On Sunday Leeds United Ladies team were relegated from the (now) third tier of English women's football. Next season they'll be playing in the fourth tier. Just last season they were playing in the second tier and they nearly won the league, they also reached the league cup final and they won it back in 2010. They nearly won the second tier the season before last. Going further back prior to the creation of the Super League, they were in the top tier and often finished within the top four, they've also recently reached the final of the FA Women's Cup. They were also the only team I saw last season that had their player's names on the back of their shirts. Now a team with such an illustrious history will be playing in the fourth tier. Why you ask (well you probably don't but I'm going to answer anyway). Well the fact is there is absolutely no form of protection or compensation for any teams outside of the WSL. A WSL club can just come in, sign a player and only has to give seven days notice, no matter what time it is in the year (there are no transfer windows). With such a decent team, Leeds ended up losing a lot of players. In fact, 17 players have been signed for WSL clubs, that's more than a squad's worth. And Leeds didn't get a single penny. How can a team remain competitive after losing that many players in such a short space of time?! It's ridiculous and completely unjustifiable. And there's nothing to stop it happening to other clubs. Sheffield have won the Premier League North, how many of their players are going to by vacuumed up by WSL clubs? In the Premier League South, Coventry could win the league, but then what will happen to their players? The best ones will likely be hoovered up by WSL clubs. There's Aston Villa, they may take a few. Maybe Birmingham might. Then who knows, they may be relegated next season. It's absolutely morally scandalous. It'd be like most of Liverpool's squad leaving then they'd get relegated to the Championship the following season.
I'm not in the knowledge as much as you (no-one on here is!) but it seems that those running the Women's football league structure ought to be put up against a wall and shot. The whole system seems to have a very nasty smell about it.
Am I rght in thinking that the Womens leagues are part of the FA? The FA of which Greg Dyke is Chairman?
Yep that's the one. Maybe all the clubs and people complaining about the system are just being 'irrational'.
The FAs latest fiasco, the report presented by Greg Dyke, just goes to prove that the whole organisation is not fit for purpose so nobody should be even slightly surprised at the contempt that the WSL is shown. I reckon it will take about another half a century before women in football are taken seriously. I've mentioned on here before that my first love is actually skiing - the women skiers are treated the same as men. Mind you I suppose hurtling down a mountainside at 90 mph strapped to a pair of highly waxed plastic planks is so dangerous it has to be taken seriously, whether you're male or female.
One random thing, The Hampshire FA's Girls' CofE and PDC Presentation evening is taking place some time this month, and they're gonna have a couple of players come down. But from Yeovil! Surely the players attending should be from a Hampshire side, what has Somerset got to do with Hampshire?! Yes they're WSL players, but so what? Surely having local Hampshire players for a Hampshire presentation evening would make more sense? Had they been England internationals like Kelly Smith, then that's understandable, but they're not. Am I being unreasonable?
