The only female-fronted football podcast in the market from Offside Productions marks its first birthday and a milestone 150,000 downloads with the launch of a new website www.offsiderulepodcast.com and YouTube channel.

‘The Offside Rule (We Get It!)’ is a weekly podcast featuring three female football broadcasters Lynsey Hooper (BBC, Sky Sports, TalkSPORT), Kait Borsay (Sky Sports, TalkSPORT) and Hayley McQueen (Sky Sports). Now in its second season having developed a significant following, the podcast was borne from a desire to give female broadcasters a voice in football.

The team behind the scenes is also largely female, with an emphasis on offering opportunities to young, emerging talent in the field. The light-hearted style and topical discussions have proven to be a hit with both male and female football fans.

As well as front-women Lynsey, Kait and Hayley, the 30-minute show also features female broadcasters reporting on leagues from around Europe including Serie A (Mina Rzouki – BBC, CNN, Daily Mirror), Bundesliga (Kate Partridge – Russia Today), Ligue 1 (Laure James – ITV, Sky Sports, The Daily Mail) and La Liga (Rhiannon Jones – Real Madrid TV).

As well as topical discussion, the ‘The Offside Rule’ features exclusive interviews, including Jose Mourinho, in one of his last interviews as Real Madrid manager, Reading striker Jason Roberts and father-and-son/manager-and-player duo Paul and Tom Ince.

Top female football broadcasters and journalists are invited to be guest hosts, as well as players including England’s most capped female footballer Rachel Yankey. The penultimate episode of the season was filmed live from the UEFA Women’s Champions League Final at Stamford Bridge.

The 2013-14 football season has seen average weekly listening figures quadruple, already surpassing 2012/3 total figures. A new partnership with audio content provider Audioboo has significantly increased exposure, and the podcast has already won industry plaudits.

The Football Writers’ Association praised The Offside Rule as “a new development that gave football its first all-female voice”, whilst the Telegraph called it “respected”, Shoot “fun, informative and opinionated” and Sport Magazine recommends the podcast as “a bargain for football brilliance”.

The launch of a dedicated website – with over 10,000 views in its first six weeks – has allowed listeners and football fans to interact with the show. As well as the podcast to download, competitions and interactivity, the website features weekly blogs from football aficionados including Megan Harris of Notts County Ladies. Further functions will appear in 2014 including dedicated video content and vlogs, as well as the expansion of the YouTube channel.

Speaking about being part of the presenting trio Hayley McQueen said:

“With The Offside Rule, we’ve created an opportunity to speak in a relaxed context about our love for the game, discuss the hot topics of the week and voice an opinion. We also wanted to provide an opportunity for other women pursuing a career in sports broadcasting to gain experience working in the industry. We’re proud of our team and we’re excited to see what we can achieve in our second year.”

Co-founders Kait Borsay and Lynsey Hooper are pleased to cater for an audience who enjoy their fresh approach. Kait said: “We’re keen to cater for an audience, both male and female who don’t necessarily want to hear exclusively from ex-professionals and greying pundits, it’s something a bit different.” Lynsey added: “All across the country, there are female fans of football. We’re a voice to represent them all – people of all ages who just love the game. We originally assumed our primary audience would be women who love football. But the project has developed into that and more: a show for anyone and everyone who loves the game.”