Rick has emailed in with his view on the proposed change to the WSL format…
“The proposal to grow the WSL by adding teams each season by eliminating relegation to arrive at perhaps an 18 team top division by 2030 and a similar sized WSL 2 is all very well, but the main problem is the massive funding gap that has already opened up with Chelsea already having turned the WSL into a one team league.
“I’m afraid that women’s football is now mainly money driven and with that will come the professionalism aka cheating that has spoiled the men’s game.
“Unless a more radical restructuring is introduced to stop a small number of top clubs dominating the WSL financially then wishful thinking this can be avoided by reducing risk to investors is delusional.
“Has anyone had a look at what safeguards are in place to stop the wrong people buying in to women’s football?”
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Here is what some WSL managers had to say about the proposed scrapping of relegation…
Robert Vilahamn: “I definitely want to have a relegation battle. You need competition up and down in the table. If it’s for one or two years to make sure we can have a big investment in those teams, show me the case, what they think about it and then we can listen. I think the fans want to see games where you compete up and down in the leagues.”
Gareth Taylor: “I have always had this thing of potentially making the league bigger, more teams, 14, 16 teams I think it would change a lot, would create more competition within it. On first visual of looking at that piece this morning around no relegation, I can completely understand the reasons why, because it allows stability a little bit for those clubs to invest and create more competition. There’s positive and negative to both things. I think sometimes I’ve always been about keeping it simple. I think promotion and relegation are always going to be what supporters and teams play for and crave. I think that really is going to be difficult to move away from that.”
Renee Slegers: “I think there’s a reason why most competitions work like that in different countries, because you want to have that competitive element. But at the same time, the decision makers on this have more detail and more knowledge. I understand that there needs to be a foundation and levels of professionalism to be able to provide the quality that we need in women’s football.”
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Preamble
What a week it’s been in women’s football.
From managerial incomings and outgoings to proposed format changes that would alter the pyramid completely, it feels like we’ve seen it all. We’ll talk about those things a bit later, but for now the focus is on today’s six Women’s Super League fixtures.
To kick things off, Manchester United host Leicester City at Leigh Sports Village. Then, Aston Villa take on Everton while Tottenham face Manchester City. Brighton go head-to-head with league leaders Chelsea before Arsenal meet West Ham for a London Derby this evening.
Perhaps the most interesting fixture of the day, however, is Crystal Palace vs Liverpool. Both clubs sacked their respective managers earlier this week, which came as a huge shock to fans. While Liverpool are yet to find a permanent successor to Matt Beard, Norwegian coach Leif Smerud has replaced Laura Kaminski at Palace. The question is - will the London side get that ‘new manager bounce’ this afternoon?
Join me!
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