Why a ban on autographs additionally displays the altering face of the WSL

On the opening night time of the Women’s Super League (WSL) season, a brand new period will start with the top of a customized that for thus lengthy was seen as one of many many sights of the ladies’s sport.

By way of its early life and into the skilled period, it was seen as a promoting level of the WSL that matchgoing supporters felt as if that they had a “nearer” relationship with the gamers than within the males’s sport, which gave the impression to be heading within the different instructions because the rise of switch charges and salaries additional added to the sense of detachment between the pitch and the stands.

Ladies’s soccer felt extra open: even the largest names within the league, just like the England internationals, appeared extra genuine, as evidenced by the common sight of enjoying giving time again to their supporters on the finish of matches, acknowledging their presence by stopping to take photos by the facet of the pitch and signing autographs.

It’s a follow that can proceed at a few of this weekend’s video games – however not at Chelsea. The champions introduced in a discover to supporters final month it was now not “secure or sustainable” for gamers to signal autographs or take selfies with followers “in an uncontrolled means” after matches at Kingsmeadow. As an alternative, the membership mentioned that they’d maintain “organised alternatives” away from match day.

In fact, such a transfer displays constructive change, that the WSL and ladies’s soccer on the high stage in England is rising to the purpose that gamers can now not accommodate the requests of each fan at full time. Rising attendances render it unattainable anyway, notably when video games are performed on the membership’s most important stadium: Arsenal, for instance, have largely left these days behind them as a advantage of committing to enjoying no less than 11 matches on the Emirates this season. And their common attendance final season was over 35,000 – above that of half the Premier League.

However, on the similar time, there could also be a way that one thing has been misplaced when Chelsea host Aston Villa on Friday night time within the WSL season opener at Kingsmeadow. It was solely three years in the past that the previous Chelsea midfielder Melanie Leupolz mentioned in an interview with Versus: “We like to signal autographs and take photos with [fans], we’re quite a bit nearer to them due to that … Proper now, with the scale of the ladies’s sport it’s one thing that we will nonetheless do. I hope that doesn’t ever actually go away, to be trustworthy.” And but, a facet which will have attracted many to the sport isn’t any extra.

The shift additionally comes forward of a landmark season for the WSL, and the primary below Ladies’s Skilled Leagues Restricted (WPLL) because it took possession from the FA. As an impartial firm, WPLL has set its sights on remodeling the WSL and the Ladies’s Championship. Although, as WPLL types itself as a “startup”, a lot of the main target within the early levels of its possession can be on attracting funding and driving income throughout the league. The primary TV deal the WPLL indicators, which is more likely to come this yr forward of the top of the present settlement between Sky Sports activities and the BBC, can be a big marker.

When the rights go to public sale, they may achieve this throughout one other historic level for the WSL: the 2024-25 season would be the first the place all 12 groups are additionally Premier League golf equipment, following the promotion of Crystal Palace and the relegation of Bristol Metropolis, who went in the identical route as Studying, and earlier than them Birmingham Metropolis, Yeovil and Sunderland.

If that implies the WSL is changing into a closed store for these golf equipment benefitting from Premier League cash, the London Metropolis Lionesses and the hundreds of thousands of latest proprietor Michele Kang – who additionally owns European heavyweight Lyon and the Washington Spirit within the USA – are betting on altering that within the Championship.

On the pitch, one other seismic change comes on the touchline on the champions, as Sonia Bompastor replaces Emma Hayes. Bompastor is charged with persevering with Chelsea’s unprecedented dominance, Hayes having gained a fifth title in a row earlier than departing for the US, the place she duly led her new workforce to Olympic gold in the summertime.

These are massive sneakers to fill, particularly when the chasing pack is getting nearer and nearer. Manchester Metropolis missed out on the title attributable to objective distinction final season, whereas Arsenal lead the WSL by way of attendances by some margin however must be extra aggressive over the season to take the title race all the best way. Arsenal and Metropolis’s opening conflict on the Emirates on Sunday must be illustrative of who can lead the problem.

Led by its chief government Nikki Doucet, the brand new WPLL possession can be watching and weighing up the selections that would take the WSL to a different stage. And, like at Chelsea, the query is whether or not they resolve to depart one period behind as a way to embark on one other.