Over in the mother country October 21, 2008
Posted by lem in News, Tournaments.Tags: Chelsea Ladies, Euro 2009, homophobia, Scotland, Women's Premier League
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“Apart from the money we’ve got through Rovers’ brilliant efforts, we’ve got practically nothing coming into the club. It’s got to the point where we recently had a bucket collection at a Rovers match. Our players, some of them internationals, were begging in the rain to get cash for us to meet our bills.” — Jonathan James, Doncaster Belles chairperson
Doncaster Belles will stay afloat until January thanks to a fundraising match by the Doncaster Rovers, but still desperately need sponsors. Things look rather bleak for the Women’s Premier League’s oldest club — I hope they won’t end up going the way of Charlton Athletic, who managed to find new sponsors but too late to retain most of their best players.
Chelsea’s Danni Buet has been awarded the Women’s Premier League Player of the Month Award for September. Congratulations!
There’s more to look forward to this weekend apart from the W-League: Scotland will meet Russia in the first of a two-legged play-off to determine which side will progress to the Euro 2009 finals. Scotland has never made the play-offs before (they defeated Slovakia to make it this year) and, if successful, they’ll be in the finals for the first time.
A point of interest: England FA to take on homophobic abuse? One summit does not a concrete commitment make.
Woohoo! October 6, 2008
Posted by lem in News.Tags: Australia, England, W-League, Women's Premier League
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The W-League fixtures have been announced. For those of you too impatient to download the pdf file, Football in the Capital has put up the draw in this post. Canberra United, incidentally, is the only W-League team not affiliated with an A-League team.
I see that the first Melbourne-Sydney derby of this W-League season will take place in Round 2. I have great hopes for it, though I’m rather worried about the little-advertised recruitment for Melbourne’s women’s team. (Speaking of Melbourne Victory, look out for a Melissa Barbieri post very soon.)
Meanwhile, in England: murmurs of unease over details of the summer women’s league.
A tale of two countries October 5, 2008
Posted by lem in News.Tags: England, Germany, United States, Women's Premier League, Women's Professional Soccer
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“Arsenal is my club and I love it more than anything else, it’s in my blood, but I want to be the best coach in the world and that’s why I came here. This country loves women’s football. Loves it.” — Emma Hayes on her decision to leave for the Chicago Red Stars
Anne Kessel (who is fighting the good fight for coverage of women’s football) has a thoughtful article in today’s Guardian on the WPS draft and its effect on women footballers in England, and the frustrating shortcomings of the FA’s approach to the development of the women’s game. Over in the US, people involved in the new league are talking up their awareness of what’s at stake. I hate that after so many accolades for the US team in international tournaments, there’s still so much hard work ahead to establish a league whose sustainability may yet be fragile, but as the example of Germany shows, World Cup trophies are no guarantor for a thriving women’s club football.
That said, I am so fucking excited for the WPS and the Australian W-League (Melbourne! Melbourne!). I won’t be able to watch the matches live on TV where I am, so it’s a heigh-ho, it’s off to streams and torrents I go.
