Chelsea beat Manchester United 6-5 in Saturday’s Women's World Sevens final in London, finishing the short-format tournament with the $500,000 prize and a last-word win that was tighter than the showcase label suggested.
That scoreline is the reason football results from Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium drew attention beyond the usual sevens curiosity. Eight Women's Super League clubs played in the third series of the competition from 28-30 May, and Chelsea and United ended up in the final after a tournament built around 15-minute halves, rolling substitutes and no offside law.
The prize money underlined why the final mattered. Chelsea collected $500,000 for winning the latest edition, while the event also carried a smaller-but-still-significant purse of £372,000. It capped three days of fixtures that were designed to produce goals, flair and celebrations, and the final did just that — though Chelsea still had to outscore Manchester United in a competitive finish rather than simply coast through a exhibition-style evening.
Sonia Bompastor was one of the tournament’s most visible figures before Chelsea’s semi-final, when her players carried her out as part of a planned walkout. The Chelsea coach said she enjoyed it and that it came from the players, adding that she is usually quiet and does not like to get too involved, but saw it as a good opportunity. She also said the squad had only practised it a little in the locker room and that she joked the players who did not get enough minutes would have the chance to drop her.
That kind of theatre ran through the tournament. Manchester United manager Marc Skinner arrived for a guard of honour dressed in a white dressing gown and sunglasses, Everton’s Katja Snoeijs pretended to give birth before her team-mates handed her a football instead of a baby, Chelsea striker Aggie Beever-Jones produced a rabona assist for Erin Cuthbert and United’s Melvine Malard celebrated by pretending to need CPR. It was meant to be light, but the scoreline in the final still carried the edge of a real contest.
Everton had lost 5-2 to Manchester United in the semi-finals, helping set up the final matchup, and the tournament finished a day before the Women's FA Cup final at Wembley. That timing gave the competition a clear place on the calendar: a short, crowded burst of WSL names, a title for Chelsea and a reminder that even a showcase built around fun can still end with football results that matter.
For Chelsea, the win adds a trophy and a cheque. For Manchester United, it leaves a narrow defeat in a format that invited improvisation but still demanded a finish. The next major appointment is Wembley on Sunday, where the season’s attention moves back to a far more familiar stage.
