Women’s football is entering an arms race. The World Cup showed that European teams are closing the gap on a dominant USA. Domestically, though, that chasm seems to have been bridged. Sam Kerr’s arrival at Chelsea, from the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the US and the Australian W-League, where she has played back-to-back in recent years, is arguably the moment at which the Women’s Super League went from pretender to seize the NWSL’s crown as the world’s best.

The English Football Association and Women’s Super League (WSL) clubs are, if not singing from the same hymn sheet, at least broadly in tune with one another. The addition of Barclays’ title sponsorship and wider investment, professionalism, record attendances and the clear plan for the league’s development provide evidence of a power shift.

It has left other leagues scrambling but the flag is not planted too far ahead. Other teams and associations can touch it, shake it and perhaps rip it out. Relatively speaking, in terms of the money sloshing around in football generally, the investment it would take to do any of the above is relatively low. Unwilling to sit on the sidelines and watch the English league and clubs race ahead, others are taking action.

The announcement last week that the ownership group of the European champions Lyon, OL Group, is in exclusive takeover talks with the NWSL side Reign FC, is one example of how teams are thinking creatively.

The move is, on the surface at least, mutually beneficial. Reign, who are not aligned to a Major League Soccer team, will receive a financial and organisational injection of support from the world’s biggest club side.

Lyon get to expand their brand, lay down a statement of intent and boost the league that poses the biggest threat to the WSL. In addition, they can shift players between the French league and NWSL more easily, offering competitive league football and a shot at Champions League glory.

Kerr’s comment that she wants “team success and I don’t want it to come easy” will have stung Lyon, who are believed to have been in a two-horse race to sign the prolific striker. Lyon are essentially being punished for vastly superior investment that puts them streets ahead of every other team in France. Those teams are seemingly content to let Lyon blaze their trail. The French football federation has secured a title sponsor for the top division and a broadcast rights deal, but it can do only so much to compel clubs to up their game and offer a competitive challenge to the jewel in the crown of French football.

The shift in England means that the unbeatable aura around the French champions is starting to fade. Lyon’s easy domestic season gives them a chance to focus on Europe but that advantage is becoming less significant as players become fitter, stronger and more adept at handling fiercely competitive games on a weekly basis in England.

The NWSL, too, is unwilling to sit back. Two things will always give the US league an advantage: Title IX, introduced in 1972, outlaws discrimination in government-funded institutions and means girls’ sport at high school and college level has to be funded to the same extent as the boys. The huge money pumped into high school and college American football and basketball has to be matched. Women’s soccer was a big beneficiary, and the system delivers athletic and competitively-tested players. That the league also operates on a draft system, like the NFL, creates a competitiveness hard to replicate.

A record WSL crowd of 38,262 fans watched Arsenal beat Tottenham 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Photograph: Holly Allison/TPI/Shutterstock

Now, the league and teams are moving into action. The league is expanding, with Sacramento expected to launch next year and Proof Louisville FC joining in 2021. The salary cap has been lifted by 20% to $650,000 (£505,000), player contracts can now be multi-year and caps on housing and car allowances have been scrapped.

Sky Blue FC have announced they will be playing in New York Red Bulls’ stadium for the new season. There is also talk of a more formal partnership with Australia’s W-League, which is also making moves to try to match the attraction of a transfer to Europe.

The W-League salary cap has been lifted to A$450,000 (£237,000) and the minimum hourly rate is in line with A-League male players. Each team can have a marquee player exempt from the cap. What the partnership cannot do is remove the gruelling back-to-back seasons, a problem that gets worse with leagues expanding.

There is a lot to be liked about the moves being made as leagues and clubs try and outstrip each other but also a lot to be very wary of.

A City Football Group-style expansion by Group OL, although currently nowhere near the scale of that overseen from Abu Dhabi, should be viewed with extreme caution if it removes the community feel from clubs and artificially inflates club finances, creating a gap in the league akin to the one in France.

There is a lot to dislike about the development of men’s football and the women’s game is in danger of following a mirror-image path. Discussing how the game grows with an eye on what we don’t want it to be as much as what we do want it to be is going to be increasingly important.

Talking points

• The former Tottenham defender Renée Hector has left Charlton for “personal reasons”. After the club announced the departure of Charlotte Kerr and Hector the latter, who suffered the first recorded case of racist abuse in women’s football, took to social media to explain. “Charlton is a great club and I thank them all for their support and understanding. I made this choice down to personal reasons. The old Ren will be back putting her heart and soul into every game soon, no doubt.”

• Bristol City’s Abi Harrison and Brighton’s Ellie Brazil have been sidelined for the remainder of the season with ACL injuries. The 21-year-old Harrison has torn the ligament in her left knee while Brazil, 20, has a ruptured ACL and partially torn meniscus.

• Glasgow City have beaten the holders Hibernian in the Scottish Women’s Cup final. Clare Shine levelled the scores with a header with 20 minutes left to play and then scored a late winner in front of a competition-record 3,123 fans at Tynecastle

• The former Arsenal and England right-back Alex Scott has been inducted into the Football Museum Hall of Fame. Scott, who is taking part in Strictly Come Dancing, retired from playing in 2017 with 140 England caps. She scored the winning goal in Arsenal’s defeat of Umea in the 2007 Champions League as they completed a historic quadruple.