Hello and welcome to Women’s Sport Insider! 

We’re stepping things up in 2026. From now on, this newsletter will land in your inbox every two weeks – alternating between in-depth features on the trends and developments shaping women’s sport, and interviews with industry leaders offering perspective on the challenges and opportunities ahead. 

To kick off the year, we’ll be looking at the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup – the latest addition to the women’s sport calendar. The semi-finals, final and play-offs are taking place in London next week, but what exactly is the tournament and why has it been introduced? We’ve got the full breakdown in today’s edition.

Lyon, 2 July 2019. Inside a packed stadium, 53,500 fans are gripped by a thrilling FIFA Women’s World Cup semi-final between the United States and England. Just past the half-hour mark, with the score finely balanced at 1-1, Lindsey Horan drifts an inch-perfect cross into the penalty box. Alex Morgan times her run to perfection, rises above the defence and powers a header beyond England goalkeeper Carly Telford to put the US ahead. 

As she wheels off to celebrate with her teammates, Morgan pauses for a second to raise her hand to her mouth with her pinkie finger sticking out, miming a sip of tea. The gesture instantly lodges itself in the cultural fabric of women’s football, winding up England supporters and delighting fans in the US. It is now an enduring symbol of the growing rivalry between the two countries. 

The latest chapter in this rivalry may be written this month during the inaugural Women’s Champions Cup. The tournament brings together the champions of FIFA’s six continental confederations, but representatives from Oceania and Asia – Auckland United and Wuhan Jiangda respectively – were eliminated in the opening rounds late last year.  

In the semi-finals at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium on Wednesday, 28 January, European champions Arsenal will face Morocco’s AS FAR, while Brazilian side Corinthians will play New York-based Gotham FC.  

The final will then be staged at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, 1 February, and may offer the tournament’s most intriguing possibility – a WSL versus NWSL matchup, with bragging rights attached.  

At the turn of the century, the United States stood as the dominant force in women’s football, having lifted the World Cup in 1991 and again in 1999. Although the path to a sustainable professional league was rocky in the years that followed, the US was still seen as the best place to play football and perhaps even earn a professional wage. As a result, many of Europe’s leading players crossed the Atlantic to pursue their careers. 

Over the past 25 years, the gap between the US and the rest of the world has shrunk, and England’s Women’s Super League is now arguably a more desirable destination than the NWSL. A rigid salary cap and the introduction of full free agency in the NWSL, combined with surging wage growth in Europe’s top leagues, have altered the landscape. So too have the irresistible pull of the UEFA Women’s Champions League and the influence of US head coach Emma Hayes, who won seven WSL titles with Chelsea between 2012 and 2024.  

As a result, American stars are being drawn to the WSL. Alyssa Thompson, Naomi Girma and Sam Coffey are among the most recent arrivals, while the NWSL are pulling out all the stops to prevent Trinity Rodman, one of the US’s biggest names, from following in their footsteps. 

So, why is this relevant? Well, supporters of the WSL and NWSL both argue their league is the world’s best – and now, for perhaps the first time, those claims feel too close to call. With the introduction of the Women’s Champions Cup this year, fans may finally get the chance to see that debate partly settled in a competitive setting. 

Even if the WSL’s leading representative is replaced by another European heavyweight such as Barcelona or Lyon in future editions, the tournament still sets two competing leagues – and the structures and philosophies underpinning them – against one another. Women’s football could soon have a transatlantic rivalry fiercer and more compelling than ever seen before. The Women’s Champions Cup could spark new rivalries between other confederations too, while allowing supporters from every region to discover teams and star players they otherwise might not have come across. 

That, of course, is precisely why FIFA has introduced the competition. It produces new storylines for the women’s game, generates greater interest, creates fresh commercial opportunities and – ultimately – drives further growth.   

These factors make the Women’s Champions Cup feel not only more relevant, but arguably more intriguing than the men’s equivalent, which has now evolved into the expanded Club World Cup. Yet FIFA still has work to do to establish it as an eye-catching event in an already crowded calendar.

Even with elite clubs involved and marquee fixtures on offer, FIFA reportedly struggled to sell broadcast rights for the tournament and has only just announced where fans can watch matches. For a competition designed to elevate women’s club football, any uncertainty over where and how supporters can engage risks stalling momentum before it truly begins. 

Scheduling is another key challenge, particularly when clubs are entering the competition at different points in their domestic seasons. Arsenal and AS FAR, for example, are competing mid-campaign, with all the physical demands that brings. Gotham FC and Corinthians, by contrast, are in pre-season, still building sharpness and cohesion but potentially less fatigued.  

The scheduling issues also threw up challenges around where to host the semi-finals and final. According to the Guardian, Gotham FC wanted to host the tournament in New York, but Arsenal were unwilling to travel mid-season. As such, Arsenal now benefit from continuity and minimal disruption, while teams coming from further afield must contend with long-haul flights, time-zone shifts and unfamiliar surroundings. If the host nation is routinely determined by which teams are in-season, the competitive balance may tilt towards those sides.  

These challenges are not unique to the Women’s Champions Cup – it is simply the reality of coordinating club competitions across continents –  but it could influence the quality and intensity of the matches, the conclusions fans draw from them and the overall success of the tournament. 

That is particularly relevant given the broader context. The Women’s Champions Cup is not just a standalone event, but part of FIFA’s plans to stage an expanded Women’s Club World Cup in 2028. In principle, that offers a major opportunity – a global stage that could bring greater investment, wider audiences and higher-level competition.

But it also raises understandable questions around workload, player welfare and fan travel, especially as women’s football continues to professionalise at speed. The WSL has warned that hosting the tournament in the proposed January window could be ‘catastrophic’, while supporters’ groups have highlighted the importance of ensuring any new competitions are developed sustainably and with the needs of both players and fans in mind. 

The reports suggesting Qatar could host the first Women’s Club World Cup in 2028 have added another layer of debate. Women’s football has grown with inclusivity at its core, with LGBTQ+ players and fans forming a visible and vital part of its culture. Staging a flagship event in a country where that community faces significant restrictions would inevitably feel contentious.

There are also sporting questions. While such events can accelerate the growth of the women’s game in the host country – and that is very welcome in the MENA region – Qatar currently has no active women’s national team and is not ranked by FIFA. This raises doubts about how committed the country would be to capitalising on the opportunity of hosting the Women's Club World Cup. 

For now, however, the Women’s Champions Cup will still be watched with curiosity and, in most quarters, genuine excitement. It offers the chance to spark new rivalries, introduce supporters to unfamiliar teams and players, and grow the women’s game even further. But if the competition is to truly take hold, its success will depend not only on the football itself, but on whether its delivery feels credible, accessible and authentic to the audience it is trying to win.