England striker Beth England believes the Lionesses can win the battle for fans’ attention, despite their quest for Women’s World Cup glory clashing with the start of the Premier League.
The Lionesses have pulled in strong audiences during the tournament Down Under, even with the time difference meaning games have been broadcast in the morning or midday.
Monday’s last-16 tie against Nigeria on BBC One had 5.2million tuning in, with a further 2.6m streams on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport Online.
England’s quarter-final with Colombia on Saturday kicks off at 11.30am and will clash with Arsenal’s Premier League game against Nottingham Forest, which starts an hour later.
But striker England is hoping that the Lionesses can still pull in a strong audience as they bid to make the semi-finals.
“I think as we’ve seen over the last few years and since the Euros especially, the amount of numbers that have grown in the women’s game and people’s interest and viewing numbers,” said England.
“I think hopefully we can still engage the fans enough to want to watch us and I know there’s a lot of people that have turned to women’s football because they’ve enjoyed watching us. It’s not just because the men aren’t playing.
“So hopefully we can continue that because we want to make sure that those viewing numbers are as high as possible, whether they choose to watch the men’s game or not.
“We can’t affect that. I think ultimately we’re going go and try and put out our best performance and give the fans something to watch, and that they will want to keep coming back and watching us.”
