Category Archives: FA WPL

My reaction to the FA WSL 1 going full time professional teams only

So there it is, the FA have announced that the  FA WSL1 has now become the rich boys/girls club and therefore decided demote to FA WSL 2 all the part-time semi-professional teams.

 

Now, this is NOT the fist time that the FA has demoted a side on non sporting merit, they did it back in 2014 when the Doncaster Belles were sent to the newly formed FA WSL2 to make way for Manchester City and its big money investment. It has to be said, Manchester City have been very succesful since and set the standard for many clubs in term of investment and facilities, but it still does not make it right for the Belles to have been sent down.

 

As we all know when sporting merit disappear and a close league appear, something gets lost somewhere although it is hard to define and quantify how to call it. Some would call it the football spirit, others might call it sporting integrity.  With clubs being franchises since the FA WSL inception, you do wonder if the FA  has always wanted the FA WSL1 to become long-term a typical US style league.

 

Back in 2011, when the League started, the clubs were given a three years tenure and protection to start-up the league. Promotion was only introduced with the FA WSL2 creation in 2014. At the time, the promotion was introduced on sporting merit, pending the usual financial and marketing investment possible. Three seasons ago promotion from the FA WPL to the FA WSL was also introduced on sporting merit, also pending the usual financial and marketing criteria and this year will see the first relegation from FA WSL2 to the FA WPL. This is the usual and natural functionality in the football pyramid.

 

So far in the FA WSL history no promotion has been rejected by the FA, be it to the FA WSL1 or the FA WSL2. There were no problems on financial ground and rightly so. But this sudden change will therefore halt all chances of success story like the one from Yeovil Town Ladies. They were a combination team for many years and went up all the way to FA WSL1 on a small budget with important values like their fans bill of rights and success on the pitch based on beautiful quality attacking football.

 

Now for the FA to close the door for that kind of team or any semi-professional team or even amateur, because they are not rich enough and don’t have enough facilities is really a kick in the teeth to the football traditional values. To me this is such a sad news really. Gone is the idea that a team can go up the leagues through hard work and football results. It originally happened when the FA WSL started in 2011 and the closed League system was not well received by many fans as it was a clear break from the way the football pyramid had been built and organized.

 

Let me be clear on one point, I think there is nothing wrong with the FA trying to have a full-time professional FA WSL1, this is what is needed at medium or long-term. But there are multiple ways to achieve this and natural organic natural growth for the teams in WSL1 would have made more sense to me.

 

We are now talking about a minimum investment needed for all the WSL1 teams, fine, it does make sense. Then what happens, if teams run out of cash because they cannot sustain the life style? Will the FA put in place more rigorous controls than the ones that allowed Notts County Ladies to fold?  Introducing the single unique business model to FA WSL1  in which is women’s teams supported by a parent’s men club is a dangerous game, as history can give us countless examples of teams going under as soon as the men’s team money vanished.

 

I mean how many self sustainable women’s teams exist without the men’s team money ? Not many because they simply cannot go in the red every year and accumulate debts like the Sunderland men’s team can do. To close the door to those teams on the basis that they can’t find a rich owner or a rich parent club, is just wrong.

I was talking earlier about copying the close door US League style, but it was also mentioned among fans that the FA would also love the FA WSL to have the same brand recognition as the Premier League. What better way to have the big Premier League clubs in the FA WSL and therefore the constant  lobbying of Manchester United to join the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea in the FA WSL1.

 

Now that new FA WSL1 will be launched, the FA can say “sayonara” to the likes of  Yeovil and Sunderland,( unless they come up with a pro team business plan), “you can go to the FA WSL2 as you are not rich enough “and then can promote anyone with bigger pockets from the  FA WSL2 or even below providing  that they can come with the right financial package.

 

You do wonder how many teams will be able to buy-in their way into that new FA WSL1 and how will the left-out teams will be redistributed. At the moment, there are 10 teams per WSL Division. I would be delighted to see  at least 8 full-time teams with sufficient financial means. But as we have known for years,  a league with only 8 teams is rubbish for scheduling, but that’s a problem for another day. I am genuinely curious to see how many teams will be able to sustain the investment level required by the FA. I am quite amazed the FA are looking at up to 14 teams overall to go full time professional.

