Ada Hegerberg has called on domestic leagues in Europe to follow in the WSL’s footsteps in terms of marketing and advertising in order to capitalise on the momentum of Euro 2022.
The tournament attracted record attendances and TV viewing figures over the course of the month, with the Wembley final the highest attended game in European Championship history, and the most watched television event of the year in the UK.
All matches at Euro 2022 were easily accessible to view on terrestrial television, and thanks to the watershed TV deal agreed in 2021, the WSL is readily available to watch on the BBC and Sky Sports in addition to the FA Player. However, this is not the case across Europe, and Hegerberg has called for other domestic leagues to step up to ensure the Euro 2022 momentum is not lost.
“DAZN did an incredible job with the Champions League this year,” Hegerberg told The Guardian. “You had some pretty powerful coverage. People actually got a good platform to see all of the best games.
“But the problem is our home leagues, basically. I feel like England, they’re very good at selling their league. They’re very good at marketing their league, but the other leagues, we’ve got to step up.
“The federations are in control of these leagues and they have a huge job to do in order to lift the whole product, with the clubs obviously, and kind of shake it up a little bit and start selling the leagues, start selling good football matches where you actually have the best players playing every weekend.
“And I really think that that’s the next step, especially in Europe. You have to get the momentum up the whole year round.”
A common trend following major women’s tournaments in recent years is to see a short lived burst of momentum, which then struggles to be maintained throughout the course of the domestic season – and Hegerberg has questioned why this has been the case.
“I keep on scratching my head after every big tournament,” she added. “You have the World Cup, you have the Euros and then we get back to club and then it’s like the whole momentum just fades away. And I think that’s a huge problem.
“Like I’m a player in Europe, obviously, and I’ve seen what’s been happening here. Every tournament has been a success in terms of interest from your home country, on a world basis, the coverage. You have this insane momentum and then you have all these best players going back to their clubs and it’s like you kind of lose this momentum. And I think it’s a shame.”