Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola has sung the praises of 20-year-old Thiago Alcantara after his double against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.The Italian-born Spaniard bagged a double in Barca’s 2-0 Audi Cup final win, with his second goal particularly catching the eye.
His stellar performance at Munich’s Allianz Arena led to some kind words from Guardiola, who feels Barcelona are ‘lucky’ to have him.
“He is an extraordinary guy, he is very competitive and as you have seen he plays very good football,” Guardiola said.
“For this reason we decided to take him out of the juniors and play him in the first team.”
“He’s a kid that loves to play and wants to have a career in this sport and we are fortunate to have another player from our juniors. He was brilliant not only for the goals but also for his defensive play. We are very lucky to have this player.”
Guardiola was pleased to have won the pre-season tournament as the Catalan giants claimed another trophy to add to an already packed cabinet.
“We have won a prestigious tournament against a great Brazilian team (Internacional) as well as two of the best teams in the world and Europe – Milan and Bayern Munich,” he said.
“Basically we competed very well. We did everything – we maintained a good level, we competed well and everyone gave a helping hand to the youth players.”
But Guardiola refused to be drawn into discussions on how good his side would be if they signed Cesc Fabregas, insisting that he was not involved in the negotiations.
“Fabregas is a player of Arsenal. Many clubs would like to have him since he is a very good player, but he is an Arsenal player. This is a task for the people dealing with negotiations, it is not up to me. I only know he is a player of Arsenal, nothing else.”
Bolton and Manchester United meet in the Premier League a week on Saturday and you could be there to witness the action live! We have teamed up with 188BET once again to give away tickets for the match at the Reebok Stadium. You could be there to see Sir Alex Ferguson’s young guns take on Owen Coyle’s Trotters.
United have been superb in the Premier League so far this season and will travel to the Reebok Stadium on the back of an 8-2 mauling against Arsenal. Wayne Rooney and co will be looking to make it four consecutive wins and keep their head above rivals City. Bolton on the other hand have lost their last two after opening their season with a 4-0 win away at newly promoted QPR. Coyle can take solace though as his side have played some neat football and were unlucky to lose their last two fixtures against Man City and Liverpool.
As usual the competition will run on a first come first serve basis! The 1st and 10th sign ups to 188BET will receive a pair of tickets for the game after they’ve placed a bet. If you miss out on the tickets don’t be disappointed as there are still prizes to be won. The 15th and 20th signups will receive a pair of tickets to a first team training ground experience whilst the 25th sign up will win a signed Bolton shirt.
The competition closes at 11:59pm on Thursday 8th of September so as long as you sign up and make your bet before then you’ll have a chance of winning. So sign up, place your bets and keep your fingers crossed! You be watching Bolton v United for free in just over a week’s time!
Click on the banner below to win home tickets to Bolton v Man United
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has admitted that although he is delighted his side are competing in the Champions League, they have been drawn in a tough pool.
The Citizens will face Napoli, Bayern Munich and Villarreal over the next coming months, and the Italian knows that any of the four teams could qualify.
“I think it is an exciting day for the club. To play in the Champions League after many years is very important, it is a special day,” he stated in a press conference.
“But I think we took the harder route in the Champions League. In this group there are four teams who can win the group or finish in fourth position. It will be very hard for every team.”
There will be high expectations over City’s European campaign, as the investment in the squad over the last number of years has accounted for a star-studded squad, however Mancini is taking it one game at a time – with Napoli the visitors on Wednesday.
“I think this is normal for us. Now Manchester City are one of the best teams in England and Europe. For us it will be very important to do our job very well in this group.
“Napoli are a good team, last year they did very well in the Italian championship. Several of their players have been capped for their national teams and (Walter) Mazzarri is a very experienced manager.
“I expect Napoli to be a challenge but a lot of our players have played in the Champions League and I don’t think they will feel pressure for this game,” he continued.
Despite being drawn in a challenging group, Mancini has eyed progression through to the knock-out stages.
“Our target for now is to get to the second stage. It is important we start well in the group. We want to do the best we can do but it will be very hard because the Champions League is a strange competition.
“We want to go to the second stage. After that we can talk in February,” he concluded.