So as the FA introduces another change to women’s football, we can say bye-bye for sure to the romantic idea of teams going through the leagues on sporting merit and hello to the big money boys and girls teams at the highest level.  Let’s hope no elite team will collapse in the near future and those left behind also suffer no consequences from their demotion.

I put a twitter poll asking about the changes implementing by the FA and although it is an extremely small sample, which means statistically it does not really reflect the fans’ view overall, the results are quite clear

23% approval rate is quite low, 54% rejecting the idea and and 23% thinking it is not even a serious idea to do so.

 

Obviously the FA are looking at what can improve the England team and the overall women’s football level in the country and they know what they are doing with the Gameplan for growth, but sometimes you do wonder if they act on the best interest for the clubs.

FA WSL licence application for 2018/19 extended

The news came about a month ago following the demise of Notts County Ladies and the restructure of the WSL1 and WSL2 with Everton promoted to make it ten teams in each division. But as usual questions remain as there are some grey areas in the announcement.

The most curious point is actually when the FA made the original announcement back in December 2016   they actually opened for 20 WSL teams licences available, which did  not make sense at the time as the FA WPL was going to get promoted for the 2017/18 season.  So if Notts had not folded , there would have been 21 teams including newly promoted Spurs fighting for 20 licences.

“The alignment of the FA WSL season with the rest of the women’s football pyramid will mean that relegation from FA WSL 2 into the FA Women’s Premier League (FA WPL) will be introduced from the 2017-18 season.”

It is great to see relegation introduced and it will mean more pressure for teams at the bottom of the FA WSL2.

“The promotion position for the FA Women’s Premier League (FA WPL) play-off winners will be continued.”

“The licences will begin for the 2018-19 season and, for the first time, will not be fixed-term. Clubs will need to continue to meet licence criteria on an annual basis.”

This is a huge change and quite a disruptive one as team can lose their licence and we do not know where they would end up if they lose theirs. You also have to question what will happen to promotion relegation as well as teams could be promoted/relegated off the pitch, while the on the pitch results are different.

“Should a place in the FA WSL become available outside of promotion and relegation, it will be made available through an open application process.”

We all know that there is media pressure for United to get a women’s team but Southampton who now have an RTC and a u20 team are in better position to grab a licence if there is an opening.

Coming back to the point in bold, the application have been extended to a deadline on the 9th of october
“Under the revised schedule, recommendations will be made to and assessed by the FA Women’s Football Board by end of December 2017. “

“The constitution of clubs within the competition will be confirmed at the FA WSL AGM in June 2018. Licences will begin from the 2018-19 season.”

So basically by January 2018, the teams will already know where if they  will play FA WSL1, FA WSL2 or if they will lose their licence for the 2018/19 season. We are talking here FIVE months before the end of the 2017/18 season.

And then we get told there is promotion relegation between FA WSL 1 – FA WSL 2 and  FA WSL 2- FAWPL. Now, it is does not make sense to me at all, does it means the FA will actually have promotion relegation off the pitch as well as promotion relegation on the pitch.

Remember prior to the 2014 season Doncaster Belles were relegated off the pitch one game into their season and went to FA WSL 2, while newcomer Manchester City Ladies went straight to FA WSL1. And to be fair, considering City’s investment for their women’s football team, it was with hindsight the right decision.

So far example, what if the team with the smallest FA WSL 1 budget finishes in ninth place or higher and  is actually outbid by one team from the FA WSL 2 that subsequently replace them for the 2018/19 season when licence are delivered.

Does it mean that the team that finished bottom of the FA WSL 1 is not relegated and the team that finished top of the FA WSL 2 is not promoted, or does it mean that we would see a double promotion relegation?

And because licences are now offered for one season only and need to be renewed every season, we will get the same scenario every season and we don’t know if off the pitch results takes priority over on the pitch results.

At the end of the day, if a team is not allowed to compete in FA WSL1 because of lack of money, infrastructure or else, but is promoted or staying up in the division, you have to wonder what the FA will decided to do and it is an incredibly grey area.

As previously mentioned the Belles were demoted one game into their season and the FA got lucky that they finished bottom of the FA WSL 1 that year and it looked like a normal relegation rather than a demotion to the general public.

 

I intend to ask the FA and see what the answer they come up with as the impact of those decisions is important in term of fairness of the competition.

