The legacy of the Lionesses’ Euros triumph continues as a survey shows 46% of those engaged with the tournament over the summer said they’d watch more UEFA Women’s Champions League action this season.
The competition’s group stage gets underway this week as two English clubs begin their campaign. Arsenal beat Champions League holders, Lyon, 5-1 on Wednesday night while Chelsea head to France for their Thursday evening game against Paris Saint-Germain.
Footballco and FUSE teamed up to conduct a survey of more than 2,000 football fans in 11 different countries to determine the impact the Euros will have on the future of the Women’s Champions League. Of the supporters involved, 25 per cent were female and 75 per cent male and only six percent of those that watched the Euros said they would watch less of the women’s competition.
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Morgan Brennan, head of Footballco’s women’s football media brand, Indivisa said: “It is evident from this research that the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 presented women's football on a scale we haven't seen previously and introduced new fans to the personalities of women's football, many of who will be playing in this year’s UEFA Women’s Champions League.
“That momentum will sustain itself through this season’s tournament, with players who made their mark this summer being given another platform.”
James English, Managing Partner-Sport at Fuse said the research is encouraging and outlined what needs to happen moving forward: “The key now will be to build on the record audiences and interest in the recent Women’s Euro to grow the game in the long-term in terms of participation, attendance at matches and commercial revenue.”
In Europe, fans in England, France, Italy, Spain and Germany were surveyed and those in four out of the five countries ranked the Women’s Champions League third in terms of popularity, sitting behind both the FIFA Women’s World Cup and UEFA Women’s Euro.
Fans in Spain were the only group of supporters to prefer their own domestic competition, the Spanish Primera Division, to the Women’s Champions League.
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