7 Success Lessons From the Rise of Women’s Football

For most of the last century, women’s football was treated as a sideshow. In England it was effectively banned for fifty years. Players trained after full-time jobs, paid their own travel costs and played in front of a few hundred people, if they were lucky.

Today, women’s matches sell out the biggest stadiums in the world. In 2022, 87,192 fans packed Wembley for the Women’s Euro final, a record for any European Championship game, men’s or women’s. A year later, nearly two million people attended the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

That turnaround did not happen by accident. It is one of the best comeback stories in modern sport, and it is full of lessons for anyone trying to build something from nothing, whether that is a business, a career or a personal goal. Here are seven of them.

1. Start Before Anyone Gives You Permission

On Boxing Day 1920, a women’s team called Dick, Kerr Ladies played at Goodison Park in Liverpool in front of around 53,000 people. Less than a year later, the Football Association banned women from playing on its members’ grounds. The ban stayed in place until 1971.

The women who kept playing during those decades did not wait for approval. They organised their own matches on public parks, raised their own money and kept the game alive for the next generation.

Most big goals start the same way. Nobody hands you a stadium, a budget or a green light. You start with what you have, where you are, and you build the proof that eventually makes people take you seriously.

2. Small Stages Build Big Careers

When Benfica launched its women’s team in 2018, it did not start at the top. The club entered Portugal’s second division and spent its first season playing on small grounds against part-time sides. Within three seasons, Benfica were national champions, and soon after they were playing in the Champions League.

That pattern repeats right across the women’s game. Look at the women’s league fixtures and scores in a second tier like Portugal’s II Divisão and you will find players who are working day jobs, studying and training in the evenings. Some of them will be international players within a few years.

The lesson is simple: the small stage is not a waste of time. It is where you sharpen your skills while the pressure is low, make your mistakes cheaply and build the habits that carry you when the spotlight finally arrives.

3. Consistency Beats Hype

Women’s football did not grow because of one viral moment. It grew because leagues kept playing, clubs kept investing and players kept turning up, week after week, long before the crowds and TV deals arrived.

The headline moments, such as the 91,553 fans who watched Barcelona play Real Madrid at Camp Nou in 2022, were built on years of unglamorous work that nobody filmed.

It is the same in any field. One great launch, one big client or one good month will not make you successful. Showing up consistently, even when nobody is watching, is what makes the big moments possible.

4. Turn Doubters Into Fuel

For years, women footballers were told the same things: nobody will watch, nobody will pay, nobody will sponsor it. Every packed stadium since then has been an answer to those doubters.

Criticism hurts, but it can also give you clarity. When someone says something cannot be done, it tells you exactly what you need to prove. The players who changed the women’s game did not argue with the critics. They simply kept performing until the argument was over.

If people doubt your idea, do not waste energy trying to convince them with words. Let your results do it.

5. Build a Team, Not Just a Talent

Football is a team sport, and the rise of the women’s game was a team effort too. Players, coaches, volunteers, club owners, journalists and fans all played a part. No single star could have done it alone.

Even the greatest individual players rely on the people around them. If you have ever read through some motivational Lionel Messi quotes, you will notice how often he puts the team ahead of his personal records.

Whatever you are building, surround yourself with people who share the mission and bring skills you do not have. Talent opens the door, but a strong team is what keeps you in the room.

6. Invest When Others Won’t

The clubs and organisations that backed women’s football early, when it looked like a risk, are the ones reaping the rewards now. Governing bodies have also shifted their thinking. FIFA’s women’s football programmes now fund development, leagues and coaching around the world, something that would have been hard to imagine a few decades ago.

Being early is uncomfortable. People question your judgement and the returns take time. But the biggest opportunities are usually found where others are not looking yet.

Whether it is a skill, a market or a relationship, be willing to invest before the crowd arrives. By the time something is obviously a good idea, the best opportunities have often gone.

7. Play for the Next Generation

Ask many of today’s top women players why they kept going in the hard years, and you will often hear the same answer: they wanted girls coming after them to have it easier.

That bigger purpose is powerful. It gets you through the early mornings, the rejections and the setbacks, because the goal is bigger than you.

When your motivation is only about yourself, it is easy to quit when things get tough. When you are doing it for your family, your community or the people who will follow you, quitting becomes much harder.

Final Thoughts

The rise of women’s football shows what is possible when people refuse to accept the limits other people set for them. A game that was once banned and ignored now fills the world’s biggest stadiums.

You do not need a stadium to apply these lessons. Start before you feel ready, respect the small stages, stay consistent, use doubt as fuel, build a strong team, invest early and keep a purpose that is bigger than you. Do that for long enough, and the crowds tend to show up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was women’s football banned in England?

In 1921, the Football Association banned women’s teams from playing on its members’ grounds, claiming the game was unsuitable for women. The real effect was to stop a sport that was drawing huge crowds. The ban was not lifted until 1971.

What is the biggest crowd for a women’s football match?

One of the best-known records is the 91,648 fans who watched Barcelona play Wolfsburg at Camp Nou in April 2022, a few weeks after 91,553 had watched Barcelona play Real Madrid at the same stadium.

What can entrepreneurs learn from women’s football?

Mainly that lasting success is built slowly. Consistent effort, a strong team, early investment and a clear purpose turned women’s football from an afterthought into a global sport, and the same principles apply to building a business.