Apple TV’s hit show “Ted Lasso” wrapped its fourth season early this month, leaving the door open for a fifth — and a potentially brutal reality check for the fictional AFC Richmond’s women’s team.
After securing promotion, the Lady Greyhounds will be competing in England’s Women’s Super League (WSL), going toe-to-toe with established powerhouses such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United, if in fact there will be another season.
The problem? Believing, as Lasso is wont to do, might get you promoted, but it won’t necessarily keep you in the top league.
In the real world, no amount of homemade biscuits or inspirational locker-room speeches can compensate for the financial firepower required to compete in one of the world’s strongest women’s soccer leagues. If Richmond wants to survive, Rebecca Welton (played by Hannah Waddingham) will have to start opening the vaults of the club and writing checks with at least five zeros.
For this exercise, we are treating the fictional club as if it were in the real world. The purpose: to share where exactly investment in women’s soccer is right now.
Much like some clubs in the lower divisions of English women’s football, Richmond assembled a squad of castoffs, overlooked young talents and even a mother of two who had never played professionally before becoming the team’s captain. On television, Lasso’s signature optimism, unconventional coaching methods and seemingly limitless supply of motivational speeches were enough to turn this unlikely collection of players into promotion contenders. But the real life WSL is a different beast.
“At the bottom end of the WSL, you can see teams that are spending maybe similar to what the top end of the second division are spending, but that zone is at constant risk of relegation,” Jasmine Robinson, the managing partner of Monarch Collective, the $150 million fund that invests exclusively in women’s sports, told The Athletic. Monarch Collective has invested in three NWSL clubs (Angel City FC, San Diego Wave and Boston Legacy FC) as well as Germany’s Union Berlin.
“Whereas the upper end, teams like Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City and London City are spending real multiples above the bottom end of the league.”
While the gap between the top of the WSL table and bottom is shrinking, as per my colleague Megan Feringa’s latest reporting, top clubs in the league are spending a lot more to stay on top.
Take Chelsea FC women: the club have eight league titles and a wage bill of nearly $ 20million (£15m) as of 2024-25. The London-based club made the headlines when they signed the USWNT defender Naomi Girma for a then-record breaking transfer fee of $1.1 million from the NWSL’s San Diego Wave in January 2025.
But Chelsea is hardly the only club commanding serious money in England.
That summer, Arsenal broke Chelsea’s record by signing Liverpool’s striker Olivia Smith for $1.3 million. Last January, Manchester City secured 27-year-old U.S. women’s national team defender Sam Coffey from Portland Thorns on a three-and-a-half-year contract through to 2029 for $875,000 (£651,000), plus add-ons. A few months ago, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw signed a new $2.15 million-per-year contract at Manchester City, excluding performance-related bonuses.
While the show has “The Lasso Way,” maybe it should take a page out of the “London City Lionesses Way.” The club was promoted to WSL after the 2023-2024 season. After a good run last season, finishing sixth, owner Michele Kang opened up the checkbook to turn the club into a real contender.
In July, Alexia Putellas, a two-time Ballon d’Or winner, World Cup winner and former Barcelona superstar, joined the club on a deal reportedly worth up to $1.9 million (£1.5million) annually, including bonuses and commercial agreements. Her former Barcelona teammate Mapi León also joined London City, as well as French soccer stars Kadidiatou Diani from OL Lyonnes and Grace Geyoro who left Paris Saint-Germain, bringing the club’s transfer fee spending across two seasons to at least $3.2 million (£2.4million). Kang is also building a state-of-the-art training facility for her team.
These are not clubs hoping to stumble upon the next undiscovered gem at a local park. They are increasingly sophisticated, well-capitalized operations investing heavily in established international talent. And they are spending at a pace that would have seemed almost unimaginable in women’s soccer just a few years ago. According to FIFA’s latest transfer report, women’s professional soccer shattered several financial records during the most recent mid-year transfer window. A record 1,406 international transfers were registered, a 19.2 per cent increase over the previous high.
More strikingly, spending on international transfer fees reached $28.6 million — more than double the amount recorded during the previous mid-year window.
English clubs spearheaded the spending spree, shelling out $8 million in transfer fees, followed by clubs in Spain ($6.6m), Germany ($4.9m), the U.S. ($2.9m) and Italy ($2.1m). On the receiving side of these fees, Sweden received $4.2 million, followed by England ($4m), France and Germany ($3.6m) and the Netherlands ($2.9m). While transfer fees and contracts are not at all comparable, those figures illustrate just how quickly the financial landscape of women’s soccer is changing and how expensive it has become to compete at the top.
Bringing in established talent comes with a hefty price tag, but for ambitious WSL clubs the investment can pay dividends on and off the pitch.
High-profile signings can attract new sponsors (such as London City’s Nike deal), boost ticket sales, increase merchandise revenue, and even could expand the club’s fanbase. More importantly, elite players can help transform a mid-table side into a genuine contender for UEFA’s Champions League, which is another revenue stream through participation payments, matchday income and additional commercial opportunities. Success in international competitions can, in turn, make a club more attractive to sponsors and potential players, creating a cycle in which sporting success fuels commercial growth.
“The important piece here is you have to know how to capture the commercial potential that you’re creating by building that Champions League competitive squad,” Robinson said. “I think you really have to be prepared to put the right commercial operation behind building a Champions League competitive squad.”
Competing in the Champions League does not come cheap. First there are travel costs, like airfare and lodging. There are different requirements for the stadiums, including lighting and other production-related items the team needs to manage.
“There are a lot of costs that end up going into it by competing there — you have to be prepared to really capture the commercial potential that comes with it, or it won’t be as big of a game for the team,” Robinson explained.
In other words, you need to spend money to make money.
But tying spending to revenue presents its own problems for most of these clubs still operating at a loss and remain financially dependent on their men’s counterpart. In order to regulate this spending spree, the WSL introduced Financial Sustainability Regulations (FSR) starting in the 2025-26 season, limiting total squad salary spending to 80 per cent of a club’s standalone revenue, plus owner cash funding up to $5.3 million (£4 million), or 25 per cent of revenue.
For Richmond, the numbers should be inspiring and terrifying. Perhaps they can swing the first season with the underdog theme, use Welton’s private jet and eat biscuits Lasso bakes for them. But, in the long run, they have to think strategically to stay on top. Another season of watching this team and Welton navigate those challenges would be refreshing.
And perhaps there is a way for them to survive. According to Robinson there are many non-economic factors that go into building a successful club. “Club culture matters just as much as salary and resources,” she explains. “Players want to join clubs that build strong fanbases, invest in content and storytelling to elevate their profile, and are located in the cities they want to live in. It’s no coincidence that so many WSL clubs are in London.”
That might be where AFC Richmond women have an advantage over some of its wealthier rivals.
After all, Lasso has built a culture players want to be part of, Keeley knows how to turn personalities into stars and the club has the appeal of being in London. Richmond has plenty to offer signings beyond a paycheck. But attracting talent is one thing — keeping up with the WSL’s biggest names is another.
“Ted Lasso” may have proved that a little belief can take a team a long way. But in the WSL, belief is free. Staying competitive most certainly is not.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Sports Business, Women's Soccer, Culture, Women's Super League
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