Blackout
This weekend sees the resumption of the WSL following a Winter break in which Arsenal have had five weeks to stew over the humiliation of suffering a first ever North London Derby defeat. In that time, the players have travelled to Portugal for some warm-weather training, before last weekend's return to competitive action against Watford in the FA Cup, but in terms of league football there has been no opportunity to put right a defeat that stung. Arsenal fans, then, will be eager to see their team back in WSL action after a winter break that has felt like a mini-off-season.
Unless, they are one of the 4,000 odd in attendance at a sold-out Meadow Park on Saturday afternoon, they will have to wait a little longer. Why? Because televising the two 'o clock kick-off against Everton in full would contravene UEFA's article 48, more commonly known as the three o' clock blackout. The next logical question would be, why is the game being played during the blackout? Since the 2019/20 season, every WSL game has been available to watch live in one way or another; on a typical weekend, two or three games will be divvied up between Sky and the BBC for main TV coverage while the rest will be streamed via the FA's internal platform. Typically, WSL games are scheduled by default for the Sunday afternoon slot (most non-televised games take place at two or three), though there is no hard-and-fast rule with a lot of factors at play here. At the agreement of the clubs and the FA, this game was moved to the Saturday to alleviate pressure on the players, as both clubs have Conti Cup commitments this coming Wednesday. With the game not selected for TV, the kick-off time that had initially been set remained.
As for the blackout itself? The FA simply forgot.
Once the governing body realised that they had committed an act of self-sabotage that wouldn't look out of place at the round table on BBC One's The Traitors, it was decided that moving the game to a slot that would allow fans to actually watch it wouldn't be worth the trouble, due to the disruption that changing the game at such short notice would course. Given that Everton fans will have to make the trip to Kingsmeadow to play Chelsea at quarter to seven on a Sunday in a couple of weeks' time, match-going fans can at least be grateful that, for once, their best interests are being served. The Sunday evening slot is, in fairness, a good example of why scheduling games that suit everyone is easier said than done. To my mind, there are five main factors to consider:
1. Avoiding the three 'o clock blackout.
2. Avoiding clashes with big men's games that are likely to eat into a potential TV audience or create a conflict of interests for broadcasters.
3. Avoiding clashes with the men's games of the respective teams involved.
4. Playing games at a convenient time for match-going supporters.
5. Picking slots that are amenable to player recovery times.
On a non-international break weekend, points one to three will often cancel out point four. As Arsenal and Everton fans will be aware, games falling between quarter to two and quarter past five on a Saturday are off the table. The next problem is that Sky are the primary rightsholder in the UK for Premier League games: Saturday teatime and Sunday at half four are 'primetime' slots usually reserved for the biggest game of the weekend, while two 'o clock on Sunday also forms part of their 'Super Sunday' coverage. This means slim pickings in inconvenient slots like Sunday at noon or quarter to seven for WSL TV coverage, particularly if the games are on Sky, who will not countenance a clash with their own Premier League games. Between November and February Arsenal Women will have played six times at midday or half twelve and this will have included games against Manchester City (twice), Chelsea, Tottenham, and Manchester United. In seasons gone by, they have regularly been placed in the quarter to seven slot. The big clash of the weekend between last season's top two: Chelsea and Manchester United, will also occupy an early afternoon slot. Last season, a handful of games even kicked off before midday. On games that are televised on the BBC, who do not hold the rights to show the Premier League live, scheduling can be slightly more flexible, especially if the televised Premier League game they are going up against is Luton vs Burnley as opposed to Manchester City vs Liverpool.
With the growth of the game™ showing no sign of plateauing, the number of people who support and even regularly attend both the women's and men's games of their respective clubs is growing. In this regard, the scheduling of this Saturday's game causes even more frustration. Even if the women's game were being broadcast in the UK, it would be impossible to watch the games of both Arsenal senior teams on Saturday without double-screening. The men's game against Crystal will be in the 75th minute when the women's game against Everton is due to kick-off. I happen to come under the cross-section of people who like to attend both men's and women's games where possible. In this instance I have had to pick and choose. As I will be attending the Arsenal vs Crystal Palace game, it will be physically impossible for me to watch the WSL game against Everton live. In couple of weeks, the roles will be reverse when the women's FA Cup tie with Manchester City eats into the opening stages of the men's Premier League London derby at West Ham.