[divider]
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Fancy a Premier League Box Experience? Click on banner below to find out more
As we consider the idea that we may be on the cusp of our most exciting season yet can we feel proud that our league is the most competitive in the world or should we lament the drop in standards of certain teams? A decade ago the title race was a two-horse one between Arsenal and Manchester United, each taking their turn holding the trophy with mostly United coming out on top. Then came Roman Abramovich, then Sheik Mansour. Now as we look at our league we can see vast improvements in other teams to leave us with a situation where we have Tottenham, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and the Manchester clubs competing for the title and Champions League places. Then we have a whole host of other teams who have improved beyond what was previously thought possible. Teams like Stoke have been climbing gradually until they are now in a position where they are a force to be reckoned with in both the league and Europe.
So what’s the problem? Competition makes sport more enjoyable, more unpredictable, more entertaining. However, has this increased competition in the league come at a price? In what other league would the reigning champions lose 6-1 at home to a team that is struggling in Europe? What I mean is: in becoming more competitive it seems that some of our teams have become worse.
Best league in the world?
I can’t think of many English football fans, or indeed football fans, that would not say that the Premier League is the ‘best’ league in world football. It is the most commercial, the most competitive, the most exciting and is home to many of the world’s best players. But do we have the best teams? I’m not sure that we do, and whilst it’s nice to have a tough league how can our competition be the best if the best teams don’t play in it?
Man Utd, undoubtedly one of the world’s best teams, have not only been humiliated at home but have also allowed more shots on their goal this season than any other team. Manchester City look good but are struggling on their maiden Champions League excursion, Chelsea are aging at an alarming rate, Liverpool look as mediocre as ever despite spending vast sums of money and Arsenal are going to get worse before they get better. Can we say that any of our teams would beat Spain’s top two at the moment? Or Bayern Munich?
[ad_pod id=’unruly’ align=’right’]
Times have changed
I’m not saying that I expect the Premier League champions each year to reach the points totals that were possible even five years ago but you do expect our clubs to use this competitive nature in our league to better themselves. The old guard need to rise to the challenge of the up and coming teams. They need to progress and they need to reach the high standards that Barcelona and Real Madrid are setting. Otherwise we run the risk of merely swapping teams at the top like Man City for clubs like Arsenal. That doesn’t make the league competitive it just means a change in era. Our league is the most watched in the world because of the style of football and because we have the best teams, or should.
This could be our most exciting Premiership season yet, but is it for all the wrong reasons? I’m not saying for one minute that Man Utd are a team in decline or that the Premier League is getting worse. What I am saying is that teams like Man Utd and Arsenal and Liverpool have been stagnating for years now and they need to use the rise of other teams as a catalyst to push them back to the top. Have Man Utd really been that good since Tevez and Ronaldo left? Is their defence good enough? Have Arsenal ever recovered from the loss of their Henry/Vieira/Bergkamp generation?
It would be interesting to consider if teams such as Man City and Tottenham had not progressed whether our top teams would actually be better? Certainly there has been a dilution of the best players available to the top clubs, the market is tough and the top clubs have to fight hard amongst each other for the players thy want. Ultimately it comes to the question of how many teams can we have competing for the top before the standard of those top teams has to be watered down? And would we rather watch the most competitive league in the world or watch the best teams in the world?
For more debate follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay
Remember to join us for tonight’s LIVE Carling Cup Blog by clicking below
[divider]
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Life is always full of ifs, buts and maybes – Jimmy Adamson’s life more than most. The Turf Moor great, who died on Tuesday at the age of 82, was a title-winning skipper at Burnley in 1960, a fine footballer and a thoroughly good bloke. But he might also have been the manager of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning team. Jim was only 33 years old when the FA offered him the chance to succeed Walter Winterbottom as England boss. When Jim told them he felt he was too inexperienced for the role, the FA bigwigs rang up their second choice, a bloke by the name of Alf Ramsey.
With such great players and with the huge bonus of home advantage, there’s every chance England would still have lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy had Jim been in charge. Despite still playing for the Clarets at the time, Jim was Walter’s assistant manager during the 1962 World Cup in Chile. For England, that meant a month spent halfway up a mountain in the grounds of a copper mine with such primitive resources that one of the boys ended up contracting dysentery.
