Soccer chiefs are to usher in Wall Road’s best-known funding financial institution to discover choices for financing the expansion of ladies’s soccer in England.
The challenge is at a really early stage, with additional particulars on the potential final result unclear this weekend.
The potential of promoting a stake within the WSL and the rebranded Championship – now often called WSL2 – has been explored prior to now, and could possibly be reviewed once more as executives search to capitalise on the game’s profile.
The England girls’s crew made historical past through the summer time by retaining their European Championships title after a penalty shootout within the Ultimate in opposition to Spain.
In the previous few months, each Chelsea and West Ham United have bought stakes of their girls’s groups to exterior buyers, with the previous hanging a cope with the husband of former tennis celebrity Serena Williams.
Deloitte, the accountancy agency which has been concerned in a string of outstanding latest sports activities offers, together with the sale of stakes within the eight Hundred cricket franchises, can also be mentioned to be being lined as much as work with the WSL Soccer board.
The spokesman declined to touch upon the involvement of Goldman Sachs or Deloitte.
On Friday night time, Chelsea surrendered their 100% document on the high of the WSL when Manchester United got here from behind to attract with the Londoners.
Within the WSL2, Birmingham Metropolis and Charlton Athletic lead the race for promotion to the highest tier.
The WSL Soccer board, which is chaired by media veteran Daybreak Airey and run by chief government Nikki Doucet, has secured a string of profitable business and broadcast partnerships within the final 12 months.
These have included offers with British Gasoline and Nike, in addition to a three-year title sponsorship extension with Barclays.
Based on Deloitte’s annual evaluation of soccer finance, the 12 WSL golf equipment generated mixture income of £65m in 2023-24, a 34% enhance on the prior season’s determine of £48m.
This rise was, in keeping with the report, pushed by income development at Arsenal and Chelsea, though each top-flight membership recorded double-digit will increase in whole income.
In attendance phrases, WSL’s common and cumulative crowds in 2024-25 had been barely down, however this was offset by will increase in attendances at second-tier matches, that means that throughout the 2 divisions, final season was flat with an total cumulative attendance of simply over 1.1 million.
The upcoming appointment of Goldman comes four-and-a-half years after rival funding financial institution Rothschild was employed to undertake the same evaluation, with the sale of a stake to non-public fairness buyers into consideration for months earlier than being deserted.
Goldman Sachs declined to remark.
