The Week in Women's Football: Semra Hunter interview on career rise & advice for women; Champions League final review; | OneFootball

This week, in our continuing focus on rapidly increasing career opportunities in women's football, TribalFootball.com talks exclusively with Semra Hunter—a major talent on the European television football scene—who is originally from Los Angeles and can be seen regularly on international telecasts of the men's LaLiga TV and Women's Champions League on DAZN. She discusses the rise of women's football in Spain, her anticipation for a huge EUROs Finals in England this summer and provides advice for women interested in pursuing a broadcasting or journalistic career in football.

We also reflect on the 2021-22 UEFA Women's Champions League Final between Lyon and Barcelona and the tournament in general, and the growing trend of super clubs dominating the final knockout stages.

Semra Hunter interview

Semra Hunter is the multi-lingual presenter and face of LaLiga TV worldwide for the Spanish men's league international markets. The native of Los Angeles began her sports broadcasting career in 2013 as a multilingual sideline reporter for Al-Jazeera Sport and BeIN SPORTS in Madrid, Spain. Between 2013 and 2016 she worked for Real Madrid TV, hosting studio shows The Match, Extra Time and Real Madrid Life in both English and Spanish, while also covering games and conducting weekly interviews with Real Madrid players and coaches. In 2016 she moved to Istanbul, Turkey as sports anchor and correspondent for the launch of broadcast network TRT World and worked on the daily sports show Beyond The Game. Since April 2018, Semra has been a lead presenter for LaLiga TV's international broadcasts, hosting live game coverage and daily magazine shows. She has been working the UEFA Women's Champions League broadcasts for DAZN this year, including the outstanding 2021-22 WCL Final in Turin on May 21 (see more below) as a sideline interviewer.

Semra Hunter working before a game at the Nou Camp in Barcelona. Photo courtesy of Semra Hunter.

She attended the University of California-Berkeley and majored in International Relations, which they called Peace and Conflict Studies there. She then received her Master's Degree in Spain in Sports Journalism and Communication at UEM (Universidad Europea de Madrid). Her break into European football broadcasting came after an internship at MediaPro, working with Al Jaereza's Spain-branch in English and Spanish, explaining that: "Three or four months later Real Madrid hired me. At Real Madrid TV, [I worked there] for 3.5 years in English and Spanish; I was a presenter, reporter, producer, writer, editor." After her move to Istanbul in 2016, she spent two years as a: "Sports anchor and correspondent, studio hosting our daily sports program and, every two-three weeks, I'd be on the road traveling 7-10 days covering major events and all different sports [but] my main thing was always European football."

Semra Hunter in a studio set in Spain for LaLiga TV. Photo Courtesy of Semra Hunter.

She said that: "Women's football in general in Europe hasn't really come to prominence until the last couple of years, so a lot more opportunities in the broadcasting world are starting to pop up." Spain has been a strong focus recently, with the 16 women's clubs importing players from all over the world along with the record-breaking WCL attendances by Barcelona this season during the quarterfinals and semifinals (see below), but there is still a large gap between the top four sides [2021-22 league champions Barcelona, who finished with a 30-0-0 record and 90 points and an eye-popping goal difference of +148, and Real Sociedad (66 points), Real Madrid (60 points) and Atletico Madrid (59 points and the second best goal differential of +43)] while eight clubs have between 14 and 31 points—between 15% and 33% of Barca's total. The DAZN television announcing team felt that Barcelona's clear advantage in the domestic league was likely a key reason why they had such difficulty dealing with Olympique Lyon's tactical plan and fast start in their 3-1 win over Barca in the 2021-22 Women's Champions League Final in Turin on May 21 (see more below). Certainly, a number of European women's leagues can be painted with the same brush of having few leading teams at the top and the rest struggling, but 2021-22 French league champions Lyon won by 5 points over second place Paris St. Germain (58 points vs. 53 points), while the next five teams: Paris FC, Fleury 91, Montpellier, Bordeaux and Stade De Reims have improved their rosters since the 2019 Women's World Cup at home and they can now consistently provide the top two sides with difficult games. Part of the reason for the gap is a spending differential, which we analyzed in 2019 for the French league during the Women's World Cup (finding that Lyon spent 7.5 million Euros, PSG was next at 7 million, with then a huge drop-off to Montpellier at 3 million, Marseille at 1.8 million, Paris FC and Reims at 1.5 million, with five other clubs spending under 1 million Euros, which is a common trend in leagues across Europe.

Hunter felt that equality of stadium usage for women's team is an important component in growing the game: "The overall popularity of women's football in Spain, the growth is exponential, but there's still is a long way to go, especially when it comes to giving people the ability to attend games—they are working on it now, having access to the men's stadium—it's just a stadium, why not let the women's team use them as well? It's such a positive thing to see now that women and young girls feel that they have something they can connect with and emulate."