In a month when the FA revealed their base for next summer’s Euros to be a plush city centre ‘boutique’ hotel in Krakow, it’s worth remembering just how bad things used to be. One of my clearest memories of that copper mine was of Adamson’s Burnley team-mate John Connelly sitting on a cornerstone on the training pitch, simply staring into space for hours on end. A five-star holiday resort this place was not. It was also, as a working mine, completely dry of alcohol.
[divider]
But one evening, the boss tried to alleviate this crushing boredom by allowing us all out to the only bar within a 10-mile radius. As we got on the bus – thirsty for a taste of freedom – Adamson told us that, while we would be free to have a couple of jars, we were at a World Cup, we were representing our country and we had to act like ambassadors. Not that there were any blondes to grope or dwarves to toss in Rancagua. Anyway, a few hours later, as we clambered back onto the bus, Jimmy was standing at the front by the driver – this time leading the singing of salty songs on account of him being more inebriated than any of us!
When Jimmy did go into management with Burnley, Sunderland and Leeds, his record was not earth-shattering and it’s possible he might have been just too nice and too loyal a bloke to have made a great England boss. Had he taken the job, though, there’s no doubt that the Northumberland town of Ashington would have been officially crowned as England’s capital of football, as Jim hailed from there, as did the World Cup-winning Charlton brothers and their uncle Jackie Milburn.
[divider]
Titles
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Jimmy was part of a great Burnley team which, during the early 1960s, was vying with Tottenham to be regarded as the best side in the country. He was a one-club man as a player and, including his time as a coach and manager, he spent around 30 years at Turf Moor. These days, had any player half as good as Jim passed through the ranks at a club the size of Burnley, he’d have been snapped up by a larger outfit. But with no higher wages on offer elsewhere, this was a time when smalltown clubs could win titles.
When we travelled to Burnley, on the team coach after an overnight stay in Manchester’s Grand Hotel, the town used to rise from the mist like Brigadoon. And we always knew we would be in for a red-hot game, especially with a player as talented as Jim leading them out. He might never have enjoyed the worldwide fame of Sir Alf Ramsey, but in one Lancashire town at least, footballers don’t come any more legendary than Jimmy Adamson.
The way Arsenal players celebrated victory at Stamford Bridge you would think they had just won the league; however it goes to show the pressure that everybody at the football club is under. Let’s be honest Arsene Wenger’s men are always seemingly one defeat away from the next crisis, so the nature of the win against Chelsea was the first real statement of intent that this club has produced in a long time. The players knew it, the media knew it, and maybe finally the supporters will wake up to it. This football club has masses of potential, so hopefully this result will go some way to silencing its critics.
I have on this blog championed Arsene Wenger and got a fair amount of stick as a result. I feel the manager has taken a large percentage of the flak, while the board have hidden behind him happy that the manager has continued to work wonders on a shoestring while the financial transition took place following the move to the Emirates. By rights Wenger could have easily made outlandish demands of his board to ensure the ‘invincibles’ of 2004 was suitable replaced in the following years, but his loyalty to his employers ensured he kept his head down and looked to build a side on the cheap so the club wasn’t jeopardised financially in any way. Wenger also managed to ensure Champions League football every season during this time; an unappreciated feat given the competitive nature of the League, with teams spending millions in the hope of achieving it.
The transition is difficult for any football club to take and it’s clearly something Arsenal fans haven’t been use to in some 20 odd years. While supporters have grown frustrated during this time it is worth pointing out that they have been competitive, challenging for the title and reaching a Champions League final. The lack of funds has meant that Wenger has had the opportunity to blood youngsters like Fabregas and Wilshere; players who may not have got their opportunities had the club followed their supporters wishes and spent big. Unfortunately building a football team doesn’t happen overnight and Wenger has been unfortunate that his best laid plans keep getting derailed by the mercenary nature of the modern footballer. The likes of Nasri, Hleb and Adebayor were relatively unknown until they arrived on these shores and yet a successful time at Arsenal saw them get attracted by the bigger money on offer elsewhere. These squad breakups cannot be solely down to Wenger and more down to the current motives of the modern footballer.