FA Women’s Premier League season 2017/18

 

 

The 2017/18 season will start on Sunday the 20th of August 2017 and supposed to finish with the play-off game on Sunday the 27th of May 2018. The play-off winner should be replaced the team finishing at the bottom of the FA WSL2.

The following 105 teams will compete in the six  FA Women’s Premier League Divisions

In the Southern Division, there will be  a question mark if Cardiff can get promoted as FA WSL teams but be registered with an English county, but rumors last season going round suggested they would be allowed to go up.

Charlton are favourite while, Cardiff and Coventry have always finished closed to the top in recent seasons. We also know that Crystal Palace and West Ham Utd are ambitious and are planning to try to get to the FA WSL in the future.

In the Northern Division, Blackburn Rovers will be the team to beat as they finished the League season unbeaten and won the League with 11 and 20 points ahead of second and third place.

The full fixtures list will be revealed in July. The FA WPL Cup draw has also been made as well as the Reserves Cup draw with ties to be played on the 3rd of September.

The reserves Leagues are as follows :

and the Reserves cup draw is as follows

I will try to get to FA WPL games when I am not at FA WSL or international games as it is a very entertaining and interesting Leagues and there are some diamonds in those teams that could play at a higher level if given a chance.

 

 

Watford Ladies v Spurs Ladies

I went to Vicarage Road on Wednesday to watch an interesting friendly between Watford currently in FA WSL 2 and Spurs Ladies who have just won the FA WPL Southern Division and will contest the FA WSL promotion play-off against Blackburn Rovers.

Unfortunately for fans, the game was played behind closed door and I guess this is due to cost involved in policing stewarding etc as the matchday revenue would certainly not cover the use of the ground.

I think it was good for both team’s players to play at such a venue rather than their usual ground.  What I noticed is all the players seem to enjoy the venue and not troubled by playing at such a nice ground. Obviously a couple of Watford players had already played there and Spurs recently won the FA WPL title at White Hart Lane.

Watford ended up 2-0 winners in a game where both sides decided to rotate their team. Simona Petkova scored an excellent volley from a corner in the first half and Cherelle Albert added a second goal from the penalty spot.

It was certainly interesting as Spurs are certainly looking to promotion in the FA WSL and from the number of games I saw this year they would not look out of place, the only exception being the FA Women’s Cup North London Derby where they looked like a rabbit caught in the headlight and did not perform at their usual level.

Watford Ladies are obviously in a rebuilding process with Keith Boanas trying new players and he is likely to make even more signings during the Summer break as players become available.

So it was an entertaining game and a real shame, only friends and family were invited to watch it.

March 2017 FA WSL/FA WPL international call-ups

For those who are not familiar with the FIFA Women’s International match calendar, there is an international window for teams where they can play up to four games from the 27th of February to the 8th of March.

The following tournaments involve players from the FA WSL 1&2  and FA WPL. The club have to release the players to their national team as per the FIFA regulations and FA WSL clubs with games during the tournament can request a postponement.

Of course, the FA have blocked the dates so that no FA WSL 1 games are being played but they put the FA WSL 2 Matchday 4 in that period of time , for some unknown reason.

The FA WSL Spring Series rules say :

“A Club having three (3) or more Qualifying Players or one (1) goal keeper selected for international duty in accordance with Annexe 1 of The FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (this does not include Players on standby) by their National Association for senior representative, under 21, under 20 or under 19 national representative matches (or any combination thereof) may request a postponement of any Competition Matches that takes place during the period of time in which the Players are called up by their National Association team or within 2 days of their return from international duty provided that at least 10 days’ notice in writing has been given to the Competition Secretary. The Management Committee shall decide in its absolute discretion whether the postponement shall be granted.    ”

So the FA can actually refuse a postponement and penalize a team that is forced to send their player on international duty by FIFA to field a weaker team. Make what you want of this rule, but if half of your team is on international duty and you have to play a game, the integrity of that competition is simply compromised.

The FA WPL rules say :

“Clubs shall support The Football Association in relation to International Matches in
accordance with the provisions of The Football Association Rules.
A Club having 2 players or more selected for International Duty for their National
Association may request a postponement of its League fixture provided that at least
10 days notice is given to the League Secretary in writing.
If 1 player is selected and that player is the goalkeeper a Club could make a similar
request for the postponement of its League fixture. This will only apply to Senior
and Under 19 matches which are played within the FIFA Women’s International
match calendar.”

