WSL announces Hall of Fame to mark 10-year anniversary

The Women’s Super League will celebrate its 10-year anniversary

(Getty Images)

The Football Association has announced the launch of the Women’s Super League Hall of Fame to commemorate its 10-year anniversary.

The first stars to be inducted will be announced before the start of the 2021/22 season and an expert panel will put together a short list of nominees, the FA said.

Tuesday marks the exact day since the WSL first kicked off in a 2010 1-0 win for Arsenal over Chelsea which was watched by 2,510 fans.

Since then the WSL has attracted a record crowd of 38,262 in a 2-0 North London derby win for Arsenal over Tottenham at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last season.

Kelly Simmons, the FA’s director of the women’s professional game, will chair the panel who will make up the shortlist of HoF nominees.

She said: “We are aligned with the clubs on an ambition - we want it to be the best women’s football league in the world. We’re coming out with our women’s professional game strategy shortly.

“The headlines of that are in the overall women’s strategy - that we’re going to be focused on developing and attracting world-class talent, growing our audiences and growing revenue to ultimately make the league sustainable.

“We’ve come a tremendous way but all the focus is on looking forward.”

The league went fully professional in 2018 when Barclays became its title sponsor and the WSL has recently agreed a landmark broadcasting deal with the BBC and Sky.

Simmons added this is contributing to the goal of the WSL surviving without money from the men’s game in the next 10 years.

She said: “I think the big change for me will be that the women’s game should be able to generate enough revenue in 10 years to stand on its own two feet.

“At the moment it is growing revenue, but it’s not yet sustainable, it can’t survive without money made through men’s football, and I think over 10 years we’ll see that change. Revenues will grow and ultimately we should be looking at a sustainable professional league in its own right, and that will be a big shift.”

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