In fairness, this is the first time that games involving both Arsenal senior teams have taken place on the same day since March of last year, though it is the first of four 'double matchdays' to take place within the next month. For match-going fans in particular, these can be frustrating. In May 2022, I had to watch the drama of final day of the WSL season unfold from the Tollington pub outside Emirates Stadium before hot-footing it to the ground so as not miss the kick-off for a crucial match for the men's team who were chasing the top four at the time. It wasn't until halftime in the men's game that afternoon that I found out that Chelsea had pipped Arsenal to the title. When Arsenal last won the WSL title in 2019, it directly clashed with the men's team falling to a chastening 3-0 defeat Leicester in a high-stakes game, creating a strange conflict of emotions for fans of both teams.
It should also be said that the situation requires true collaboration between men's and women's football stakeholders. When West Ham reached their first ever Women's FA Cup final in 2019 - a landmark moment for the club, the clashing Premier League game involving their men's team that afternoon was not moved. After Euro 2022, Ian Wright called for greater collaboration to avoid clashes. Sometimes, these are unavoidable with so many moving parts – the scheduling of games of the men's teams of both clubs involved in a given WSL game, availability of stadiums that are often shared with lower-league men's clubs, policing (particularly if it is the men's game that is moved), as well as all the factors involving the TV companies that I have already mentioned, have to be taken into account.
Sometimes, double matchdays can provide a rare opportunity to support your club twice in one day. At the start of February, I will be attending the WSL game away to West Ham before dashing across the capital to make it to north London in time for a crucial showdown with Liverpool at the top of the Premier League.
The reality is that, for now, there is no perfect solution to the scheduling problem. Match-going fans appear, much like in the men's game, to be at bottom of the WSL's hierarchy of needs. TV companies dragging their feet to do not help here. The Premier League sets specific deadline for broadcast announcements, but no such hard deadline exists for the WSL, where games tend to me moved for tv coverage four or five weeks in advance as a general rule.
There is a potential solution to alleviate some of these issues, which takes us back to – you guessed it: Article 48. In her UK Government commissioned review into women's football, one of Karen Carney's recommendations called on The FA, the Premier League, the EFL, and broadcasters to carve out a new dedicated broadcast slot for women's football. The government response specifically refers to Article 48:
It is the government's view that revoking Article 48 for women's football alone is one viable option to support the women's game, and significantly increase its broadcast and commercial revenue. We recognise that there are challenges to this with the men's game, but it does not feel credible to hold the women's game back on this basis when it would generate significant revenue for a game that has lagged behind commercially.
The pros and cons to English and Scottish football's continued adherence to Article 48 (Montenegro are the only other UEFA member state to do so), needs a whole article in its own right, but the upshot of it is that the rule, at least in theory, is in place to protect non-league attendances in footballing ecosystem that is built on the strength in depth of its pyramid.
When the blackout was introduced, Women's Football was still banned in England, so, naturally, no consideration was given at the time to the effect the rule would have on the women's game specifically. You only need to compare the attendance at the average WSL game to attendances on a Premier League matchday that leagues like the WSL and Women's Championship are the very leagues that should be protected by the blackout rather than being hamstrung by it.
Opening up Saturday afternoons as a TV slot for women's football will not be a silver bullet for all scheduling problems, but the wriggle room provided to a league that only sees six games played per weekend would go a long way towards easing the situation. Under current rules, the blackout can only be enforced when a certain threshold is met in terms of how many games are played that afternoon. With no games taking place in the top two divisions of English men's football during men's international breaks, women's games can be televised in the sacred three 'o clock slot on these weekends.
While it is still subject to the blackout, noon and evening kick-offs in the WSL are here to stay. Removing the blackout seems like a logical step forward. For the FA, remembering it actually exists would be start.