Arsene Wenger has endured terrible stick from sections his own support in the past 12 months, who are fed up with the Frenchman’s reasoning. I am not going to sit here and be blind to the fact that a club of Arsenal’s size should go so long without winning silverware, but it’s not as if the Gunners haven’t come close. Had Wenger’s men not got stage-fright at Wembley back in February then this pressure simply wouldn’t be on the manager and supporters, not to mention a few pundits; they would be backing the football club to the hilt. Instead mountains are being made out of molehills and every game now brings its own amount of pressure.
Victory on Saturday now sees the club within 3pts of the top four of the Premier League and subsequently the clouds of gloom are starting to lift from N5 and supporters on the message boards and forums have a little bit of their swagger back. The bottom line is that there isn’t a crisis in the first place and if the supporters adhere to Wenger’s call for unity then the club certainly have the ability to bring an end to their barren run. A little belief can go a long way in football and Arsene Wenger will be hoping that the win at Stamford Bridge could mark a turning point.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Chelsea attacker Juan Mata has stated that the players have no doubts over Andre Villas Boas’ tactics, and back the under-fire manager 100 per cent.
Recent defeats in the Premier League and in Europe have resulted in pressure growing on the Portuguese coach, but despite rumours of discontent in the Stamford Bridge squad, Mata has given his backing to the ex-Porto manager.
“It’s never easy to have such negative results, but we all have a lot of faith in ourselves as a team. We have a lot of faith in our coach and in the quality of the squad,” the Spain international told reporters.
“We had a team meeting last week simply to reiterate that we are all together and that we are heading in the same direction and we showed that against Wolves.
“The group has always been very united, and we have always been sure that the secret in enjoying more success as we go forward, in getting out of this moment, has been to stay strong and stay together,” he stated.
Chelsea take on Liverpool in the Carling Cup on Tuesday night before travelling to Tyneside to face Newcastle next weekend in the league.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Ex-Manchester United midfielder Paul Ince has stated that he believes that his former club need three new players in the January transfer window, amid reports he could be in line for the vacant Preston manager’s post.
The Premier League champions have not been at their most convincing this term, and injuries to key players such as Nemanja Vidic and Darren Fletcher promise to make their bid to retain the top-flight title more difficult.
Ince feels that Sir Alex Ferguson should have an eye on the transfer market for players in a number of different positions.
“I feel they need that creativity in midfield, losing Paul Scholes was a big loss obviously,” he told Radio Five Live.
“You’re not going to get players like Roy Keane or Bryan Robson, those players aren’t around anymore.
“The game has changed since then and you don’t get those type of characters, so he has got to look at another way of controlling the midfield and I think that can come from creativity in someone like Luka Modric or Andres Iniesta, they are the players I would be looking at.
“I’m sure Sir Alex will take stock and he’ll be looking at what type of player he will need in January and it won’t just be in midfield, I’m sure he’s looking at a centre-half with Vidic being out.
“But I’m sure he knows what to do, there’s no point me telling him what to do because he’s the greatest manager I’ve ever played under,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Ince may be in line to make a return to management, as he has emerged as a leading candidate to take over at Preston according to Sky Sports.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The Championship club sacked Phil Brown on Wednesday, and Ince is reported to be on their list of targets.
Sir Alex Ferguson must be wondering if he persuaded the wrong star to come out of retirement this January. While Paul Scholes filled a hole in midfield left by Darren Fletcher’s illness, the Manchester United boss will have been wondering what Edwin Van Der Sar is up to these days after Saturday’s game with Liverpool.
The Dutchman’s calming presence between the sticks at Old Trafford was one of the main explanations of the recent success United have enjoyed, indeed the veteran stopper marshalled the meanest defence in the Premier League, whilst looking unflappable himself under every cross, shot and any other flying ball that came his way. The same cannot be said for the man who was earmarked as his long-term successor at Manchester United. No-one expected David De Gea to slot into Edwin’s shoes with consummate ease, but something tells me even the Spaniard’s worst nightmares couldn’t have conjured up this scenario.
