Kickoff time for the AC Milan Women’s season opener confirmed and Serie A Femminile’s lucrative deal

The AC Milan Women are currently undergoing preparations for their upcoming Champions League qualifiers. The team recently won their friendly match against Atlético Madrid in preparation for their qualification matches.

The team is also preparing for the upcoming season of Serie A Femminile. Yesterday, the FIGC confirmed the kickoff times for Matchday Day One of next season.

Milan will play Hellas Verona on Sunday, August 29th. Kickoff time is at 17:30 CET (8:30 AM PST / 11:30 AM EST).

You’ll be able to watch the matches live on the AC Milan app, Dailymotion page, and La7. And in another first, AS Roma and Empoli will have their matches live-streamed on La7. The network will air one game from each match week of Serie A Femminile, and Roma and Empoli will have the honor of being the first two teams to feature on the network.

Serie A Femminile’s strikes a lucrative streaming rights deal

To increase the visibility of Serie A Femminile, the FIGC recently struck a deal with the S&T Sports Group. The deal was made to increase the league’s visibility worldwide.

S&T Sports is owned by Stefano Turconi, who is also from Italy. From his bio on LinkedIn:

Stefano is a proven TV executive with more than 20 years of experience in the business. Mainly focused on TV and new media content distribution in the Americas and EMEA, Stefano has developed through his career strong relationships with rights holders and broadcasters across the globe.

Since the beginning of his career, he strategized and implemented distribution efforts for CONMEBOL competitions like Copa América and Copa Libertadores, for the CONCACAF National Teams and Clubs Competitions, World Cup Qualifying games of both Onfrderations and the NBA in EMEA and Latin America.

He has experience in working with agencies as well as with rights holders (CONCACAF and NBA).

This FIGC’s deal with the group will give the league more visibility throughout the world. We might even see the league streamed on local websites. The deal also gives the league an advantage over other women’s leagues, particularly in Europe, as most other countries don’t have similar distribution deals. Sadly, most countries have been reluctant to promote their women’s leagues in the same manner.

It’s a shame, but if all goes according to plan, perhaps other countries can learn from Italy and work on making their women’s leagues more visible too.

More news about the AC Milan Women, including a lead-up to their Champions League qualifier with FC Zürich, will be posted soon.