Is the Women’s Europa Cup is a Competition No One is Ready to Have?
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it not make a sound? More importantly, if a European final is played on a Saturday evening and the governing body barely bothers to tweet about it, does the trophy actually exist?
On Saturday afternoon, a historic milestone in European football took place at the 3Arena in Stockholm, where HB Häcken secured a gritty 1-0 away win against their Swedish counterparts, Hammarby, in the first leg of the inaugural UEFA Women’s Europa Cup final.
The decisive goal came in the 22nd minute via teenage sensation Felicia Schröder in front of just over 7,500 fans, setting up a tantalizing return leg this coming Friday in Gothenburg.
Yet, for the vast majority of the footballing world, including those who consider themselves die-hard aficionados of the women’s game, this match might as well have been played in a vacuum.
The lack of fanfare, the subterranean levels of publicity, and the general air of ‘oh, is that today?’ surrounding the event suggest a worrying reality that we have a tournament that not even the organizers were ready to stage.
Women’s Europa Cup: Innovation or Encroachment?
The introduction of the Women’s Europa Cup (and the subsequent second-tier competition) was marketed as a progressive step for inclusivity. However, looking at the execution, one cannot help but view it through the lens of modern footballing capitalism.
In an era where the men’s calendar is being stretched to a breaking point with expanded Champions Leagues and Club World Cups, the women’s game is now being subjected to the same ‘more is more’ philosophy.
The motive feels less like a genuine desire to showcase mid-tier European talent and more like an urge to inventory every available mid-week slot for broadcast revenue and sponsorship inventory.
When a competition is staged primarily as a financial vehicle rather than a sporting spectacle, the first casualty is always the marketing budget, and with the Women’s Europa Cup, UEFA has birthed a child and left it on the doorstep of the internet, hoping organic growth will do the work they are too busy to fund.
Why UEFA wasn’t Ready for the Women’s Europa Cup?
The poor publicity mentioned by fans isn’t an accident, but a symptom of a competition that was rushed to the stage. Even though second-class stigma is one of the primary reasons why this tournament currently feels like a ghost ship, UEFA could have done better.
Launching the competition without a distinct brand identity, UEFA failed to make it feel like a destination, which is always key for driving fan engagement, especially since many of the well-known clubs will not be frequently involved.
For fans of Hammarby and Häcken, this is a massive moment, but these are just two clubs from the same country. For the average fan in London, Madrid, or Paris, cities where football feels like a livelihood, it feels like a non-existent occasion.
Scheduling Conflicts
Since the UEFA Europa Women’s Cup kicked off in September 2025, the games have been played almost on the same dates as the tier-one competition (Women’s Champions League), causing a real headache for fans to really pay attention.
Even when not directly overlapping with the UWCL, these fixtures have been cast into the mid-week wilderness, competing for attention against domestic league catch-up games with zero broadcast support.
Placing the first leg of a continental final on a Saturday afternoon, directly competing with the business end of major domestic leagues and on the same day as the Champions League semi-finals, is scheduling malpractice.
With Bayern Munich set to host Barcelona women right after the end of that clash, there was nothing to be heard of the fixture as the day, for women’s football, is all about the build-up to the battle of two heavyweights, and ensured the game is buried from the headlines.
The myth of apathy in the Women’s Game
If UEFA maintains that low engagement for the Women’s Europa Cup stems from a lack of appetite for women’s football, they are ignoring their own record books. To blame the gender of the athletes for poor marketing is a lazy narrative that falls apart under the slightest scrutiny.
The reality is that women’s football is shattering ceilings globally. We saw 91,648 fans pack the Camp Nou for a UWCL semi-final clash between Barcelona and Wolfsburg in 2022, setting a world record.
In England, the 87,192 attendance at the Euro 2022 final proved that international stages are magnets for massive audiences, and this has seen many of the teams now use their men’s home teams for women’s games too.
Domestically, the WSL is consistently selling out Premier League stadiums like the Emirates. This means that fans aren’t just disinterested, the Women’s Europa Cup has been structured to underserve.
When the quality is high and the product is accessible, the audience is undeniable. The poor engagement isn’t a gender issue, it is an investment and visibility crisis.
How can UEFA solve the Women’s Europa Cup identity crisis?
If UEFA wants the Women’s Europa Cup to be more than a footnote in a financial report, they must look at the blueprints of competitions that successfully navigated similar identity crises, most notably the Conference League.
Initially mocked as a Mickey Mouse cup, the Conference League gained legitimacy through a simple formula of top-flight inclusion. When the likes of Chelsea, Roma, West Ham, and Olympiacos became its face, the narrative shifted.
To make the Women’s Europa Cup more prophesied and anticipated, it needs the gravity of the big leagues. Currently, the format relies heavily on teams from associations ranked 8th to 24th.
To fix this, UEFA should grant direct entry to the 4th and 5th placed teams from England’s WSL, Spain’s Liga F, and Germany’s Frauen-Bundesliga, which will not only drive audience but also improve competitiveness.
One of the most glaring omissions in the current format is the lack of a drop-down system, which was formerly employed in the men’s game, where third-placed teams in Champions League groups dropped to the Europa League, and from Europa to Conference League.
When teams who failed to reach the Champions League knockouts drop to the Europa Cup, this will not only ensure that the competition is played by experienced teams but also ensure audience retention, something a new competition needs to thrive.
For instance, in the current Women’s Champions League season, top teams like Roma, Benfica, Twente, and Paris Saint-Germain were eliminated in the league phase, and their European sojourn ended there. However, instead of this, a spot in the Europa Cup will be a win-win.
Imagine a semi-final lineup featuring Manchester United, Atletico Madrid, and AC Milan. Suddenly, the broadcasters aren’t just looking for filler content, but bidding for premium drama, instead of a final between two Swedish teams.
No disrespect to the two teams and Swedish football, but 7,500 spectators at a major European final isn’t worthy of the title. Saturday’s match was more like another league meeting between two top teams from a non-elite association.
The current two-legged also final format feels archaic. UEFA can adopt a Final Four model, where the semi-finals and final are played back-to-back in a centralized week, in a vibrant football city. This move will create a festival atmosphere that will easily grab the attention of the football world.
A call for authenticity
Women’s football is growing at an exponential rate but UEFA, or any other organization, must be cautious not to exploit it for financial motives.
Staging a final between two proud Swedish clubs like Hammarby and Häcken is a wonderful sporting story, but it is a story that deserved a global audience, a prime-time slot, and a marketing machine that actually cared.
As we look toward the return leg in Gothenburg this Friday, Hacken holds a 1-0 but off the pitch, it’s a deadlock between fans and UEFA, both of whom have not given the deserved audience to the competition.
The maiden edition of the Women’s Europa Cup is 90 minutes, plus extra time if required, away from conclusion, and that is enough time for stakeholders to start treating it like the prestigious European trophy it has the potential to be.
Until they do, we will continue to have tournaments that no one is ready to have, and that is a disservice to the players, the clubs, and the beautiful game itself.
Kehinde-Hassan Afolabi
