Nonsense from Chelsea's Women's team coach

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Wasn't it Hayes that wanted to put undersoil heating at all WSL venue's, completely ignoring the fact that most WSL games are played at non league grounds they don't own.

If that was allowed then it would give an unfair advantage to any team in the same division.

She'll be asking for equal pay with the men next no doubt.

Won't be long. They have it in tennis. Equal pay only for equal work!

 

[JRockBlues]

Won't be long. They have it in tennis. Equal pay only for equal work!

Already going on in Canada...

Canada National team threaten strike over budget cuts and pay equity

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Already going on in Canada...

Canada National team threaten strike over budget cuts and pay equity

The strike over budget cuts? Canada Soccer say they haven't enough money to fund the women's game. Was the budget intended to accommodate the team in seven star luxury? They ought to be looking at what facilities other teams have as a budget - L1 and L2 in the men's game here! Too many folk have an inflated idea of their worth.

 

[domalino]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64648506

Emma Hayes says that the idea of getting rid of promotion and relegation should be considered for the women's game in England.

Ludicrous USA based nonsense! I wonder if she really thinks this or is spouting the agenda of Chelsea's American owners.

Have you considered that as someone who’s spent the last few months as part of the massive review into women’s football in this country, not to mention 30 years experience in the women’s game, including time in both franchise systems and promotion/relegation systems she might be speaking from a position of incredibly well researched authority?


I prefer the idea of women’s football mirroring men’s as much as possible, but I’m also not so arrogant that I’m going to pretend I must know better a woman with infinitely more experience and knowledge of the situation who’s speaking as part of an official review into the future of the game.

It’s an undeniable fact that the women’s game is miles ahead in America. It has much better attendances, it produces better players, and it pays the players much more.

So why would we rule it out? English women’s football needs to grow and increase standards and ultimately there’s not 24 clubs who want to or can afford to make the necessary investment into their women’s side to do that.

So either you have this increased stratification where City, Chelsea, Arsenal, United just get further and further away from everyone else and the other 8 are just also rans getting smashed every week, or you ringfence it and try to concentrate the money into 12 teams and raise the quality league wide.


I’d certainly need to be convinced, and you’d want it to be set up so there’s a defined standard someone has to be to join the super league, otherwise it ends up limiting growth and keeping people out.

But the idea it’s nonsense? The idea that someone with decades of experience, giving her informed opinion is written off as simply serving the agenda an American owner she’s probably met once or twice in the few months he’s been there? No you can fuck off with that.

 

[domalino]

If that was allowed then it would give an unfair advantage to any team in the same division.

You do realise that in the SPL, League 1, League 2 and lower it’s already the case that some teams have under soil heating and some don’t?

It’s never been considered an unfair advantage for you to be able to host a match when the weather is below freezing.

 

[jamesha]

Have you considered that as someone who’s spent the last few months as part of the massive review into women’s football in this country, not to mention 30 years experience in the women’s game, including time in both franchise systems and promotion/relegation systems she might be speaking from a position of incredibly well researched authority?


I prefer the idea of women’s football mirroring men’s as much as possible, but I’m also not so arrogant that I’m going to pretend I must know better a woman with infinitely more experience and knowledge of the situation who’s speaking as part of an official review into the future of the game.

It’s an undeniable fact that the women’s game is miles ahead in America. It has much better attendances, it produces better players, and it pays the players much more.

So why would we rule it out? English women’s football needs to grow and increase standards and ultimately there’s not 24 clubs who want to or can afford to make the necessary investment into their women’s side to do that.

So either you have this increased stratification where City, Chelsea, Arsenal, United just get further and further away from everyone else and the other 8 are just also rans getting smashed every week, or you ringfence it and try to concentrate the money into 12 teams and raise the quality league wide.


I’d certainly need to be convinced, and you’d want it to be set up so there’s a defined standard someone has to be to join the super league, otherwise it ends up limiting growth and keeping people out.

But the idea it’s nonsense? The idea that someone with decades of experience, giving her informed opinion is written off as simply serving the agenda an American owner she’s probably met once or twice in the few months he’s been there? No you can fuck off with that.

You make some interesting points but I still cannot see how this could benefit the women's game. Removing relegation removes much of the interest for fans of the "other 8" as their games become pretty meaningless, the players may lack motivation and the whole competition could become a farce.

There is only one relegation slot in the WSL so I think any team who makes a serious investment would be unlikely to be relegated

I am not convinced whether not having the threat of relegation would attract investment to the other teams but it would certainly make any investment in teams in the lower leagues very unlikely. Those clubs would lose their best players as they could not progress to higher levels without moving even if their team waltzed their league and won every game. Would the fans actually turn up regularly knowing that no matter how well their team does they cannot progress any higher?

If relegation is abolished for the top flight then the clubs in the Championship will demand the same for their division and the women's game will stagnate.

Doncaster Belles were a force in the women's game in the 80's and 90's but are now languishing in the third tier. They still have a passionate core of fans - should their dreams of returning to the top flight be crushed?

The women's game has made strides in recent years. England have won a trophy and Manchester United and Liverpool now have women's sides. Progress is being made and this idea could derail that in my opinion.

 

[mattcity5]

There seems to be 2 main discussion points the moment - undersoil heating and relegation.

On the Undersoil heating - nobody gets an unfair advantage over other teams. You could potentially say that not having fixtures called off gives you an advantage because other teams may get a fixture backlog, but 2 teams play a match. If you've got undersoil heating but playing away when it's freezing, it isn't going to help you. Ideally yes, all clubs would have it, but many play at lower league stadiums and probably don't own them, so it wouldnt be down to them. I dont know if Emma Hayes is suggesting the league should make it a rule that teams need to have it? If so, she needs to look closer to home. Chelsea v Liverpool got abandoned after 6 mins as dangerous and that was at Kingsmeadow Stadium, which is actually owned by Chelsea, so...

The relegation issue... I really dont see what would be gained by it being a closed shop. As was pointed out, there's only 1 relegation spot anyway. If that's taken away, there's nothing there to push the weaker teams to keep going each season and to improve. I expect we'd see some very one-sided results towards the end of seasons as the top teams push for the title/Europe while the lower teams can only play for pride.

 

[Corky]

It is how the football league operated for 100 years regards relegation.

PL clubs don't have to have undersoil heating .

 

[remember arthur mann]

Already going on in Canada...

I'm not surprised.

 

[KS55]

I don’t know the numbers, but there are quite a few English players who have gone abroad because the money is better than here. City have suffered more than most; the last one we lost was Keira Walsh, a superb player.