New sponsor to help 460 clubs in Women’s FA Cup market themselves with AI app

Teams at every step of the pyramid will be encouraged to embrace AI as part of a new partnership the Football Association’s director of women’s football hopes will help boost attendances at overlooked local clubs.

On Thursday the FA announced a new three-year deal which will see tech company Adobe take over as title sponsor for the Women’s FA Cup, which this year boasts a doubled prize pot from £3million to £6m.

But while the women’s game has witnessed unprecedented recent growth, particularly following the Lionesses’ Euro 2022 triumph, Baroness Sue Campbell admits clubs below the top tiers have not equally benefitted from the boost.

The FA’s director of women’s football told the PA news agency: “If you’re talking about Newcastle in tier three, they’re getting 20,000 people through the gates already, but you could also be talking about another club at tier three who are lucky if they get two people at a game.

“So we’ve got a long way to go still to get people to commit to come. There are a lot of lessons to learn by looking around, we’ve really done some good looks across at the United States where they get massive audiences for relatively low-tier games, but I think there’s a different culture in the way Americans either play sport or watch it.

“So we are having to build that culture of attending women’s games. The volume of interest is just growing and growing (but) people aren’t used to going and looking at their local women’s team.

“I think that’s what part of this (partnership) is about, using the FA Cup to connect clubs with their local population, their local community, looking at how they generate content which excites people to want to come, which gives them an interest in the individuals that are playing.”

Today’s attendance was an outstanding 22,134, which breaks our previous record set in January!

Massive thank you to everyone who turned up!