EFD will lose two major sponsors at the turn of the year: Svenska Spel and OBOS, the top division’s title sponsor. Together, they have contributed 24 million kronor (about $2.3 million) a year to women’s football. In addition, no television deal is in place for next season.
Earlier this week, the Uppsala club announced that it was throwing in the towel for financial reasons, and EFD Secretary General Jenny Hermansson is worried that more clubs will face the same situation.
She is particularly concerned about smaller clubs that rely solely on their women’s teams, unlike, for example, Malmö FF or Hammarby.
“You can’t ignore that; it’s clear you have to be worried. The conditions are quite different between clubs, but many will have a very tough time. For others, it won’t be as noticeable,” says Hermansson.
“Incredibly important”
Despite concerns about next year, EFD’s chair is optimistic in the longer term. She sees several positive signs, including rising transfer fees. Earlier this year, Felicia Schröder became the world’s most expensive female player when she left Häcken for Real Madrid.
We are seeing transfer revenue starting to come in, which we think is incredibly important. It means new money is coming into the system and can then be reinvested.
At the same time, Swedish women’s football has increasingly become a feeder for the biggest leagues. And as Swedish women’s football loses its star players, it seems audiences are still struggling to fill the stands.
Hermansson describes last year’s stated goal of doubling attendance in two years as “a bit naive.” Instead, attendance figures have fallen by just over 15 percent this year, with the average below 800 spectators per match.
We are doing a huge amount of work now, including a major review of the fixture schedule. We may need to avoid scheduling women’s matches when other sports are taking place, such as SHL (Sweden’s top ice hockey league) or Allsvenskan (Sweden’s top football league).
More people deserve to see the good football we have in the league. It’s clear that average attendance needs to be higher, and we are working hard to achieve that. Attendance figures are very important; they also affect the atmosphere at the whole event,” says Hermansson.
“Racing against time”
She also confirms information reported by Expressen earlier this week: EFD has laid off some staff while holding concrete negotiations over new sponsorship and television deals.
We are racing against time; the contracts expire at the end of the year. 2027 could be tough, but in the long term I feel very positive, because there is genuine interest.
Saturday: Brommapojkarna–Växjö, Malmö FF–AIK, Rosengård–Vittsjö, Uppsala–Kristianstad, Eskilstuna–Norrköping.
Sunday: Häcken–Hammarby, Djurgården–Piteå.