Those are the actual tournaments played in the international window :

SheBelieves Cup, Algarve Cup, Cyprus Cup, Istria Cup, La Manga U23, La Manga U19 and players from FA WSL 1&2 and FA WPL will take part is those tournaments. You would certainly expect some games to be postponed or at least requested to be postponed in that period.

The following players from the top two Leagues have been called up so far, file will be updated as soon country relase their news.

international

The FA open the FA WSL licensing from 2018-19, analysis part 2

In part 2, I will speak about certain things that don’t make sense to me in the FA information published yesterday

This is part of the FA WPL 2016/17 regulations published by the FA  a few months ago

“For Season 2016/17 the Champion Club as determined by the Championship Play-Off Final match outlined at paragraph (iv) will be promoted to FA WSL subject to eligibility and ability to meet FA WSL Licensing Criteria.”

Now if that promotion happens, the FA WSL2 would have 11 teams in 2017/18 and one team will be relegated as what is written below at the end of that season ? The wording from the FA is extremely confusing on that situation.1

Let’s rewind to the Spring Series, FA WSL 1 will have 10 teams and FA WSL 2 will have 10 teams.  Their season end in May 2017 for WSL 2 and early June 2017 for WSL 1. The FA WPL play-off should happen early May like in the previous seasons.

If the FA WPL play-off winner is promoted as per the regulations, the FA WSL 2 will have 11 teams in 2017/18. In the meantime, the promoted team won’t be in the running for a 2018/19 license, as there are 20 open and only to the current FA WSL teams with a deadline at the end of March 2017. Does this mean that team will automatically get relegated at the end of the 2017/18 season ?

But if we look at the BBC article about the changes, it seems promotion from the FA WPL won’t happen at the end of the 2016/17 season.

“There will be one relegation spot in WSL 2 from the end of the first winter season to drop out of the WSL.

One club will continue to be promoted from the WPL up to the second tier, via a play-off, each season, with the winners of the WPL Northern Division facing the Southern champions.

In between WSL 1 and WSL 2, one team will continue to be relegated each season, while one team will be promoted.

This one-up, one-down system throughout the top three tiers means there will a total of 20 teams in the WSL, with 10 teams in each division, bringing a halt to the WSL’s expansion, which started in 2014.”

Now, with promotion this season, if one team from the FA WSL 2 is relegated to the FA WPL at the end of 2017/18 and the FA WPL 2017/18 champion is promoted we would have 11 teams in FA WSL 2 comes the start of the 2018/19 season. 21 teams and 20 licenses only ?

And in the meantime one team that would have been given a 2018/19 license would lose it potentially to an unlicensed team for 2018/19, if the FA WPL 2016/17 champions stays up. Now if you give a license to a team and do not honor it, you open yourself to legal action or any kind of appeal imo.

The only way for the FA WSL 2 to stay at 10 teams is to have two relegation from FA WSL 2 to the FA WPL for one promotion at the end of the 2017/18 season  or, simply to cancel that article from the FA WPL rules and have no team promoted at the end of the  2016/17 season.

Now let’s have a look at the curious situations that could arise from the fact that the license for the season 2018/19 will be distributed prior to the season 2017/18 will be played on the pitch. It obviously means that on the pitch result are irrelevant after all for 2017/18.

1a from the situation above, one the 10 FA WSL 2 team gets a 2018/19 license, but is relegated at the end of the 2017/18 season on the pitch. It looks like on the pitch result would prevail. But then why grant a license to that team, if they are not guaranteed an access to FA WSL 2? Why not wait until the end of the 2017/18 season to attribute the licenses?

1b same case a below , the FA WSL 2 team is granted a FA WSL 1 license for 2018/19 and is relegated on the pitch at the end of the 2017/18 season. What takes precedence, the on the pitch or off the pitch results ?

2 a FA WSL 2 team is not granted a licence for 2018/19 and is promoted on the pitch to FA WSL 1 . The answer is clear that team goes down to the FA WPL or any step lower in the pyramid, but that would embarrass the FA and shock the public.

