Reuters World News - Special episode: The growing pains of women's soccer

Episode Date: July 29, 2023

This year's World Cup in New Zealand and Australia is the setting for a new generation of women at the top of their game. But issues remain. As the women's game grows, so does the risk of injury. In today’s special episode, we look at the disparities in pay and resources between genders, and how what TV networks are willing to pay doesn’t always match up. Plus the big money in men's soccer is coming from a new direction - Saudi Arabia. But what does that mean for the women's game? Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thousands of miles from the birthplace of soccer, this year's World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, is the setting for a new generation of women at the top of their game. But issues remain. As the women's game grows, so does the risk of injury. On this special podcast, we explore the growing pains of women's soccer worldwide. We look at how TV viewership has grown, but what TV networks are willing to pay doesn't always match up. And the big money in men's soccer is coming from a new direction, Saudi Arabia. But what does that mean for the women's game? I'm Kim Vinal in London.

And I'm Amy Tennery in Wellington, New Zealand. The 2023 Women's World Cup comes at a time when women's football feels like it's on a precipice. Amy, how's the excitement on the ground? Well, it's a tremendous occasion for a number of reasons. First of all, it's the largest women's World Cup they've ever put on. They expanded the field. And it's also the first time that the Southern Hemisphere has hosted a Women's World Cup. Ticket sales have been incredibly robust, particularly in Australia.

A number of matches in New Zealand have been sold out. Not all of them. It's been a little bit slower, but it's been a blast so far. As women's soccer expands, bringing in more teams and adding leagues in well-established countries, growing pains have developed. A host of injuries knocking some of the biggest names out of World's. Cup play. Amy, you were at the much-anticipated rematch of the 2019 final, the U.S. Netherlands game earlier this week, but the teams weren't at full health. Well, sure, absolutely.

I think ACL injuries dominated headlines leading up to the tournament and with good reason, but we've seen injuries of all kinds really make a mark. You know, I just got back from the USA Netherlands match and one of the undeniable factors in it was the injury issue. You know, The United States came to this match. Their top goal score this year, Mallory Swanson, was knocked out of possibly competing in the tournament earlier this year due to a Torren Patel attendant. Becky Sauerbun is their veteran defender. She was ruled out of the tournament days before the roster was announced. And so what we saw as a result was a U.S. coach who was really needing to reshuffle his starting lineup.

He said repeatedly that if they're not performing up to their best, it's because his starting. players have barely played together. Those absences and scores more from top contenders like the Netherlands, Canada, France, England and others have led to a bigger question. Is there more to these injuries than just bad luck and coincidence? Dr Dan Horan is a physiotherapist and academic in Ireland. He's carried out wide-ranging studies on injuries in the women's game. Styrically, there's good evidence that there are differences in the way females,

jump and land and their control. So the question is, is this a biological issue or is the environment that the player is in a major factor? And I think at the moment, we can't say one is the real reason that female players are experiencing catastrophic knee injuries, for example, and there's only one reason. It's multifactorial. But I think until we get into a situation where female players are provided with the same supports as men, I think it's difficult to say that it is primarily or only a biological issue. I think there's certainly likely to be biological factors at play. But again, the research in that area isn't as comprehensive as we'd like it to be. I was surprised to learn that until recently, women's soccer boots weren't actually designed for women,

but just men's shoes resized and rebranded. Shouldn't more manufacturers be designing footwear just for women? I mean, it's a great marketing opportunity at the very least. It's possible that by designing a better boot with studs that are more appropriate for women's feet, for example, that it will reduce the incidence rate of those types of injuries. Because we know from a systematic review looking at the injury mechanisms of ACLTAs and professional female players that, you know, the foot position when they're going out to defend and impressing actions is an area that is potentially causing these injuries.

And if there's better grip and better support under women's feet, when they're in those positions, it's possible that it could lead to a reduction in the incidence rate of those anterior accruciate injury with injuries. Again, when I say it's possible, we don't have the evidence to support that. These are hypotheses I think need to be explored further. Greater research and injuries in the women's game will require increased funding. But team resources, as well as player pay, pales in comparison to men's squads. One player told us the difference between resources for men's and women's teams was shocking.

