Manchester United to take part in first World Sevens Football tournament (2025)

Manchester United Women could yet be joined by Chelsea or Arsenal in the lucrative new eight-team tournament, which has a total prize pot of £3.8million.

Manchester United Women will take part in the inaugural World Sevens Football (W7F) series event in Portugal next month, organisers have confirmed. The Red Devils could yet be joined by Chelsea or Arsenal in the lucrative new eight-team tournament.

W7F’s head of football Adrian Jacob refused to rule out any of the Champions League ’s final four participating, which leaves open the possibility of one or even both the London clubs being involved should they fail to reach the final. The W7F series opener takes place between May 21 and 23 in Estoril, close in proximity and date to the Champions League final in Lisbon on May 24.

Three other teams – Ajax, Bayern Munich and Benfica – were confirmed alongside Manchester United on Thursday. Jacob has also not ruled out the possibility of a club from the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) taking part.

The prize on offer to the winners will be £1.9m – significantly more than the current maximum on offer for winning the Women’s Champions League, and Jacob anticipates those competing will take it seriously.

“We haven’t got the actual rosters yet, but they will be first-team squads,” he said. “A lot of these clubs are very worldwide and global in their make-up, so we’d expect first team players. However, there is also the point that the games are much, much smaller or much shorter.”

Asked whether he anticipated United’s England stars Ella Toone and Grace Clinton would participate, Jacob added: “I would expect them to come, how much they play is a different matter. But I would expect them definitely to come.”

United head coach Marc Skinner said: “This is a really exciting opportunity to be part of something new for the women’s game. Our only focus right now is on finishing the domestic season as strongly as possible in the WSL and the FA Cup; then we can travel to Portugal to enjoy what promises to be an entertaining three days of fast, fun, seven-a-side football.”

Teams will be able to select squads of up to 25 players for the tournament, with 14 nominated for each match. The second series is slated for November and December in North America, with Jacob confirming the ultimate goal is to stage five events each year.

Streaming platform DAZN is the series’ global media partner but Jacob said it was “TBC” whether competing clubs may also be able to stream on their own channels. The funding for the series comes from investors Jennifer and Scott Mackesy, and is arguably the most significant competition involving first-team players in either men’s or women’s football so far established outside of FIFA and UEFA authority, which only have jurisdiction over the 11-a-side game.

Jacob said: “I was with one of the clubs on Wednesday and one of them made an amazing point – this is the first example where women’s football has actually been innovative. Every time we follow the same routine, the same pattern that men’s football does of playing 11-a-side, having this tournament, that tournament, and doing really what’s been happening elsewhere and following what the men have done.

“We are trying to not completely change the game, but move the game forward and amplify the game and show that we can do different things with it. We don’t have to follow the same route everyone else does.”

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