Women’s football fandom and growing the ‘Beautiful’ game

We are now living in a ‘new age’ of women’s football. Petty and Pope (2019) argue that this was first initiated by the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, when they found evidence that there was a shift towards substantial, positive media coverage of women’s football in the United Kingdom. In 2019, a record 1.12 billion people watched the FIFA Women’s World Cup. And the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, hosted by Australia and New Zealand, offers an opportunity to build on this momentum, further propelling women’s football into the spotlight and advancing a long overdue gender revolution. This special issue is dedicated to advancing the health and performance of women’s football players. These operate cyclically with fandom – the more we can improve the health and performance levels of players, the more we can improve the ‘product’ of women’s football and thus increase the fanbase, and vice versa, growing the fanbase and media coverage around the women’s game has implications for sponsorship and investment in the sport, consequently helping to improve the health and performance levels of players. Drawing on our research in England and the U.S., we offer some solutions for growing the fan base.