The Rise Of Chelsea Women To Be Charted In New Documentary Series

A new six-part documentary series executive produced by Fulwell 73 on English women’s soccer champions, Chelsea Women, will be released this weekend. It will chart the rise of the London side from the nadir of their trophy-less 2018/19 season over two years culminating in the team reaching the 2021 UEFA
EFA
Women’s Champions League Final.

Following a season in which Chelsea won their third successive Barclays FA WSL title, all six episodes of the series will be available to watch from Sunday evening on DAZN’s YouTube channel. Produced and directed by Alex Sunderland, the woman behind successful Channel 4 documentaries, The Secret Life of 4 and 5 Year Olds and 24 Hours in A & E, it is the latest in a growing line of female-produced documentary series on women’s soccer clubs following the success of similar shows on Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

The series begins with the elimination of Chelsea from the 2019 UEFA Champions League semi-finals at home to holders Olympique Lyonnais, which ensured the team would end the season without a trophy and having failed to qualify for the following season’s Champions League. In the post-match press conference, head coach Emma Hayes, takes responsibility for the club’s poor season claiming the birth of her first child had affected her ability to do the job.

The first episode then continues by following the team over a close-season in which the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup catapulted women’s soccer to the forefront of the public’s imagination. Belgian Bart Caubergh, who had previously only worked in the men’s game, is brought in as the new Women’s Head of Performance and immediately sets about making his mark, driving the players to push themselves to ‘a whole new level’.

The players initially find it difficult to respond to their new task-master, suffering two humiliating defeats in a pre-season tournament in Toulouse after which individual players are pulled in to face up to the team of coaching staff to assess their performance levels. Defender Deanna Cooper’s hopes of winning back a first-team place after recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury are ultimately dashed as she is eventually sold in the summer of 2020.

The pressures of combining a coaching career with motherhood is also profiled as Hayes takes her young son to France and struggles to manage her time. “It’s exhausting,” Hayes admits, “we can’t just always leave them behind, I have a responsibility as a parent. He’s also just a baby, he still needs mummy-time. . . and I need him.”

The series not only follows Hayes and the players but charts the behind-the-scenes work of all the staff at the club from the CEO to physios and even the movement coach. Ahead of the team’s season-opener which was to be played at Stamford Bridge, the club’s main stadium, the demands on the marketing men, charged with ensuring a capacity crowd is highlighted. Even though the game was officially a 41,000 sell-out, the game was watched by only 24,564, demonstrating the difficulties of turning ticket sales into a regular match-going audience.

The club’s goalscorer in that game, Bethany England is also profiled as she struggles in pre-season with her form suffering from acute pain due to endometriosis. During a meeting with the coaching staff, England has to admit she could do more to mitigate the inflammation she endures with her diet during this difficult time in her cycle.

Later episodes will show how England deals with the club making two record signings in her position, bringing in Australian Sam Kerr and Denmark’s Pernille Harder. In addition the series follows the team through unforeseen times in which the coronavirus pandemic shuts down the league in 2020 followed by the stress of living within the new realities of playing without fans in a post-Covid world in which Chelsea win a domestic treble in 2021 and memorably reach the Women’s Champions League final, only to fall short there, losing 4-0 to FC Barcelona.

Set up in 2005, British television, film, and music production company Fulwell 73 was named after the Fulwell End of Roker Park, the former home stadium of Sunderland AFC. They came to widespread attention after the release in 2013 of documentary film, The Class of 92, following the fabled generation of Manchester United academy players, including David Beckham. The four original founders of Fulwell 73 were joined in 2017 by James Corden.

Founder and partner at Fulwell 73, Leo Pearlman believes “this exciting era-defining series about Chelsea FC Women will give viewers a never-before-seen look at one of the highest caliber women’s football clubs in the world. But this series is about so much more than football. It shines a light on the powerful, human stories at the heart of the club, it’s about leadership at a pivotal time for women’s sport and how you win against all odds with a multi-national team against the backdrop of a global pandemic.”

The CEO of Chelsea FC, Guy Laurence added “we’ve always known how phenomenal our women’s team are and how much hard work and commitment the players, Emma Hayes and the support team put in behind the scenes each and every day. One Team, One Dream now offers fans a fascinating opportunity to experience this for themselves and understand what it takes to become an elite women’s footballer here at Chelsea, playing in one of the best leagues in the world. We look forward to sharing these past experiences with our fans and take them on our journey with us.”