BT Sport to bolster women’s and disability football coverage

BT Sport will increase its coverage of women’s football, put more focus on disability football, and provide more broadcast training to girls.

The developments were announced during the launch of BT’s 4-3-3 strategy, which sees BT team up with all the Football Associations from all of the Home Nations with the broad aim to “use football and technology to change the lives of millions”. The strategy includes a focus on underserved communities and areas of the sport.

As part of this, BT is developing a series of ’para documentaries’ for BT Sport, the first of which will focus on blind football. BT Sport will also broadcast the Disability Cup, the first time it’s been broadcast live, providing disability football with a live TV broadcast platform. Furthermore, BT will develop a new format of disability football sport utilising cutting-edge technology.

To encourage more women into the industry, BT will provide an opportunity for girls and women to take up a career in sports broadcasting. It will offer broadcast training and presenting opportunities to create programming around women’s football and will create more TV and online content celebrating and showcasing women in football.

The 4-3-3 approach also includes BT offering free training to bolster the number of football coaches at grassroots level.

At the 4-3-3 launch event, BT CEO of Consumer, Marc Allera (pictured above) said: “It’s one of the most ambitious partnerships in football history, and smashes down barriers. In women’s football, the driver is to get more women and girls to play football and become coaches. And we want to see more women working behind the scenes, directing football matches. We’re going to offer broadcast training to girls and do more TV content showcasing women in football.

“In para football, it’s about tech, sport and accessibility coming together, with the tech inspiring the next generation of para players. We’re developing a new format of disability football, enabling people with physical disabilities to play with their minds, using eye tracking technology. We’ve commissioned a para football doc and are going to give more focus for para football on BT Sport.”

Allera told Broadcast Sport: “We’re televising the Disability Cup and I’m very excited about our doc series, which will raise the profile of para sport. We’re also raising awareness of disability in football through our TV ads. In terms of our focus on women in football, BT Sport is a keen pioneer of having women as presenters and in production. We want more people like Gemma [Knight, director, Champions League, BT Sport] and want to make sure women see they have a role in sport. We’d love to show more women’s football on BT Sport too, which is obviously pinned to winning the rights.”