Chelsea Women have a new television home in the UWCL
Women’s football is growing rapidly in popularity after one of the best FA Women’s Super League campaigns in recent memory. Chelsea announced it sold out its season tickets at Kingsmeadow for the first time in the club’s history late last week. The tickets had been available for just two weeks before being bought up. Everybody is flocking to watch the club’s best team, the back-to-back FAWSL winning—and UWCL finalist—Blues. No need to fret if you weren’t one of the lucky ones to scoop up season passes, regular tickets will still be for sale on a match-by-match basis. Needless to say, if you enjoy free-flowing, attacking football, the Chelsea Women are for you.
While the season ticket milestone is a massive achievement for women’s football as a whole, the game still has a lot of areas it can improve in. A major part of that is the aspect of the game where the financials come into play the most: television. The FAWSL recently signed a deal with Sky Sports and now, it’s the UEFA Women’s Champions League’s turn. The UWCL has announced a four-year partnership with DAZN and YouTube that promises to make matches more accessible while also growing the game and investing more money into the sport.
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The new UWCL deal is huge for the Chelsea Women and women’s football in general.
One of the biggest problems plaguing fans last season was accessibility to the women’s game. Despite an influx in talent and a rise in promotions, fans cannot tune in if they don’t know where to find the matches. Thankfully, DAZN has taken measures to solve this problem right away. Beginning next season and running through 2022/23, every UWCL contest will be available live for free via YouTube.
This isn’t just in England or the United States either; this is accessible to almost the entire planet. The only exceptions are the Middle East, Northern Africa and China. However, highlights from the matches will be available in those areas. After the 2022/23 campaign, the games will be split between DAZN and YouTube with 19 of the 61 being available completely free. This will continue until the deal runs out.
The new television agreement comes at a pivotal time in the UWCL. UEFA has just completed an overhaul of the tournament and its structure. For those who love a good UCL anthem, UEFA has also composed a new one specifically for the UWCL. The redesigned format will include a proper group stage for the first time in the competition’s history and therefore, more money is on the line for clubs in the long run. Teams like Chelsea have been at the forefront of investing cash into the women’s game, something all parties took into consideration when coming to this television agreement. If clubs continue to invest more into the sport, it’s made more accessible to the world and UEFA dedicates its resources to growth, women’s football will reach new heights in no time.
Why does any of this matter to Chelsea though?
As anybody who followed the Blues’ miraculous run in the Champions League last season would know, finding matches wasn’t always easy. Chelsea often streamed games on its official YouTube channel, but problems sometimes persisted and made it incredibly difficult to watch matches. For those looking for an introduction to the game, technical difficulties can be seen as an automatic deterrent right out of the gate. While we can’t wave our magic wants and magically rid the world of issues with technology, DAZN and YouTube have certainly done their best with this deal.
Emma Hayes’ side reached the UWCL final for the first time in the club’s history last season. The Blues suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of a historic Barcelona side, but if Hayes has taught us anything during her time as manager, it’s that she won’t let losing stand in her way. Chelsea is undoubtedly one of the favorites to return to the pivotal match next season after winning its second consecutive league title just a few months ago.
Chelsea fans should do our part in normalizing women in football. dark. Next
What do you make of the new television deal? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!