'There is still a lot of work to do' - FA team up with Google Pixel to improve women's football's visibility ahead of 2023 World Cup

Ahead of the 2023 Women's World Cup, Google Pixel and the Football Association (FA) have announced the launch of Pixel FC, a group of committed women’s football creators and presenters who will work with the pair to help close the visibility gap in women’s football.

New research by Pixel and the Women's Sport Trust shows that just two per cent of print media football coverage and six per cent of television football news in the UK is centred around the women's game.

To fix this large imbalance, Google and the FA are providing Pixel FC with the tools they need to develop women's football even further. Each of the original members of the team - Abbi Summers, Alex Bailess, Mollie and Rosie Kmita and Samantha Miller - will be sent to the World Cup by Pixel and supported beyond its end, too. Pixel is also working with Footballco throughout the tournament to increase women’s football visibility on GOAL.

It's an initiative that is supported by Ellen White, the record goal-scorer for England's women's national team, as well as Demi Stokes, the Manchester City full-back who was part of the Lionesses squad that won Euro 2022, alongside White. The pair were on a panel at its launch at Wembley this week, alongside the world’s first female sports photographer Hy Money and Pixel FC member Bailess.

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“In 2023, we’ve seen match attendances and audience figures continue to break records across women’s football – and we thank those media who have helped share our story over the past few years – though there is still a lot of work to do to respond to such a significant growth in appetite," said Baroness Sue Campbell, director of women’s football at the FA.

“Google Pixel’s commitment to helping us raise the visibility of women’s football offers another step towards tackling the gender bias we still see so often around sport. Our ambition is to ensure there is access and opportunity for every girl and woman to participate, play and watch football by 2024, and harnessing the incredible power of the media further with the launch of Pixel FC will undoubtedly help us work towards that this summer.”

There's plenty of reason to be excited about that growth of visibility in the UK, too. Off the back of a domestic season that saw the Women's Super League title race go down to the wire while two English sides also reached the semi-finals of the Women's Champions League, the Lionesses head to this summer's World Cup as one of the favourites to win the tournament.