3a same thing with a FA WSL 1 team not granted a licence 2018/19 wins the title or qualify for the Champions League. Again no doubt, that team would be kicked out of the FA WSL. Another embarrassment for the FA to have a Champions League side playing at level 3,4,or 5 in the pyramid. You could imagine the uproar should a League 1 side was competing in the men’s champions league.

3b same case a FA WSL1 team is granted a FA WSL 2 license and  qualify for the champions league, no problems, relegation for the team but an embarassment to have a lower division team playing in the elite european club competition.

The FA announcement leaves so many loopholes open and the timing of the Licensing choice is so wrong and they really should have done it later or renewed the licence from the 2017/18 seasons to avoid all the potential conflicts that will arise.

And I am not even talking about the transparency of the process as we still don’t know if it was fairly applied in the two previous times for the 2011 and 2014 licenses. Why the FA never published the teams ranking and the reason for giving licences to certain teams is beyond me. It only fuels the suspicion of conspiracy theories and bitterness for the teams not selected.

The FA open the FA WSL licensing from 2018-19, a short analysis

The FA have finally announced the opening of the licensing for the FA WSL from 2018/19 and as usual it is quite surprising to read.

The first line come as a shock as :

“Applications will only be open to current FA WSL clubs – with 20 licences available (10 for each division).”

Basically any  non promoted FA WPL or newly created club will have to wait for their turn, unless one of the current team decides not to try to renew their licence.

“The FA WSL clubs have made great strides in the past six years and have demonstrated a massive commitment to the women’s game. It is crucial that we build on these foundations and work together to strengthen the standard of the league, which is why we have elected to firstly open the applications to the current FA WSL clubs.

The clubs have worked tirelessly since the FA WSL was launched to establish themselves, develop players and coaches and build their fan bases and its right that we reward that level of time and investment”

You could bet there are some FA WPL teams, who are better financially and marketing wise that some FA WSL 2 teams today, and on the pitch as well, but they cannot bid for a place.

As of today and pending the promotion for Yeovil and Bristol and Doncaster’s relegation, here are the expected teams for FA WSL 1 and FA WSL 2.

FA WSL 1 (10)  : Arsenal, Birmingham, Bristol, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester, Notts County, Reading, Sunderland, Yeovil

FA WSL 2 ( 10) : Aston Villa, Brighton, Doncaster, Durham, Everton, London Bees, Millwall, Oxford, Sheffield and Watford

 

Another very surprising point is the deadline and  timing result of the bids :

“The deadline for applications is 31 March 2017. The applications will then be reviewed and approved by The FA Women’s Football Board at their meeting in mid-May 2017.”

Teams have three months to prepare their bids, which is quite short, but they are all well used to the bidding process. To me the timing is all wrong again. The FA clearly does not mind having teams who know that they will be promoted or relegated in June 18 by June 2017. Does this make sense ?

We will have potentially the same issue that happened last time round, when Doncaster Belles were demoted after Matchday 1 and with 13 games to go. How can teams get motivated, if they know that they will go down at the end of the season.

It also means no relegation/promotion on the pitch actually, as all teams will come with a  clean slate in 2018/19. You could end up with teams earning promotion/relegation on the pitch, but not rewarded because they are not strong enough off the pitch.

Although this has been in place since 2011 with off the pitch criteria having priority on football results, it still feels a bit annoying to see sporting results not rewarded. But we have known it from the start, when all teams became franchises rather than football clubs.

One good news is the introduction of relegation from the FA WSL 2 to the FA WPL, something that should have happened years ago, but was not possible because of the League  different schedules.

“The alignment of the FA WSL season with the rest of the women’s football pyramid will mean that relegation from FA WSL 2 into the FA Women’s Premier League (FA WPL) will be introduced from the 2017-18 season.

The promotion position for the FA Women’s Premier League (FA WPL) play-off winners will be continued.”

” we know that there is a lot of excellent work taking place across the FA WPL and clubs at all levels and we will help those clubs, to be ready on and off the pitch should they win promotion. We believe that introducing relegation from the FA WSL to FA WPL will further increase the competitiveness and quality of the league.”

 

One of the newest and biggest point is licensing is only valid for one season, a huge change from the previous situations when they were given for 3 and 5 years.

