Comments on: The Football Association’s Women’s Super League: Over-ambitious?

By: The Sweeper: The Women’s Super League, Who’s In and Out? | Pitch Invasion

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:59:31 +0000

[...] Football Association’s long and troubled effort to launch a professional summer women’s league has moved a step closer to actually happening: about a year from launch, they have announced the [...]

By: Richard Farley

Richard Farley — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:02:14 +0000

Great article. Great thread. Thanks for the work on this one, Tom/pitchinvasion.

By: The Sweeper: The First Women’s Football League Manager? | Pitch Invasion

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:28:02 +0000

[...] of the women’s game in England looks set to be raised further, with news yesterday that the new Women’s Super League launching in 2011 will be part of ESPN UK’s new television package with the Football Association. Maybe after a [...]

By: Eurycantha

Eurycantha — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:56:46 +0000

@Tom,

quote
The plan is for eight teams to compete in a summer season from March to October, thus minimising schedule conflicts with the men’s game but also going up directly against Women’s Professional Soccer in the United States.
unquote

1) Doesnot starting in March (2011) will conflict with the men’s game, just in a period (March – May) when the
most important decisions (championship, CL-spots, relegation, play-offs) will occur?

2) Has the FA taken into account that the Women’s World Cup in Germany will start on June 26th with the
opening match in Berlin and will last till July 17th?

3) Has the FA taken into account that before starting the WWC players need some weeks of preparation
(lets say from mid May 2011)

4) I am awaiting the German schedule for the 2010/2011 season, but it is not difficult to foresee that
the German Women Bundesliga will start as early as possible in August 2010 to finish preferably at the
end of April 2011, giving the German squad players a short break of two weeks holidays before
starting the 6 weeks preparation for the WWC.

By: noel butler

noel butler — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:29:33 +0000

w-h-o c-a-r-e-s….
not one bloke i know would watch, sort of like the WNBA…you might be a basketball fan but even thye hardcore ones dont care…

besides, those leagues will promote heavily towards either a family affair, mother-daughters or to lesbians who wouldnt mind watching 22 hefty lasses sweat and strain, they dont want the 30-40 yr old
male farters and burpers.

be pc on your own time and dime, my time for leisure and entertainment isnt infinite and it doenst include womens sports that arent beach volleyballl, indoor volleyball, diving and gymnastics.

By: Tom Dunmore

Tom Dunmore — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:40:36 +0000

I think there’s a lot to that. We’ve seen on a number of occasions that women’s teams are the first to go when reliant on men’s clubs in England. WPS’ model is interesting, with a mix of clubs with varied relationships to MLS teams but with a beneficial marketing partnership with MLS’ marketing arm, SUM.

Does anyone know how it works in Germany?

As you say, it’s not at all clear the FA has a far-sighted vision for how this will work at all in England.

By: NickA

NickA — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:51:48 +0000

The problem is that, if one’s being ultra-pragmatic, creating a set of new, self-reliant clubs looks the most/only realistic way of keeping a new Super League afloat. Too much of the FA’s thinking seems to be occurring on the fly, even now. And only Arsenal and Chelsea (maybe with honourable shouts to one or two others like Doncaster RB) really seem to have strong enough support from their men’s clubs to deal with the demands that the new setup will place on them. And even then, there’s no guarantee their boards will fancy it. This has a long way to run, anyway…

By: Tom Dunmore

Tom Dunmore — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:36:01 +0000

NickA — that’s a very interesting point I hadn’t thought about. It would be great to read more of the details from the F.A. to see what it says about new clubs forming and joining, but unfortunately, another working day later and all the links to the information on their site remains broken.

By: NickA

NickA — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:24:28 +0000

As I understand it, there’s little to stop interested parties putting together franchises from scratch here – which would be a big problem for existing clubs, even the biggest names. This was certainly a big concern of Vic Akers’ last year and, from the little wording I’ve seen, doesn’t really seem to have changed. Even the biggest clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton etc, all very reliant on the goodwill of their club boards – might find themselves on the back foot if a set of attractively-named entities representing a decent geographical spread of cities arises. That’s very much a worst-case scenario for the existing bunch, but it suggests that the FA aren’t necessarily going to pander to history or sentiment here.

By: Macdonald Amy

Macdonald Amy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:43:08 +0000

It’s great to see that women will have their own football league. Women want their equal rights to men and it’s great to see that things are moving forward.
I agree with Mr. Maurice Alderson, it is going to be difficult but it will get there.