The Barcelona vs. Wolfsburg Women's Champions League semifinal attracted a women's club record at the time of 91,648 in attendance. Hunter pointed out that the match wasn't originally planned to be held at the Camp Nou Stadium but was staged there only after the phenomenal reception to the Barca-Real Madrid WCL quarterfinal (91,553 attendance): "The attention that it drew and the fact that there is a real thirst for going to women's football [so] they decided to open the doors again. They are pushing it to be a regular thing [using the main stadium] for all the teams across the board." The final in neutral site Turin drew a fantastic neutral venue crowd of 32,257, with large groups of Barca and OL fans travelling to Italy for the match.

Semra Hunter felt that the Spanish Football Federation made a crucial decision recently that facilitated those record crowds: "Summer [of 2020] was a really definitive moment, hopefully a watershed moment, in making the women's top division professional; there are only two other sports who can categorize themselves in the same way which is the men's football and the men's basketball. That was a huge deal in Spain that the government officially professionalized women's football. By virtual of doing that, it opens itself up to a number of commercialization opportunities, sponsorship opportunities and all types of investments….Now they are negotiating television rights and radio rights; up until now, you haven't been able to watch a lot of women's football on television. Now they are trying to get a lot more coverage all over the place. One of the main criticisms is that most weekends, maybe you don't know where the games are, or the stadiums are just too small, but people really do want to go to the games. Finding ways to access it. I think we will see a lot more women's teams playing in the bigger stadiums where they can attract bigger crowds, because people do seem to want to support it and watch live football and not just on the men's side. It's moving in the right direction."

The women's game in Spain, as well as in many other countries, is fighting an historical bias that football is not for women, which she describes: "Spain has a very long-running, deep-rooted history of sexism. It's a very big problem. It's still very prevalent today, even as it has gotten better. It has taken a very long time for women's voice to be heard, 'Why can't' we play football too? Why just the men?' Traditional roles, at home in the kitchen….Barriers are starting to be broken down and very quickly. You can do anything you want to do is the message and your gender shouldn't matter. Spanish society and culture are really grappling with it a lot. The rise of women's football has brought this conversation to the fore, which is really healthy because it has needed to happen for a very long time. Women feel much more comfortable, much safer coming to the public sphere and talking about this stuff; that really wasn't the case 3-5 years ago…The sport is affecting wider society."

The discussion turned to England: "The EUROs this summer will be really interesting. England is leading the charge in Europe in terms of really making women's football popular. Sky and BBC's contract is worth millions and [they are] investing a lot in the product itself. There is genuine excitement building for the EUROs because they are hosting and all three games England is playing at Wembley are sold out." The Final, also set for Wembley, has sold out all the seats as well and projections are that, of the 700,000 available tickets for the tournament, Financial Services giant Ernst and Young expects that between 60% (435,000) and 75% (525,000) will be sold [including matches at Manchester's Old Trafford] and far above the 240,000 who saw host Netherlands lift the trophy in 2017—a tournament that was very successful at the gate and artistically. We do expect this summer's Women's EURO to be much different and much more ground-breaking than the June 2005 Women's EURO, the last time the tournament was held in England in June. I watched most of those games live while in Sweden on business. The soccer was top notch and at a quite high level, but the atmosphere was a small beans affair and more akin to a regional tournament. A total of 118,403 attended 15 games—just under 8,000 a match—ranging from 957 who saw France defeat Italy 3-1 at Deepdale in Preston and 1,491 who watched a scoreless tie between Sweden and Finland at Bloomfield Road in Blackpool, to the 25,694 who saw Sweden defeat host England at the same venue in the Group Stage.

Semra Hunter finally had some advice for those who wanted to work in football broadcasting—particularly young women: "My path was pretty unconventional. I would say, when I signed up for my Masters' [Degree Program], I was quite concerned that I was getting into the industry too late because I was 25 and didn't have any background in journalism. I had this nervousness about, 'I need to work that much harder because I need to catch up to everyone else.' I realized after a while that that was kind of silly. You can start in this industry at any age, at any time; all you need to do is work hard to build the foundation, build the knowledge; and having a background in journalism is really helpful and important. If you get into that as an undergraduate, that is a good place to start. Then if you want to take it further and specialize in something whether it is journalism, broadcasting, management, PR, whatever; now there are all sorts of Masters popping up all over the place, related to the football industry and football business. You can find any angle that you want."

She also felt that building a brand through social media was important, particularly for younger people who are natural users of the platforms: "Use social media, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch—all these platforms to create your own brand and use it as a CV to get yourself out there and show the world what you are capable of doing. They can be platforms used for good, they can be really positive platforms, particularly if you are in journalism. [Those platforms] are very helpful to have. You can start by doing things on your own. You don't have to wait for someone to hire you. In the States, you are trained that you have to find a job, someone has to bring you in, but the goalposts are changing. You can reach out to clubs' communication departments and networks and put yourself forward for a job. In the meantime, there is no reason why you have to wait. You can do things on your own and this is a craft that you learn by doing, so the more experience that you have, quite honestly the better. Ignore the doubters—forge ahead and find ways to be creative. You need the initiative to go out there [and find your path]."