“The licences will begin for the 2018-19 season and, for the first time, will not be fixed-term. Clubs will need to continue to meet licence criteria on an annual basis.”
Teams who fail to fulfill the criteria might end up demoted to the FA WPL or any lower division as there is no explanation given yet. You would expect teams to get dropped to regional level though ?
“Should a place in the FA WSL become available outside of promotion and relegation, it will be made available through an open application process”
This is the backdoor entry, if one of the 20 FA WSL team do not meet the criteria for FA WSL 1 &2. That way a team below the FA WSL with enough money and marketing might come in straightaway.  For example, one team might fail in their bid and by June 2017, the FA could open a licence to replace one or more teams.
 Then comes the financial side of the business with the FA  pledging to give more money to the clubs :

“Following consultation with clubs, the new licences will see current club development grants replaced by partnership funding agreements. These bespoke agreements will ensure funding is directed to both support the unique need of each individual club’s development along with the league as a whole.

FA WSL 1 clubs will have access to up to £92,500, increased from the current £70,000 allocation, while FA WSL 2 clubs will have access to up to £62,500, increased from £35,000.”

This is exactly the opposite of what they were proposing back in 2010 when the FA WSL licensing opened :

finance
There some new medical criteria as well, nothing really dramatic in there, in order to improve the players fitness :

“As part of the new licence criteria, all FA WSL 1 clubs will be required to employ a full-time strength and conditioning coach, while FA WSL 2 clubs must implement daily strength and conditioning programmes for players.”

 

Let’s hope there are no big surprises come the licensing results are announced in May or we could see some very strange situations develop.

FA WSL 2018 licensing what could happen next ?

Back in 2013, licensing was given to clubs for the 2014-2018 period, so we are now getting close to the  bidding reopening soon. hopefully next year but teams are surely preparing their application especially the potential new entrants.

The 2017-18 season will see a return to the winter season and we will have the following teams competing :

WSL 1 10 teams : Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Birmingham, Notts County,  and two out of the following three teams : Sunderland, Reading and Doncaster. plus the two promoted teams

WSL 2 10 teams : the WSL1 relegated team,two of the four following teams Bristol, Yeovil, Everton and Durham, London Bees, Aston Villa, Sheffield FC, Millwall Lionesses, Oxford United, Watford Ladies plus the team promoted after the FA WPL 2016/17 play-off.

Let’s remember the minimum licensing criteria and the minimum budget which is matching what the FA give to the FA WSL sides

licensing

WSL 1 minimum budget is £140,000 and WSL 2 is £70,000.There is no doubt that the top 3 teams budget is not far from 10 times the minimum budget for the 2013-18 period so there is no doubt that their licensing will be renewed.

The big question is do all the 20 teams have done a good enough job to retain their licence, especially off the pitch. I mean the on the pitch fortunes can change very quickly and is clearly linked to budget and recruitment but on the marketing and infrastructure side, some side might be behind the targets.

If you also look at the FA  targets in terms of attendance, I am not sure many have actually reached them in WSL1&2 this season.

I believe there will be a raft of new entrants application for the 2018 licences and the worse rated WSL team might actually lose their licence. we might even get a situation with teams actually not applying for renewal, if some of the parents club do not intend to back up their Ladies/Women side with enough cash.

There have been rumors in the women’s football world of Southampton or AFC Fylde looking to bid for a FA WSL place with good backing and also there is no real traction behind this, people always wonder if Manchester United could one day relaunch their women side.

At the end of the day, with a combined week’s wages of Rooney, Pogba and Ibrahimovic, United would certainly have a budget to compete with the current top 3 teams. It is a big question mark about the licensing process.

Will a new entrant access straight to WSL 1 like Manchester City did in 2014 and therefore kick-out from the division one of the team like it happened to the Belles, who were relegated one game into the 2013 season. Will the new entrants in WSL2 also kick out some of the WSL2 teams back to the WPL or lower divisions?  It will be an interesting time when the licencing reopen next year.

And because there is no transparency on the bid selection, we will have the same conspiracy theory as seen for the 2011 and 2014 licences when people did wonder what had happened and why certain teams were selected rather than others. The only transparency we saw was for Doncaster because they appealed and therefore some stuff was disclosed.

Otherwise, everything will stay as opaque as it was for the first two times.

Lewes 7 West Ham 2

It was a proper entertaining game today between Lewes Ladies and West Ham Ladies. West Ham took a 2-0 lead before Lewes answered with  seven goals back. Quite an extraordinary turnaround.

