Why Play Soccer? No, That's Not Right
As it appears The Stretford End is out Christmas shopping with the ladies over at Kickette, I decided I’d make note of this as it is a concern I mildly share. Whilst the lad is being groomed to be the next Dave Mackay, the lass has her eyes set on being the next Mia Hamm.
With purple socks, of course.
The Chicago Red Stars of the WPS announced this week it will be suspending footballing operations for the 2011 season and hopes to return to the pitch soon. Citing a lack of investors–scared off because of other WPS clubs folding–the Chicago organization will find its players new homes as the 2011 WPS season begins with 6 clubs, 5 of them in the mid-Atlantic region.
On the same week Chicago was making its rather sad announcement, the English Football Association revealed that it will be investing in a women’s elite professional league that begins play in the spring 2011 and runs through the summer months. A television deal with ESPN UK that includes televised matches and a regular review show will bring some visibility to the 8-team league that features names such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, and Birmingham.
Maybe if the ladies perform well, Arsene could find a relatively healthy replacement for Robin van Persie out of this.
So, with its top women’s league falling down around it, what is the US Soccer Federation doing by comparision? Please comment below if you know because I couldn’t find anything on any ties between the WPS and USSF.
Trolling back, it appears the WPS formed out of the WUSA Reorganization Committee, later renamed the Women’s Soccer Initiative, Inc. WSII is a non-profit that exists through the help of volunteers–none of whom, it appears, are proficient as web site creation. Nowhere–in looking at WSII and the US Soccer pages–could be found linking the USSF to the initiative at having a national top flight soccer league for women in the US.
Several comments re: the viability of the WPS have mentioned the WNBA–that the WNBA still exists simply because the NBA and David Stern want it to exist. In short–deeper pockets keep the women’s basketball league. It appears this is what the English FA is attempting to do with its new league, and it also appears to be what the German Football Association–the DFB–does for its women’s league.
That German league–the Women’s Bundesliga–has been going since 1990, starting as 2 regional associations and building to a national league by 1997. Led by the DFB, Women’s Bundesliga is a 12-team league that features relegation–what?–to the lower leagues of women’s football along with promotion for regional clubs up to the top flight.
So, they have enough clubs to even have promotion and relegation? And apparently the league is strong, boasting a number of UEFA Women’s Champions League winners in Duisburg, Potsdam, and Frankfurt.
If the WPS is to have long-term viability, it might want to continue ditching innovations like the shorts/skirt thing it started with for its jerseys and instead ring Gulati up for some cash. Rather than have clubs like Chicago fall out because of shaky investors, the USSF should be more involved–at least, appear to be, as I couldn’t find it–if it wants the US to join those western European footballing nations that are investing in its ladies’ game.
Drop a few dollars, help out with some infrastructure, maybe even have WPS matches shown online through the ussoccer.com website. Many of us catch our footie online anyway–if it’s a slow weekend in the summer, you might tempt us with a feed that doesn’t take some hoops jumping to get to.
After all, didn’t Gulati and the USSF save some green by rehiring Tracksuit Bob rather than a bigger name for the USMNT? Give the ladies some help Sunil–daddy wants to retire on his kids’ talents and they need a league that pays for more than just a Laz-E-Boy.
The Kickettes are too good for me. And since Needs More Kittens dissed me, I’m resigned to being alone forever.