This is the final day's performance, summarizing Chelsea's dominance in the 2024-25 Women's Super League. First-year coach Sonia Bompastor's championship beat Liverpool 1-0 due to Aggie Beever-Jones' stop time goal, but it was a game, which was largely uninterested or excited, and it was a very dull WSL sport.
The atmosphere shows that fans are watching the trophy weightlifting at Stamford Bridge. It was Chelsea's sixth consecutive league title, but they were first championed before the final day of the campaign and the first time they won a trophy at the club's 40,000-capable large stadium.
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Chelsea have reached a certain dominance, and in the WSL this season, they no longer compete with the other 11 aspects, but their previous achievements.
Beever-Jones' goal on Saturday means Chelsea surpassed their previous WSL record of 58 points for a 22-game league season, set two years ago, with a new high of 60. They have also gone through the 22 matches undefeated (W19, D3), and will now attempt to complete a fourth domestic double in five years on Sunday against holders Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley.
But for most other club supporters, this WSL campaign won't last long in memory.
Its most compelling element is the absence of any dominant role at all, and in this era, fans often follow individuals like teams. Chelsea’s latest title is a collective achievement, mainly about harmony and discipline, and their previous titles tend to have obvious stars: Bethany England, Fran Kirby, Sam Kerr or Guro Reiten.
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Chelsea players have selected Nathalie Bjorn as Player of the Year thanks to a consistently excellent defender. But when the champion’s star player is a solid, unrivalled centre-back, it says something.
Arsenal striker Alessia Russo enjoys a good form and will receive the Football Writers Association Player of the Year Award and jointly won the WSL Golden Boot with Manchester City Khadija Shaw. But they only scored 12 goals. The latter's top four winners all scored 20 points or higher (although Shaw missed the last two months of the season due to injury).
After manager Emma Hayes was missing last summer, she did not adversely affect Chelsea on the court to lead the U.S. Women’s National Team, but today’s WSL lacks the old figurehead today.
Although Hayes's quarrel with Arsenal counterpart Jonas Eidevall has become less established and the WSL is in danger that is based on its press conference rather than the game, it does attract people. It makes headlines; it reminds people that WSL is happening. Their replacements this season, bompastor and Renee Slegs, have performed very impressively, but there is little interest in providing a similar type of narrative, which is totally fair.
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But it is becoming increasingly obvious that to use the language of the marketing world, WSL is not a real "product". The same club won the championship every season. There is a big gap between the four major aspects and the other eight aspects. For two consecutive seasons, the singles promotion team was relegated after a year without a lot of fighting, and half above the team's position was half above.
So there are big middle teams - actually half the league - and rarely play a lot of teams.
The clubs with huge resources on their side - Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham and Aston Villa - have few signs of closing the gap with Chelsea Big Four, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester City and neighboring countries. Similarly, these aspects were not threatened with relegation as Villa struggled and had a sharp revival until the end of the season.
Perhaps equally important, these clubs currently do not have current England players in terms of attracting young supporters to the game.
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No Liverpool, Everton, West Ham or Villa players have appeared in Sarina Wigman in the dominant European Championships over the past year. If the national team is actually the best ad for the women's game in the UK, it would help if there were several teams knocking out for these clubs. Or, if these aspects are involved in WSL competitions, what does that mean.
Without big names or big games, what is attractive?
Of course, many of these criticisms of WSL can be applied to the current campaign in the top flight of the domestic men, which are equally wet vessels. But the Premier League is affordable. We're all fascinated. At a critical stage of growth, enduring a boring season, WSL is more destructive.
This is not to say that women's football is struggling. But good "products" are elsewhere.
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International competition remains the main form of the sport, and the latest World Cup in 2023 shows that outsiders are becoming increasingly competitive. The Champions League knockout rounds reliably provide drama and entertainment. Throughout the Atlantic, NWSL is not as dominant as before, but structure is unpredictable and exciting.
Germany's Frauen-bundesliga ended up seeing Bayern Munich's winning streak, but midway through it featured a true four-way championship battle, and Real Madrid's recent victory at Barcelona is unlikely to be in Barcelona, meaning that, even in Spain, it's a decent match in Spain, even if the big two big two basically win every week. France has launched a season-ending play-off system to crown its championship, meaning a humble league campaign will culminate, while Italy now has a "split" at the league table, so this season ends with big clubs playing against each other in the "Champions League".
By contrast, WSL provides very little contribution, which is probably why average attendance dropped slightly last season.
Crowd size shouldn't be the final touchstone test, as growth is seldom linear, but it's important to admit that the decline is important - especially in the summer, when women in England weren't playing big games, especially because the overall trend is more important than headlines in a single game.
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For example, Arsenal’s crowd against Madrid is widely reported to be the biggest player in the Champions League quarterfinals (a slightly puzzling statistic in itself), but few have noticed that the subsequent semi-final leg against Lyon attracted about 40,000 against the Emirates Stadium, which was a two-year equivalent against Wolfsburg, a 60,000,000 sold to Wolfsburg’s equivalent.
Therefore, from the two corresponding matches, one attendance increased by 1,000 in the last match against Bayern in 2023, and one fell 20,000. Only one has been widely reported.
Of course, it's up to the discussion whether the emirates are full or "only" two-thirds, which keeps up with the situation before the 2022 European Championship win in 2022 - Arsenal's two women's matches there in 2021-22 attracted about 13,000 followers - but only focus on positive images.
Currently, women's games are essentially at a stage that might be considered a "Rugby League" interest phase: display fixtures can sell out large stadiums, major national team tournaments will involve more casual fans, the largest matches may lead to national events considered appropriate, but weekly, weekly top club competitions do not maintain enough ability to maintain enough ability, and may not win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability, and may win enough ability.
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There is no situation where some solution is provided, no meaningful moaning. So this is mine.
I'll introduce a playoff system in WSL. The title is not decided because British football traditionally doesn't work and supporters want to win league leaders after the season.
But the playoffs in the third and final Champions League qualifiers may work.
This could involve both sides from third to sixth, like in the men’s championship game, although I built it in a men’s non-league playoff style, and the one-legged tie is home to who is in the regular season, both in the half and in the semifinals and finals. This provides enough advantages for teams that perform better in these 22 games.
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This also means fighting for second place (to ensure automatic Champions League qualification), one of which is third place (to play home in two playoff tie if they win the semifinal), the other is fourth place (to get home advantage in another semifinal) (to get home advantage in another half), and fifth and sixth place (to get more and more months, this will make them more and more in the game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, but to win one game, this will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which will win one game, which
If possible, I will play the playoff finals for a few weeks in the afternoon during the early May holidays, which is in the absence of other major football matches.
The next few weeks should be good for women’s football.
The FA Cup final is always a good match, with the Champions League final between Arsenal and Barcelona next Saturday, and July has excellent tournaments in the 2025 European UEFA European League in Switzerland for 2025.
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But to be honest, WSL has not been appointed to watch yet. This season, the highest division of British women's football has less outstanding performance than the previous two.
Those running WSL can simply have the proper championship game in 2026 or they can proactively adjust the structure of the game and hopefully make sure that future runs are more exciting than this.
This article first appeared in sports.
British women's football
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