World Sevens Football aiming to transform women's game – DW – 05/20/2025
Women's football is experiencing a surge — breaking attendance records, drawing new investment, and inspiring a new generation of players and fans.
Now World Sevens Football (W7F) , a new seven-a-side series, is aiming to take advantage of this boom. It is looking to bring faster, more dynamic matches to fans around the world, while giving players an opportunity for a significant financial reward.
However, the inaugural event, which is to take place in Estoril, Portugal from May 21-23, has been criticized for disrupting the Swedish league schedule for participants Rosengard, as well as adding to player workloads ahead of the Women's Euros in July.
Created to redefine the women's game
The idea for World Sevens Football came from the series' co-founders, entrepreneur Justin Fishkin and NY/NJ Gotham FC and Chelsea minority owner Jennifer Mackesy, with the latter having committed to an investment of US $100 million (€88,7 million) over five years. They have not disclosed how much other shareholders may have invested.
"This project has come from our (Fishkin and Macksey's) shared passion for women's football and the new formats that are proliferating through various sports around the world," Fishkin told DW.
The games are to feature two 15-minute halves on a pitch half the size of a standard 11-a-side field. The smaller pitch was set up within the multi-use Antonio Coimbra da Mota Stadium, including custom-made areas for fans, activations and entertainment to help differentiate the atmosphere from a regular football game.
In an age of digital-first entertainment, the shorter format and smaller pitch, as has also been tried on the men's side, is ideally suited to attract younger fans, Fishkin believes.
"The emerging sports fan globally is less inclined to sit down for 90 minutes and watch a game," he said. "Seven-a-side is made for social media. It's familiar, fast, and accessible."
Putting players first
One of the series' defining features is its player-centric approach. The Player Advisory Council, is made up of current and former players, including names like Tobin Heath, Anita Asante and Caroline Seger.
Former Swedish international Seger told DW the purpose of the advisory council was to help shape player care and welfare, the competition strategy, and make a positive long-term impact on the players and clubs.
"It's very important to see it from the players' perspective, because normally everyone else is making decisions above the players' heads," she explained.
"Anything, from travelling, to the facilities, how the game should be played, what players want to eat after a game. Sometimes it's small things but they're all important."
Fishkin echoed the reasoning behind adopting the Player Advisory Council.
"It was critical to us that this be a player-centric competition." he said. "We needed it to be designed by people who know and love the game."
Financial rewards significant
Clubs will be allowed to bring a squad of 25, with 14 being eligible to play per match. The tournament prize pool is $5 million, including $2.5 million for the winners – significantly more than the €1.4 million the Champions League victors are to earn.
Georgia Stanway will feature for Bayern Munich in the inaugural World Sevens Football tournament Image: David Inderlied/Kirchner-Media/IMAGO
The prize money for the top four teams is to be divided between clubs, and their players and staff, with the exact distribution determined by each club, while the teams that finish fifth to eighth will receive a participation fee, and the tournament's organizers are to pay for each team's flights and accommodation.
"You'll see that 40% of the prize monies are going directly to players and staff," Fishkin said. "We've had teams where captains have said, 'We wanted to make sure everyone (all first team players at the club) gets paid, not just the players that participate.' and that's being driven from the players up to management.'
Swedish league schedule clash
The financial rewards drew immediate interest from the inaugural eight teams, which include Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Ajax and Roma.
However, as World Sevens Football is a series that has not been sanctioned by either FIFA or UEFA and is therefore outside of the world football calendar, decisions on participation rest solely at the discretion of the clubs.
With the competition not being part of the football calendar, Swedish club Rosengard have had to request to move their first division league match against Hacken that is scheduled for May 24, to participate in the inaugural event in Portugal.
This has drawn criticism from Swedish league leaders Hammarby, as well as former Swedish international defender Hanna Marklund.
"I perceive it as frivolous if you do not fully invest in the women's league," Marklund told Swedish national broadcaster SVT.
"It's positive that interest in women's football is increasing, but it's important to find the right time for tournaments like this. Moving a league match to play a seven-a-side tournament is not something I see as an okay reason."
The Swedish side are the only team to face this issue for the inaugural event, with most other domestic European leagues having finished their seasons in mid-May. Whether this problem will crop up again, remains to be seen. Organizers hope to hold a second tournament late this year, but neither dates nor location have been confirmed.
'The tables have turned'
While questions remain, including over ticket sales and how much interest has been generated for fans in an already bloated football calendar, Seger said the biggest draw for her to being involved with World Sevens football was the feeling she was working with "allies" wanting to promote women's football.
"I wanted to work with people that feel the same way (about women's football), so I don't have to always fight my way through," Seger said.
"The tables have turned, and you don't have to fight as hard. Even if there's still a long way to go, it's a lot easier today than 20 years ago."
Edited by: Chuck Penfold
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