Stronger financial regulations need to be introduced in the women’s game, says Francesca Whitfield, who oversees finances at Manchester United.
The Women’s Super League has a salary cap which allows top-flight sides to spend 40% of their turnover on wages.
However, those totals can be influenced and merged with the budgets of their male counterparts.
Whitfield says new Europe-wide regulations would “stop the gap widening” between clubs in the WSL.
“I think we should be looking to adopt financial regulation much earlier in the women’s game than we did in the men’s game,” added Whitfield, United’s head of group planning and finance.
Speaking at the European Club Association’s first women’s football summit, Whitfield added: “Currently in the WSL we have a salary cap system which is 40% of revenue, but that includes parent club income, meaning the larger clubs naturally benefit from shirt deals on the men’s side.
“That’s creating a gap that is affecting the product and this can’t be something that we just address domestically, this has to be something we address on a European level to make sure the European tournaments are the best and we’re at the forefront of that.”
Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules were introduced in the men’s game in 2011 and Uefa adapted regulations last June to limit clubs’ spending on wages, transfers and agents’ fees. A gradual implementation of the regulations has been agreed, with the percentage set at 90% of revenue in 2023-24 and 80% in 2024-25 before reducing to 70% in 2025-26.
The Premier League’s separate rules allow for total losses of £105m over a three-year period. Any club that posts losses in excess of that figure could face penalties, including large fines or even a points deduction.
“We can’t simply emulate or replicate what we did on the men’s side, the game is in a different space and we need to ensure that we can invest but equally attract investment,” said Whitfield.
“Smaller clubs are not able to invest at that level, so how do we encourage them to do so if it’s not a fair playing field and they can’t possibly ever be competitive with how things currently are?”
Whitfield said United have to “spend enough to keep up and challenge our counterparts” but the costs “keep rising each year”.
In January, Tottenham signed striker Bethany England from Chelsea for a record transfer fee between two British clubs of £250,000 while Arsenal offered two world record bids of around £500,000 – which were turned down by United – for England international Alessia Russo in January.
“It’s difficult to know when [revenue] might catch up [with transfer fees and wages] and when the revenue will come organically in the women’s game,” added Whitfield.
“It leads back to why we need some form of financial regulation and to be able to, at some stage, have a cap on the transfer fee and wage inflation.”
‘Our contracts needed to catch up’
Manchester United reformed their professional women’s team in 2018 and secured qualification for next season’s Women’s Champions League by finishing second in the WSL this year.
However, this summer United were not able to keep hold of key defender Ona Batlle, who has joined Barcelona, while Russo is close to joining rivals Arsenal, having turned down contract renewal offers.
Russo’s impending departure led to criticism of United’s negotiations, which the BBC was told had progressed slowly. One of the issues in the negotiations was reportedly due to the contract length being too long.
Whitfield said agreeing contracts among some female players “is more complicated than [the] men’s contracts”.
She said there was also a “hesitation and suspicion” towards longer contracts, performance-related bonuses or option clauses which are less common in the WSL.
“We were ahead of where we expected to be but that meant our contracts needed to catch up,” said Whitfield.
“We want longer contracts now because we want to build a team for the long term. That is a challenge when one or two-year deals have been commonplace.
“We wouldn’t hold players to lesser amounts if the market rate goes up, it’s just we want to keep the players.”