She says they had to practice year-round on turf, which has been proven to cause injuries. But there has been some progress in player pay. While Team Canada's dispute for pay equity drags on, some advances have been made by teams like the US that have come to an agreement for equal pay with the US men's team. Not having distractions like that, like having to fight for equal pay, equal working conditions as time moving forward at all ever again,

it feels really good. And I hope that will soon be the case for all of the players around the world. That's striker Alex Morgan. FIFA's president, Gianni Infantino, has pointed out that the amount every player takes home has increased. Before I became FIFA present,

the whole envelope for the prize money was 15 million, now it's 150 million, a little bit more even than that. But that's still just a third of the total prize money in the Men's Cup. There's also a disparity in the money coming in from things like TV rights in major markets. Broadcasters aren't always willing to pay top dollar for the rights to women's games over concerns about whether viewers will show up.

Our entertainment business correspondent, Dawn Chimaleski in L.A., has been digging into the viewership numbers in the U.S. So, Dawn, are U.S. audiences watching this cup? Absolutely. So audiences are beginning to tune in to the soccer matches. The most recent match between the U.S. and Netherlands attracted close to six. and a half million viewers, which is not bad for us at this stage in the competition. Fox News, which carried the game, called it the most watched group stage match in terms of U.S. viewers.

So that's a fair number. To be sure, soccer or football commands a giant global audience, right? The World Cup finale will attract one and a half billion viewers around the world. But in the U.S., still not quite as large as the Super Bowl, for example. The most recent Super Bowl brought in 113 million viewers, right? But the game has still attracts sizable numbers, but not Super Bowl numbers. So the Argentina's World Cup victory over France via penalty cakes, you'll remember those very dramatic ending of the competition. Attracted about 16, nearly 17 million viewers here in the U.S.

How does this rise in popularity for women's soccer impact the bids next round for TV viewership? We have a new class of bidders who are getting into the mix. people with really deep pockets like Amazon. And Apple are also vying for these rights. And in the case of Apple and Amazon, they're trying to attract more people to their subscription streaming services. Sports is the one reliable way to attract millions of viewers. And advertisers are all about getting reaching millions of viewers. So this is an attractive lure for them as well. And that competition between traditional media companies as well as the technology companies that have gotten into. to the business of delivering TV programming into the home, is that competition is driving up the price. Right. So an Apple or Amazon could be the next big broadcaster of soccer in the U.S.? YouTube also carries soccer, right?

And as does Apple. I get MLS games advertised to me all the time because I watch Ted Lassau. While the women's game fights for more money, on the men's side, big bucks are flying around, specifically in Saudi Arabia. They've offered hundreds of millions of euros to players like Kiliang Mbapai, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to try and bring them onto state-owned teams. Visit Saudi, the Kingdom's tourism arm, wanted to sponsor this year's Women's World Cup, but concerns about the country's record on women's rights prevented

a deal. I called up our Gulf Deals reporter, Hadil Al-Sayek, to better understand how Saudi Arabia's foray into sport is impacting the landscape. So Hedil, how is Saudi trying to make its mark on football? So sports is a pillar of Saudi Arabia's vision 2030, which is a crown prince Mohammed bin Salman's economic and social reform blueprint to transform the kingdom. They're looking to build a full ecosystem and tick many boxes, so elevating sports, including football in the country, making sure people in the country are living a healthier and happy lifestyle, and bring in future tourism to Saudi Arabia to watch the events that they plan to host. And to do that, they really need to change the overall image and show the international world that they're open to bringing

people from everywhere. Saudi Arabia is throwing extraordinary, like, eye-watering amounts of money to try and lure male footballers. What are they doing when it comes to the female players? Where there's demand, there's people, but also there's financial returns. We still see some women's sports are yet to see the same kind of viewership, demand, and commercial return that we see in the men's games. What could be really an anomaly is if we start to see them making offers for star players in tennis, for example. The viewership for women's tennis is universal and it's globally appreciated by everyone. And Saudi Arabia is looking to host tennis events and build a tennis academy in the northwestern part of Saudi Arabia in the city of El Al-a. So for them, it's about the

bottom line. I think it's unfair to say that it's about the bottom line. It's about a larger coordinated strategy. You need to have female players in Saudi Arabia and the amount of female players that can eventually play on an international league to be able to make that strategy happen. So it's not just money. That's it for this special episode. Special thanks to Amy, Dawn, Hediel and everyone else who's reporting contributed to this production. We're back on Monday with our regular daily news show. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast player or download the Reuters app.