The latest criticism levelled at the goalkeeper came after he hesitated following a Steven Gerrard corner, allowing Daniel Agger to guide the ball into an empty net, setting Liverpool on their way to a 2-1 victory over their bitter rivals. It is just the latest of a string of errors following an erratic start to his time at Old Trafford. He started badly in the Charity Shield win over Manchester City, being caught out again from a cross that allowed Joleon Lescott a free header, before letting an Edin Dzeko strike from range slip through his fingers. Not too many eyebrows were raised, indeed this was still pre-season essentially, but his mistake from Shane Long’s shot during the opening game of the season against West Brom had a few people muttering behind their hands. A few shaky performances later and people were openly questioning the decision to pay Atlético Madrid£18.9 million for his services. To De Gea’s credit, he has produced a few performances out of the top drawer, displaying his superb shot-stopping ability, in particular from Ramires during the 3-1 win over Chelsea in September, not to mention a couple of spectacular saves that won his side a point against Stoke City. His inability to command the penalty area is worrying everyone concerned with the club however, and after a dreadful display against Blackburn on New Year’s Eve, Fergie finally dropped De Gea for Anders Lindegaard. Now, De Gea has failed to grasp his second chance with the blunder against Liverpool, where do United go from here?
[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’left’]
Obviously the club has made the effort to defend their under-fire signing. Fergie told BBC Sport that other players were to blame for Agger’s goal, stating “Our own players created a problem for the first goal. They didn’t give him [De Gea] enough room to deal with it.” One would expect Ferguson to back his player publicly, any manager who openly criticises their own players is in deep trouble, but the problem is, we’ve heard it all before. After that mistake against Blackburn, the manager chose not to focus on the mistake, but more the positive character traits of the man himself, insisting “he’s been terrific, the boy. He trains very well, so it’s easy to manage that.” It doesn’t take an MI5 analyst to see Fergie’s attempts to cover up his young star; indeed De Gea probably needs that fatherly arm around him right now.
Short on confidence, the Premier League is an unforgiving place for a struggling goalkeeper. Just ask many of those former England contenders. Paul Robinson, Rob Green, Scott Carson. Just three examples of decent keepers whose careers were sent spiralling down the pan after certain high profile mistakes. The way sides like Stoke or Blackburn approach the game makes life difficult for a goalkeeper without the command of his penalty area. This is where De Gea struggles. He lacks the communication skills that say Joe Hart, for example, has in abundance, or the ability to claim a hanging ball that all top keepers need. This isn’t a problem faced by the leading La Liga keepers, as the Spanish league doesn’t feature sides with the so-called ‘rugby’ tactics. If De Gea is to achieve his potential with the Red Devils, he needs tutelage in this area and fast. He also seems to lack the physical presence to deal with the Premier League’s more aggressive forwards. Good job Duncan Ferguson has long gone.
Too many people have rated De Gea as a top prospect for him to fail completely. Many scouts round Europe had their eyes on the Spaniard, indeed Fergie and his scouting had picked him out well before Van Der Sar retired. To write off one of the game’s brightest stars would be premature, but it’s difficult to know what United can do for the time being. His demeanour after the cup tie was almost depressing, the man seemed to be suffering on a personal level, hoping for the turf to open and swallow him up. To discard the man at this stage could prove a fatal blow to his confidence and ruin him forever. Lindegaard is a capable understudy and has made it clear he isn’t at Old Trafford to hold hands with Michael Owen on the substitute’s bench. To keep picking the underperforming Spaniard would be an insult to the Dane and in fact to Fergie’s selection policy. But De Gea needs further acclimatisation time that will allow him to adjust to the demands of his new country. Food for thought for Sir Alex.
Article courtesy of Tom Mordey from the Coin Toss
[divider]
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The crucial connection between the media and sport is one that many men’s games can take for granted. The latest Premier League news is often splashed across the newspapers, our television screens and over the internet all the time but with women’s football still well behind their male rivals, where is the support of the media for the one of the fastest growing sports in this country?
