Women’s Teams Being Used as Pawns for the Benefit of Men

Chelsea. Aston Villa. Maybe Manchester United, maybe more. All heavyweights of the football world who have financial issues. Despite being three of the biggest clubs in England, finances for each club have been a huge issue in recent years, with Chelsea still under relatively new ownership and Manchester United under partial new ownership.

A way that Chelsea and Aston Villa have looked to solve their financial issues is by finding loopholes to bring money into the club. Chelsea have exploited a loophole in the transfer system, giving players huge contracts such as Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez being given nine year contracts and Mykhailo Mudryk being given an eight and a half year contract in recent years. This is to protect the assets that they have and in turn, maintain the value of their players for an extended amount of time.

Cole Palmer signs for Chelsea

Another way in which Chelsea, Villa, and Everton have exploited loopholes in the transfer market is by buying and selling young players among themselves for large fees. For example, Omari Kellyman moved from Aston Villa to Chelsea for £19 million, despite making just six first team appearances beforehand. For context, he hasn’t made a single appearance for Chelsea since signing. Likewise, Lewis Dobbin went from Everton to Villa for roughly £10 million and hasn’t featured since. These sales and purchases are allegedly made to limit the losses that each team made that season. The sale of homegrown players is seen as ‘pure profit’, which is why these players have been sold for such high fees, a move that is, at the very least, controversial.

Chelsea also sold two hotels to their parent company to remain compliant with profit and sustainability (PSR) rules for a reported £76.5 million.

But how else are teams looking to find loopholes to bring money into their clubs to favour the men’s teams?

Women’s Teams for Sale

We know that American businessman Todd Boehly (who owns Chelsea FC Holdings) didn’t know the first thing about football when he took over from Roman Abramovich.

The club has constantly been on the brink of breaking PSR and has had to come up with elaborate methods to bring in money to the club. In April, it was announced that Chelsea FC Holdings had sold their women’s team to their own parent company (BlueCo 22) for almost £200 million. The reason behind this is to bring in profit to their accounts and consequently finish the financial year with a £128.4 million profit, rather than the £90.1 million loss they were projected. Without the sale, Chelsea would have breached PSR rules, potentially costing the club a big points deduction ahead of next season.

Chelsea Women's Team

 Chelsea’s women’s team is one of the most successful in history, with eight league titles, six FA Cups and two League Cups, as well as being one of the founding members of the Women’s Super League in 2011.

With the sale of the club to benefit the men’s team, however, it feels as though they are being undervalued and used as a pawn to benefit the men’s team’s finances, rather than being respected in their own right.

Granted, this doesn’t actually impact them on the pitch, however, it proves that Chelsea are willing to do anything to their women’s team in order to benefit the men’s team, a worrying trend going forward.

Aston Villa have done the same thing this year with the sale of ‘Aston Villa Women’s Football Club’ to V Sports, the club’s parent company. This, like Chelsea before them, brought in huge profits and went towards the men’s team’s accounts.

What’s the Issue?

Women have had to fight to be respected in football for a number of years and the recent successes of the Lionesses have gone a long way in putting women’s football on the map. Winning the Euros in 2022 and coming runners-up in the World Cup in 2023 has seen an increased interest in the women’s game like never before. Clubs are certainly putting more emphasis on the women’s game in recent years, with women’s teams playing more games at the home stadiums of the men’s teams to allow more supporters, notably Arsenal women’s team, who will play all of their home games at the Emirates Stadium next season.

The issue with what Chelsea and Aston Villa have done, however, is that they have treated their women’s teams as assets, rather than entities in their own right. It brings into question whether, going forward, these women’s teams will actually be invested in, or will they continue to be moved around like pawns to benefit the men’s teams.

Women are being used as assets to aid the men's teams

If they have been sold to a sister company once, what’s stopping this from happening again in the future when the men’s team needs a financial boost? If the men’s team cannot be financially compliant in their own right due to overspending, do something about it. If they have to sell off assets that the club doesn’t want to, so be it. A star player could be sold for millions of pounds, not only bringing in money to the club itself, but also getting that player’s wages off the books.

Instead, clubs are willing to sell their women’s clubs as assets, move them around like pawns on a chessboard for the benefit of men’s teams. It’s a worrying trend for the women’s game, and only time will tell the true impact that it could have.