Disappointed but not surprised.
It’s a feeling women’s football fans are all too familiar with. So, when the BBC announced it was cancelling ‘The Women’s Football Show’, I, like many other fans, felt overcome with frustration, disappointment and concern.
At first, the decision felt like another step backwards for the women’s game. Women’s football has spent years fighting for visibility and recognition, so when a programme that has been part of the BBC’s coverage for more than a decade is cancelled, it’s difficult not to see it as a setback.
‘The Women’s Football Show’ first aired in 2013, giving women’s football a regular place on the BBC at a time when dedicated coverage was far more limited. It represented the notion that women’s football was worthy of dedicated coverage, analysis, storytelling and discussion, rather than featuring as an afterthought. By establishing a regular broadcast presence, the show improved the sport’s visibility and helped position women’s football as a sport worth taking seriously. Despite all of this, the show was still axed.
When this decision is viewed as ‘black and white’, it’s unsurprising that fans are up in arms. My gut reaction was also the same. Yet, after taking a moment to reflect and think rationally, I found myself questioning my reaction. Was I disappointed about the loss of ‘The Women’s Football Show’, or was I disappointed by what the disappearance represented? The truth is, even as an avid women’s football fan, I don’t remember the last time I consciously stayed up until 11:30pm on a Sunday to watch it. I was unknowingly part of the problem the BBC is facing. The reality is that I was reacting to the loss of a programme that, for me, had come to symbolise the progress women’s football had made in securing its own space within mainstream broadcasting.
Although the programme was a powerful marker of visibility for the women’s game, the way football fans consume content has changed dramatically since the show first aired. I’m guilty of this myself, and I’m sure I’m not alone. By the time Sunday evening rolls around, even if I haven’t watched a game live, I’ve already seen the goals, key moments and talking points. Highlights appear on social media within minutes. Reactions are shared across social media, podcasts and news outlets. Discussions happen instantly through group chats. Even if I wanted to, I can’t avoid the highlights. So the idea of waiting until almost midnight to watch ‘catch up’ feels increasingly outdated and disconnected from the way modern football audiences engage with the sport.
So, is cancelling ‘The Women’s Football Show’ as bad as it first appeared?
Despite the cancellation of ‘The Women’s Football Show’, the BBC is not withdrawing all women’s football coverage. Instead, they’ve announced that they will be replacing the show with a dedicated women’s football YouTube channel, alongside expanded digital content, on-demand highlights and new analysis formats. Whether that proves to be the right decision is yet to be determined, but when we’re equipped with this knowledge, it feels less like abandonment and more like an attempt to respond to changing viewing habits. I would even go as far as to say that the BBC is actually demonstrating greater commitment to the women’s game, rather than less, and here’s why:
A late-night highlights programme exists once a week, while a dedicated digital platform has the potential to exist every day. It can react to breaking-news stories, publish content throughout the week and create a space for interviews, analysis and conversations that simply wouldn’t fit within the realms of traditional broadcasting. I don’t think it’s far-fetched to suggest that the BBC has recognised that community is at the heart of women’s football and is trying to build its coverage around that.
I also think we need to acknowledge that a lot of the growth around women’s football is happening in digital spaces. Admittedly, almost everything I’ve learnt about women’s football has been as a result of scrolling through social media, watching videos or doing my own research. Without those things, I wouldn’t be the fan I am today. I’m sure my experience isn’t unique either. For plenty of fans, especially those who have discovered the game in recent years, digital content is probably their first introduction to women’s football. That has to be worth something?
This, however, does not mean that there aren’t legitimate concerns about cancelling ‘The Women’s Football Show’. Despite the advantages of digital media and adapting to audience behaviour, there is still something valuable about occupying space on mainstream television, particularly at a time when so much sport is disappearing behind expensive subscriptions and pay walls, and this is why I still have some reservations.
The challenge with migrating everything online is that you have to already know where to look. If you follow women’s football, you’ll find the content. You’ll follow the accounts, subscribe to the YouTube channel and know where the highlights are. But what about everyone else? What about the casual viewer? ‘The Women’s Football Show’ wasn’t important solely because of the people who watched it. It was important because of the people who might have watched it. Following ‘Match of the Day’, it put women’s football in front of people who might not otherwise have gone looking for it. Someone could stumble across it, which is exactly why visibility within the mainstream football ecosystem carries some weight. That’s significantly harder to replicate online.
If the dedicated YouTube channel becomes a thriving hub for women’s football coverage, reaching fans who would never have watched a highlights show on BBC One, then this will look like a smart, forward-thinking decision. But if the game becomes less visible and more isolated from the broader football conversation, critics will be right to question whether something valuable has been lost.
I think that’s why I’m still conflicted about the decision. I’m genuinely sad to see ‘The Women’s Football Show’ disappear. It mattered to me, even if I wasn’t watching it every Sunday night. It symbolised progress. Women’s football had fought for that space on mainstream television, and losing it inevitably feels like a step backwards. At the same time, I can’t ignore the reality that my own football habits have changed, and I suspect I’m far from alone. As long as the game continues to be covered with ambition, visibility and investment, there’s no harm in trying new things.
The future of women’s football deserves more than a short highlights programme tucked away at the end of a Sunday night schedule. Maybe the answer is a YouTube channel, maybe it’s something different. We won’t know until we try, but women’s football has never shied away from challenging the ‘norms’, so why start now?
