The charity, with the backing of British Minister for Sport and Equalities Helen Grant, is calling on sponsors, the media and sports to take advantage of the commercial opportunities in women's events as it says the success on the pitch is not being matched off it.

"On the pitch, in the pool, on the track and recently on the snow and ice in Sochi, women's sport has had an incredibly successful couple of years," Ruth Holdaway, chief executive of WSFF, said on the eve of International Women's Day.

"Women's, cycling, football, netball and rowing have all shown that it is possible to create hugely popular and commercially viable women's sports events and competitions.

"We have also seen BT Sport, the BBC and Sky Sports all take steps to cover more women's sport.

"But the research is clear.

"With only 0.4 per cent of commercial investment and seven per cent of media profile more needs to be done."

The WSFF says the success in women's sport on the pitch is not being matched off it ©WSFF


The "Say Yes to Success" campaign, which is also backed by BT Sport head Simon Green and Continental Tyres UK and Ireland marketing director Guy Frobisher, highlights the fact that while women's sport attracts extensive coverage during major global events such as the Olympics, it is usually dominated by well established, almost exclusively male events at other times on the sporting calendar.

WSFF says wider coverage and more commercial investment, as well as a major events calendar of its own, are needed if it is to make progress.

Grant admitted that while there have been some developments in the sector there is still more work to do.

Helen Grant, Britain's Minister for Sport and Equalities, is backing the WSFF initiative ©Getty Images




"I want to see more women getting involved in sport at all levels - from the playing pitch to the boardroom," she added.

"But to help with that ambition we also need greater involvement from the media, more companies to back women's sport as sponsors and our fantastic female sport stars to be given greater prominence as role models.

"Since London 2012 there have been some welcome moves that have put women's sport higher up the agenda.

"But there is still much more that can be done."

You can pledge your support to the campaign here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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