One of the surprising things to me as a lifelong football fan once I entered the sphere of the women’s game in 2019, was the relatively small transfer fees required to sign the World’s best players. At the time the record was £200,000 paid by Rayo Vallecano to sign Milene Domingues from Fiammamonza way back in 2002 – which itself was little more than a public relations exercise. Since then some of the top players in the game had moved clubs, all for less, including the likes of Megan Rapinoe, Fran Kirby, Kadidiatou Diani, Mapi Leon, Lena Oberdorf and many others. In 2020, according to FIFA, global spending on transfers didn’t even total €1 million across the entire women’s game.

Following a largely successful World Cup in 2019, interest in the women’s game was increasing and with that came additional revenue. In 2020 Chelsea signed Pernille Harder for £250,000, setting a new record 18 years after the last. The cost, in terms of finance within the sport, was high, but Harder couldn’t have been more of a sure thing. She arrived in London fresh off four consecutive Frauen-Bundesliga titles and DFB-Pokal Frauen victories with Wolfsburg – a German league and cup double – four times in a row. Oh and they also made it to the UEFA Women’s Champions League final twice in that period too. Oh and she was the top scorer in the league in her final year. Even with these incredible accolades, in top form, in the prime of her career, with the women’s game on the rise, she could only exceed the record by £50,000. Honestly, most men’s Premier League players earn that A WEEK, and some earn her entire RECORD transfer fee in just a few days.

Harder’s move to Chelsea was eclipsed two years later when Keira Walsh moved from Manchester City to Barcelona for £400,000 in the summer of 2022. That still seems incredible value – and to think that, in theory, any player in the entire sport could be had for around half a million pounds – absolutely blows my mind.

Why was (and is) this the case though? Well, beyond the lack of investment and revenue generation within the game until relatively recently, the instability of the sport as a whole has played a substantial role. This has almost nothing to do with actual athletes themselves, who it should be said, have been competing to the best of their abilities for decades now in the face of overwhelming challenges. People far more educated and knowledgeable than I have spoken on the difficulties systemic within women’s football, but hopefully I can give some recent examples that illustrate my point.

Let’s look at Reading. They were affiliated (for want of a better word) with a men’s team, as are every current participant in the Women’s Super League. However, upon relegation from the WSL last season, they announced that they would be becoming part-time instead of full-time because Reading as an organisation needed to cut costs. That’s right, a team reverted back to semi-professional less than 12 months after the Lionesses’ won Euro 2022. A club like Reading, first of all never had the capital to sign someone for a large fee, nor could they attract an elite player to Reading – who were always relegation candidates and do not have strong and sustainable financial backing. They were only ever going to be able to offer short-term one or two year deals with their economic standing, demonstrated when double-digit players were released at the end of their contracts following the switch to part-time. This was a WSL team though, arguably the strongest women’s league in the world, and teams are choosing to go backwards? To cut costs, not invest?

Let’s look at the opposite end of the scale and a team like Manchester United. They thought women’s football was so inconsequential that they disbanded their team under the Glazer ownership in 2005 as they allegedly couldn’t afford the £60,000 to get the squad to games and back. At the time Malcolm Glazer was estimated to be worth well over $1 Billion. They’re back now though, and appear to have the support of the board, though you have to question the motives given how the Glazers perceived women’s football not all that long ago. So why don’t Manchester United just blow everyone out of the water and buy Aitana Bonmati for £1 Million? Well maybe they will (see Part 2), but equally they don’t need to. In truth, three or four players at £250,000 would be enough to significantly improve their team, so spending it all on just one seems irresponsible, unsustainable and unnecessary. With so many quality players around the world on such relatively short-term contracts, the club may not even need to find much, if any, money at all – they can just wait until the players current deal runs out or leverage the lack of time remaining to negotiate the price down.

Until now leagues and clubs around the World were in a state of flux and many still are. Heck the National Women’s Soccer League, viewed as one of the most established competitions in the game is only just over 10 years old, and that was the third attempt the Americans had made at establishing a fully professional women’s league. Even our own WSL hasn’t ruled out re-aligning divisions, changing the terms of relegation and promotion, expanding the leagues etc. With all this uncertainty, would you want to take the risk on a £1 Million player? Can your team afford and attract such a player? Who could potentially command such a figure?

The day is coming, sooner rather than later, so let’s look at the candidates to become the first…