Lia Walti made 183 appearances for Arsenal over seven years, won four major trophies — including the WSL title and the Champions League — and captained Switzerland at Euro 2025 on home soil. She is not short of context when it comes to assessing the state of women's football. Which makes her verdict on her single season at Juventus worth taking seriously.

The 33-year-old joined Brighton last month for an undisclosed fee after returning to England, and she has been characteristically direct about why she left Italy after just one campaign. "It's such a huge difference," she told BBC Sport. "It's more that it's just the reality that football in England, in the WSL, has a standard which is not comparable with any other league."

Empty stadiums, poor pitches, limited coverage

Walti was careful not to single out Juventus specifically, framing her criticism more broadly. But the picture she painted of Italian women's football was stark. No fan culture — "every game felt a bit like that [empty]" — poor-quality pitches that she argues would make even Premier League clubs look poor, and television coverage so limited and badly produced that the speed and tactical nuance of the game fails to translate on screen.

"The biggest lacking starts with pitch quality," she said. "In a lot of countries, you play either on the worst artificial pitches or the worst natural grasses. Even if a Premier League team were to play there, it would probably look rubbish because it's just not possible to play nice football on it."

On coverage, Walti argued that poor camera angles actively put viewers off. "It affects the way you watch a game. You don't really see the speed, the tactics or anything and you don't enjoy watching the game." That cycle — low investment, low viewership, low investment — is the structural problem she believes hampers most leagues outside England.

Why she returned

Walti was blunt about what she missed most: feeling valued. "I missed the feeling of being valued as a footballer, feeling like we're getting the full support we needed," she said. That is not a vague emotional complaint — she linked it to concrete things: proper training facilities, match-day infrastructure, and the kind of fan culture that has built up in the WSL over the past decade.

It is worth noting (and Walti herself acknowledged this) that she is among the more fortunate players in the global game. She arrived in England before full professionalisation, when salaries were not enough to live on, and watched the league grow around her. That perspective gives her words weight, but it also means she is describing a gap that most players never get to experience on both sides of.

Brighton, who have invested significantly in their women's set-up, were her chosen destination on return. "Brighton cares about women's football," she said — a pointed contrast to what she encountered in Serie A.

A wider point about lost talent

The most striking passage in Walti's interview was not about Italy or England specifically — it was about the talent the global game is wasting. "A lot of talent in women's football gets lost because they are in bad environments where nobody sees them or they don't have the chance to reach their potential," she said.

She acknowledged that investment has to precede returns, and that many countries and clubs simply do not have the financial patience to follow England's model. Switzerland, she noted, faces the same structural problems. The WSL did not become what it is overnight, and the conditions that attracted Walti back — and that she found so jarring when they were absent — took years and significant money to build.

For Brighton, landing a player of Walti's experience and profile is a statement of intent. For the wider game, her candour about what she found at Juventus is a useful, evidence-based account of the gap the WSL has to stay ahead of — and others need to close.

Frequently asked

Why did Lia Walti leave Juventus after one season?
Walti said the difference in professionalism between the WSL and Italian women's football was 'extreme'. She cited a lack of fan culture, poor pitch quality and limited TV coverage as factors, and said she 'missed the feeling of being valued as a footballer'.
Which club has Lia Walti joined after leaving Juventus?
Walti signed for Brighton in the WSL last month for an undisclosed fee, returning to England after one season in Italy.
What trophies did Lia Walti win at Arsenal?
During her seven years at Arsenal, Walti won four major trophies, including the WSL title and the Champions League, making 183 appearances for the club.