course for them. The Frauen Bundesliga did the same and cut ties with the Deutsche Fußball Bund (DFB). They have not missed a beat either. The DFB invested a significant package in the league but has no control over the league. Liga F gets little from its ties to the RFEF other than implied control. There are tangible benefits to be had by becoming well and truly independent.
Barclays WSL looks like the best league because of aggressive marketing, primarily through its partner media house, BBC. Until recently, Liga F had no comparable partners other than Relevo, now a subsidiary of iGaming, a “gaming” company with a special focus on gambling, not exactly reputable.
Now that RTVE and 3cat have joined the league, hopefully this aspect improves. In addition, a majority of the member clubs recently approved a €50 million investment package from Gasol16 Ventures, designed to boost operations but it is all futile if the league does not fix the bigger problems.
Liga F has a big image repair job ahead of it. They found some colors, decided on some fonts and got a few graphics. All good. Unfortunately, they forgot what actually makes a brand a brand. The strategy, values and positioning are missing. Liga F is running on borrowed values, no strategy and, as for the positioning, well, the fact that they had trouble selling broadcast rights is telling. In short, they could do with a lick of paint and a meticulous interior design job. A proper strategy that packages them as the place to be. Admittedly not for everyone, but for someone.