For those who want a proper match report please look on sentherforward because I am gonna do a short analysis and nothing else here.

West Ham played in a 4-5-1 system that was quite stable and sometimes rigid that left the lone striker quite isolated at times. You can see what James Marrs is trying to do in term of football:

Patient build-up, attacking play from the back, short passing to get out of their defensive third. This kind of gameplan takes months to put into place and I would say at least three months will be needed to set things up as it is a quite a different philosophy from Marc Nurse.

Lewes played in a formation that I never managed to decipher to be honest. The base looked like a 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield / 4-3-3 in defensive phase. While in attacking phase, there was a wing back on the right, three centre backs with a defensive midfielder dropping deep, the number 8 in a free role and the left winger roaming down the wing.

Lewes pressed very high on the pitch to counter West Ham’s passing game and it worked quite well as the home team created many chances  early in the game without scoring.

Against the run of play West Ham managed to score two goals from two attacking moves. They were very clinical, every time they managed to go through the first line of Lewes defensive system. Once they got through that line West Ham found pockets of space for the forwards to run at.

On the other side, Lewes scored via multiple rockets from 25 yards or more and via set pieces. They took advantage on set pieces of the quite small West Ham goalkeeper who was previously at Watford and at Middlesex Centre Of Excellence.

She had a very good game, making many important saves but in term of shot going just under the bar, there was nothing she could do.

Personally I will always prefer a smaller goalie rather than a Karen Bardsley who is not very good technically with her feet but can save higher ball, altough she tends to drop crosses as well. The goalkeeper type depends on the football you try to play. See Joe Hart who is not good enough to play for City as his set of skills is not adapted to Guardiola’s football.

Talking about set pieces, West Ham did not defend them well. If your goalkeeper is not the tallest, you should at least be prepared defensively to help her out and West ham did not do it and conceded many goals.

Lewes were very good in pressing and maximizing the potential weaknesses of their opposition and really clinical on set pieces. They scored some fantastic goals, one of them can be seen here

It will be interesting to see how these two teams develop throughout the season and if they can be around in the promotion to FA WSL 2 race.

 

 

 

The FA Women’s Premier League starts on Sunday

The FA WPL is back on Sunday the 21st of August and the season will end with the now traditional promotion to FA WSL 2 play-off game.

 

Promotion/relegation rules :
For the 2016/2017 season only, the club crowned champion of The FA Women’s Premier
League at the end of The FA Women’s Premier League season will be promoted to The FA
WSL 2 (Step S2). Any such promotion will be in accordance with the league rules of The
FA Women’s Premier League and The FA Women’s Super League and the competition
structure in place following the relevant club’s promotion*.
*The current structure of The FA WSL and women’s summer football pyramid is under
review and promotion to The FA WSL will be promotion to the competition structure
agreed in respect of The FA WSL by The Women’s Football Board and The FA WSL
Management Committee.

The Clubs in the bottom two places in each of the two divisions at Step W1 (FAWPL Northern and Southern Divisions) will be relegated to Step W2 (FAWPL Division Ones). They will be replaced by the Clubs finishing in 1st position in each of the Leagues at Step W2 subject to the ground grading criteria for Step W1.

The Clubs in the bottom two places in each of the four divisions at Step W2 will be relegated
to Step W3 (Regional League Premier Divisions). They will be replaced by the Clubs
finishing in 1st position in each of the Leagues at Step W3. Should a Club finishing in 1st
position not wish to be considered for promotion, then the Club finishing in 2nd or 3rd place may take its place. Clubs finishing lower than 3rd place will not be considered for promotion.

Note 1: as the FA WSL  will move to winter football, the FA WPL should become the Step W3 f0r the season 2017/18.

Note 2 : Cardiff City cannot win promotion to the FA WSL as per the FA WSL rules.

The Full-time link  to the FA WPL Northern Division and the FA WPL Southern Division

Looking at the players registered in the FA WPL side, there are many quality players who used to play in the FAWSL 1&2 and also many who used to be in the FA WPL before the FA WSL was formed.

The quality of the Division is also good because you see many players who came from the centre of excellences and FA WSL development teams playing senior football at that level. They bring what the skills that have learnt through the years to the game and it is a big positive.