Why women's football deserves more financial support

For a long time, football was stereotypically male: men with beers in their hands watching men play on the pitch together with other men. Men commentate, men watch, men report, men are referees.

But there are signs of change: in 2022, Stéphanie Frappart, Salima Mukansanga and Yoshimi Yamashita were the first three female referees at the Men's World Cup. 932 million viewers switched on the TV for the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, 523 million of them for at least 20 minutes. A total of around 2 billion people came in touch with it via streams and other platforms. This makes the Women's World Cup the second most-watched football event in the world after the Men's World Cup.

And in Luxembourg? Here, the young women's national team was promoted to League B of the UEFA Nations League after a successful season. An achievement that FLF board member Carine Nardecchia is visibly pleased with: "The team and staff have put in a huge amount of work and it's great to see it bearing fruit so quickly." The Rout Léiwinnen first appeared in front of an international audience in 2006. Regular, well-organised training sessions were still a thing of the future back then. "They only ever came together sporadically, " recalls Nardecchia: "Once, twice or three times a year, if at all. Now it's every week and in all squads. We are in the process of laying a solid foundation here."