GENEVA — When Arsenal parades the club’s trophies won this season through north London on Sunday, the women’s team will share the spotlight.
While the men’s team is champion of England — and maybe Europe after the Champions League final on Saturday — the women’s team is also a world champion.
The inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup was won in January and the Gunners’ management wants that success to be feted.
“We are one club,” Arsenal chief commercial officer Juliet Slot told an audience of women’s soccer leaders at a UEFA-hosted conference.
A clear message at the annual “UEFA Business Case for Women’s Football” event held in Oslo was to view the sport as one, and not separate by gender.
“I actually think that’s a big statement and that it should be like that,” former Arsenal player Johan Djourou told the Associated Press of the bus parade plans.
“If a club promotes both at the same time, that we do the parade together, it’s huge,” added Djourou, the technical director of Switzerland’s women’s national teams.
UEFA’s chief of women’s football, Nadine Kessler and UEFA deputy general secretary Giorgio Marchetti host the UEFA Euro 2025 European women’s soccer championship final draw at the Swiss Tech Convention Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. Credit: AP/Laurent Cipriani
The conference brought together industry leaders ahead of the UEFA Women’s Champions League final last Saturday between two powers, Barcelona and OL Lyonnes.
Clubs driving change
UEFA created a women’s European club competition in 2001 and the first title games featured independent clubs. FFC Frankfurt was the first champion, beating Umeå of Sweden which won titles in 2003 and ’04.
Germany’s Turbine Potsdam won in 2005 and ’10 and the last indie to reach a final, 2015 champion Frankfurt, later merged with the city’s men’s club Eintracht.
“I always thought the women’s game would change gear the moment that the big men’s clubs buy in,” UEFA deputy secretary general Giorgio Marchetti said.
Barcelona’s Salma Paralluelo scores her side’s fourth goal during the Women’s Champions League final soccer match between FC Barcelona and OL Lyonnes, in Oslo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. Credit: AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth
Marchetti praised long-time Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas as a visionary who saw the value of investing in a women’s team. Lyon won a record eight Women’s Champions Leagues from 2011-22, and lost two of the past three finals to Barcelona.
Independent clubs were financially steamrolled as storied names like Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus entered the arena since 2017.
A rare challenge to the new reality is coming from United States investor Michele Kang, now the owner at Lyon — rebranded as OL Lyonnes — and trying to make progress with London City Lionesses, which she bought in 2023.
Arsenal is approaching its 40th season, and increasingly plays games at the club’s 60,000-seat stadium.
“Treat women’s football as an investment. Invest with patience,” club director Slot advised the UEFA-invited audience, suggesting also “never give away free tickets” to games.
Transfer fees rising
The world record transfer fee in women’s soccer has more than doubled in two years.
Arsenal set a record last year paying 1 million pounds (then $1.34 million) for Canada forward Olivia Smith from Liverpool, then Orlando Pride went to $1.5 million signing Lizbeth Ovalle from Mexico’s Tigres UANL.
Tigres executive Carlos Valenzuela told the Oslo audience money from a player sale to Chelsea funded its youth teams down to under-13 level. That was U.S. international Mia Fishel’s move in 2023 for a reported $250,000.
Barcelona’s Xavier O’Callaghan said technical support such as doctors and analysts for the women’s team is “getting closer” to the men’s level. He cautioned, “It’s almost impossible to keep everyone happy 100%.”
Women’s Euros developing the game
Women’s soccer still offers good value as the game grows fast, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin insisted: “It is relatively cheap if you compare to the men’s football still. You should invest.”
UEFA’s marquee event driving growth is the European Championship that Germany will host in 2029.
Ceferin quipped that Nadine Kessler, the Germany great who is UEFA director of women’s soccer, promised that that tournament will at least break even financially.
The 2025 edition was a big success, even a surprising one, in Switzerland that UEFA subsidized with about 25 million euros ($29 million). Djourou sees at least a five-year path to develop the domestic club game.
“I cannot say to you that today the stadiums are packed because of the Euros,” Djourou told the AP. “There are more girls playing. It’s been positive but not to the point where I can say that we’ve seen a significant difference.”
Promoting women leaders
“When it comes to, for example, women in leadership positions we know that it’s a bit stuck,” said Lise Klaveness, president of the progressive Norwegian soccer federation that promotes equal representation in boardrooms.
Klaveness and Laura McAllister of Wales — both former internationals — are the only women on the 21-member UEFA executive committee.
UEFA’s Marchetti noted the clear direction of travel, while cautioning: “The worst mistake would be to become impatient and say, ‘This is not enough.’”
Three-time Women’s Euros title-winning coach Sarina Wiegman said on stage with Klaveness and Marchetti the soccer industry had to catch up.
“Society is ready for women in football in every position, male or female football,” England coach Wiegman said, “but the football world itself is not ready yet. That is why you need women in the boardroom.”
