First & Records

On March 28th 2026, the Denver Summit played in the Mile High City for the first time ever in front of a record-breaking 63,004 fans, making it the largest stand-alone women’s soccer game in US history. A little under 13 years earlier, the NWSL’s first ever game brought together 6,784 fans to watch FC Kansas City take on the Portland Thorns. Today, despite being one of the only leagues with independent clubs that cannot build on the success of male counterparts, the NWSL boasts the highest average attendance of any top-division women’s football league in the world. This feat wasn’t achieved overnight, however. How did the league get to this point?

Salaries in women’s football remain one of the sport’s most talked-about topics. They are a measure of how far the game has come. In some leagues, players still need a second job to make ends meet. In others, new financial records are being set.

In January 2028, the FIFA Women’s Club World Cup will take place, marking a historic milestone for the women’s game. The tournament will feature 16 clubs from across FIFA’s confederations. The host nation has yet to be announced, but Qatar has already expressed interest in hosting the competition. The proposal has drawn attention given that Qatar’s women’s national team is currently unranked by FIFA, has not played an official international match in more than a decade, and operates within a political and social environment that many argue conflicts with the values of inclusion and equality that women’s football seeks to promote.

Sam Kerr leaving Chelsea and Katie McCabe departing Arsenal broke plenty of hearts across the women’s football world. But while these farewells are painful for fans, they are also a positive sign for the game itself. Here is why.

A few days ago, Brighton banged on the table and announced the creation of a new stadium exclusively for its women’s team. Brighton & Hove Albion have published plans to build the first women’s football stadium designed specifically for the sport in the United Kingdom and Europe. In addition, it will also be the third stadium in the world created for the exclusive use of the women’s football team.

While the NWSL is one of the fastest-growing leagues in women’s football , offering opportunities and structures different from those in Europe, its player pool is still largely dominated by Americans. Close behind are players from Mexico and Brazil, alongside a handful of notable Europeans, such as German goalkeeping legend Ann-Katrin Berger or Norway’s Guro Reiten, who recently arrived from Chelsea. But when it comes to Italian players, the league had to wait.

It was a season of broken records. Women’s football is growing, and one of the clearest signs is the ever-increasing amount of money being invested in the women's game. Chelsea set a new benchmark in 2025, Arsenal topped it that summer, and then both London clubs were surpassed by an NWSL side.

Our focus this April is on equity and equal opportunity: a conversation that remains at the very heart of women’s football. All too often, the women’s game is viewed solely through the lens of its male counterpart, ignoring a fundamental truth: the starting lines were never the same.

As Alexia Putellas recently pointed out with stinging clarity, men were competing on the World Cup stage while women were still fighting for the right to vote. Below, we examine the defining milestones that shattered barriers and shaped the modern era of the women’s football.