Semra Hunter has established herself in the last decade as a major football television journalist in Europe, who while doing a lot of men's game, is an advocate for the growth of the women's game. She joked that she is probably unique in that she has been at the first record-breaking game at the club level [Barca's WCL quarterfinal against Real Madrid] and at the national team level as a fan at the 1999 Women's World Cup Final [90,185]. She joins other women based in Europe who have been successful in the field, such as Kate Abdo (Fox, who started broadcasting with German TV), former French international Jessica Hourara-d'Hommeaux (who is a reporter on French radio men's and women's games as well as during the 2019 WWC games) and, on the executive side, Donata Hopfen, who worked in publishing and other sectors and at the beginning of the year was named the Managing Director of the German Bundesliga (the first woman to be appointed to that role in the German League's history) and who is trying to advance the league through a vast digital presence.

Olympique Lyon stuns Barcelona in 2021-22 Women's Champions League Final—Will the final rounds of this tournament become a closed club for the mega-rich clubs of Europe?

In the 2021-22 Women's Champions League Final on May 16, Olympique Lyon used goals from French international Amandine Henry (from an absolutely stunning curling shot from distance), Norwegian international Ada Hegerberg and American international Catarina Macario as OL won their record eighth WCL title while stunning reigning champions and favorites Barcelona 3-1 before 32,257 at Turin's Allianz Stadium, in front of huge traveling support from both sides. 2021 Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas pulled one back for Barcelona late in the first half. Australian defender Ellie Carpenter was stretchered off early when she went down awkwardly as a pass was sent to her when no opponent was near her; she was diagnosed with an ACL tear but was celebrating on crutches after the final.

Sonia Bompastor, in her first season as head coach of the club where she made a name for herself on the field and who played for the Washington Freedom in WPS in 2009-10, became the first woman to win Champions League titles as a player (2011-12 with Lyon) and as a coach.

Barca had won the 2021 Champions League with a 4-0 win over Chelsea in the final and began the 2021-22 season with 40 straight wins in all official competitions before losing to Wolfsburg 2-0 in the second leg of their Champions League semifinal.

This was a very good year for UEFA's Women's Champions League, with the two 90,000 plus crowds in Barcelona, a thrilling final in front of a large neutral site crowd with throngs of traveling supporters and some thrilling games beginning in the preliminary rounds. However, with the advent of the Group Stage replacing the Round of 16 for the first time and the increased prize money on offer, plus more television and sponsor money, are the days when smaller clubs in Umea of Sweden (winners in 2003-2004 and runners up in 2002, 2007 and 2008—albeit with Brazil's Marta on their side) or Denmark's Fortuna Hjorring (finalists in 2003) or Djurgarden of Sweden (finalists in 2005) making a final gone forever? With more money paid to the top players and men's clubs folding in women's programs throughout western Europe, the concern is that we will see the same teams in the quarterfinals every year: Lyon and PSG from France, Barcelona and Real Madrid of Spain, Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg of Germany, Juventus of Italy, Chelsea and Arsenal of England with a few other possibilities like Atletico Madrid of Spain, Turbine Potsdam of Germany and Manchester City of England. Playing in the WCL is still a top goal for players from outside Europe—Asia, Africa and the Americas in particular—and every year we see players joining WCL qualifiers from Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania and other countries for the opportunity to play in the tournament. This season, we saw Servette of Switzerland, Breidablik of Iceland and Zhytlobud-1 of Ukraine and Benfica of Portugal make the 16-team group stage. With the elimination of the two-leg knockout stage throughout the competition, that could leave the gap between the top 8-10 teams and the rest much wider and virtually impossible to advance to the quarterfinals or beyond. Teams like BIIK Kazygurt of Shymkent in Kazakhstan, who gave Barcelona such a fright a few years ago (2018-19) by taking a 3-1 lead at home in the first leg but losing the return 3-0 (4-3 on aggregate) may find it virtually impossible to progress beyond the group stage; BIIK made the Round of 16 three out of the last six years before being knocked out by PSG and Bayern Munich (twice). Will the WCL lose its unpredictability in the years to come? We hope not but the federations and clubs will have to increase the resources and support for their league sides outside the Big 5 countries to improve their chances to compete, while the clubs outside the top 2-4 in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain must reduce the spending gap within their leagues in order to advance up the table and into the European Champions League picture in the future.

Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women's football. Get yours copy today.

Follow Tim on Twitter: @TimGrainey