UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Jamie Singer and Flora Peel, Onside Law
government and key football stakeholders the criteria for granting a GBE, which provided for automatic approval if a player from one of the top 50-ranked FIFA nations had featured sufficiently for their national team, or if players accrued suf - ficient points based on sporting criteria (such as the number of club matches played and their club’s progression in European club competi - tions). There was also an Exceptions Panel to determine whether a GBE should be granted to players falling short of the required points total. As predicted, Women’s sport has skyrocketed in the last few years. 2025 appears to be following similar trends to the previous three years, with likely trends showing this is still just the start. Deloitte predicted that in 2024, revenue gen - erated by women’s elite sports would surpass USD1 billion, with USD1.28 billion in total fore - cast revenues. 85% of sports experts are pre - dicting double-digit growth for women’s sports revenues over the next three to five years. The major growth driver appears to be the sharp increase in commercial revenue and income from broadcast and matchday sources. This is the same as the three main revenue streams for the men’s game, although the women’s game sees the most impact through commercial rev - enues, whereas in the men’s game it is the sale of broadcast rights. Global competitions such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Ladies Pro - fessional Golf Association tour, and the WTA tour, are expected to contribute USD425 mil - lion of the forecast total. This rapid growth of women’s sport and leagues has made investing more attractive, as many new investors enter the market. 8. Women’s Sport 8.1 Women’s Sport Overview
The UK government recently stated its clear intention to share best practices and acceler - ate progress across all women’s sport, through the Independent Review. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s latest response to this review into women’s football, chaired by Karen Carne, endorsed and supported each of the ten recommendations from the review, as well as identifying a number of legal and practi - cal considerations. This response, as well as the review itself, highlight the government’s desire to invest in and support women’s sport. Women’s sport is also seeing some very positive trends and outlooks for the coming years, including the following: • The Lionesses’ push for fan engagement, investments and support has already led to an 88% increase in interest in the Women’s Super League (WSL). This figure is expected to continue to grow, with key fixtures sell - ing out main club stadiums such as The Emirates, Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford. Arsenal Women’s team have agreed to play all of their home matches at The Emirates Stadium for the 2024/25 season. A recent Deloitte report has reported that 15 of the top revenue-generating women’s clubs generated a revenue of EUR116.6 million as of January 2025, a 35% growth on revenue in 2024. • In a landmark GBP65 million deal announced at the start of 2025, the WSL has secured a new five-year broadcasting agreement with Sky Sports and the BBC. Interestingly, it is reported that in-game and post-game rights have been granted to players, allowing them to show highlights of the game on their own socials straight after the match. Previously, rights were only granted in-game (ie, the actual streaming of the matches). By permit - ting rights post-game, the players now have the ability to post/create video content from
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