The success of this summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup was as much down to the increased exposure as it was the better quality of football. But the women’s game will need to stay in the public eye and in the media well beyond this summer if the game is going to continue developing around the globe.
This summer’s tournament in Germany heralded what seemed almost like a new era for the international women’s game. The final between Japan and the USA became the most tweeted event in history whilst some of Germany’s matches were being watched by a 17 million strong home TV audience, figures that most sporting events either men’s or women’s would do well to attract. But in the UK alone, the media seem to play a very distant role from the most popular team sport for women and the third most popular team sport in terms of participation in this country (behind men’s football and men’s cricket).
Whilst nearly a third of the German population watched their women’s team crash out to Japan in the quarter-finals, interested UK audiences looking to support their team were restricted to the red button, online services or evening highlights packages shown at later times that severely limited the possible audiences for England’s games. Only heavy pressure made the BBC rethink and show England’s quarter-final defeat to France live on BBC2. 939,000 people watched England’s opening group match on the red button whilst 700,000 people tuned into watch the highlights of England’s last group game with Japan. Compare this to the 1.2 million fans that watched England in the final of the 2009 European Championships and the growth of interest from TV audiences in clear.
You would have hoped after the success of the World Cup that the media would have caught onto the idea of better promoting the women’s game, yet England Women’s Euro 2013 qualifier against Slovenia was not only rarely mentioned ahead of kick-off but also only shown live on FATV online. With the England team still just about in the public eye after this summer, it would have been the perfect opportunity to promote the game and England’s qualifying campaign yet coverage was still so limited that few would have known the game was even being played.
ESPN’s deal to show a handful of live FA Women’s Super League games and a weekly highlights package was a step in the right direction but with television being the main platform for which sporting fans can interact with their favourite sports, more needs to be done to get the women’s game on our TV screens.
But television is not the only platform at fault for shutting out women’s football. Beyond the specialised publications dedicated to the sport and a small number of women’s football reporters, both newspapers and magazines rarely have any articles on the women’s game. Outside the major tournaments it takes some serious trawling of the internet to find a good selection of news focused solely on women’s football. There needs to be a more consistent coverage of the women’s game through the Women’s Super League, Women’s Premier League, Euro 2013 qualifying and the UEFA Women’s Champions League to keep the potential momentum building around the sport going.
But with the internet, the most increasingly popular form of the media, comes an opportunity for the women’s game to really impose itself. The Women’s World Cup demonstrated the power of social networking in getting people talking about a sporting event whilst specalised websites and blogs are cropping up as the online interest in women’s football grows.
The FA has also recognised the importance of the media when they launched the Women’s Super League earlier this summer. The launch of the new format came with a marketing and communications plan where all the clubs and the league worked closely together to make sure all the top clubs across the country had some sort of media strategy in place. Despite this, coverage of the summer league was limited. Few would have known that Arsenal Ladies won the league and Continental Cup double other than those who specifically went looking for the news. That’s where in particular I believe the women’s game suffers. With the saturation of sports news available to fans, few would go in specific search of women’s football news when information of other sporting events is so readily available.
The importance of a consistent relationship between women’s football and the media is key for the future of the sport both on and off the pitch. This fact is made even clearer by ESPN’s decision to withdraw coverage of the women’s Premier League Cup final between Nottingham Forest and Barnet earlier this year, a decision that only lost the game exposure but also the clubs revenue through lost sponsorship deals.
But women’s football itself will have to keep improving to really build the relationship with the media that the sport requires. The increased media attention on the World Cup was down to the better quality of the football whilst England women will need to continue to qualify and perform at major tournaments to keep interest in the sport going. Whilst the media have a responsibility to cover the women’s game more openly, with less demand for news on the women’s game, the players and teams will need to do their part to build their profile in the media.
Those in charge of women’s football around the world (including the FA, FIFA and UEFA) also need to do their part to better promote and push the sport into the public eye on a more regular basis. The media through all it’s platforms is the perfect place for women’s football to flourish and when exposure is key, the public needs to be seeing and reading a lot more about the game for it really to be a long-term success.
Do you think the media does enough for the women’s game? If you want to read more of my bite size, 140 character views and thoughts follow me on Twitter @jennyk5
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.