The Frustum System - Women's Leagues and Cups 2018/19

[Diable Rouge]

First semi final of the Continental Cup (essentially the Carabao Cup equivalent) between Chelsea and Man City is live and free here:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...80805138628010

Arsenal play Man Utd in the other semi final tomorrow.

And Man United performed creditably in defeat against a side going for the Super League title - obviously their parachuting into the Championship has been highly controversial, but best that they actually make an effort on this occasion, rather than the lip service of the previous incarnation.

[Kevin S]

First semi final of the Continental Cup (essentially the Carabao Cup equivalent) between Chelsea and Man City is live and free here:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...80805138628010

Arsenal play Man Utd in the other semi final tomorrow.

[Kevin S]

Bad weather affected the fourth round of the FA Cup, so not all ties are settled yet. The rearranged ones will be played this Sunday. Man Utd have technically caused an upset, as that is a Championship team knocking out a WSL side in Brighton.

Levels on the Frustum are shown in brackets.

Loughborough Foxes (3) – Sheffield United (2)
Charlton Athletic (2) – Huddersfield Town (3)
Stoke City (3) – Aston Villa (2)
Yeovil Town (1) – Birmingham City (1)
Millwall Lionesses (2) – Lewes FC (2)
Durham (2) – Cardiff City (3)
Reading (1) – Keynsham Town (4)
Liverpool (1) – Milton Keynes Dons (3)

Brighton & Hove Albion (1) 0–2 Manchester United (2)
West Ham United (1) 3–1 Blackburn Rovers (3)
Manchester City (1) 3–0 Watford (3)
AFC Wimbledon (4) 0–3 Bristol City (1)
Crystal Palace (2) 0–3 Tottenham Hotspur (2)
Everton (1) 0–2 Chelsea (1)
Crawley Wasps (4) 0–4 Arsenal (1)
Leicester City Women (2) 0–2 London Bees (2)


The fifth round is due to be played on Sunday 17th, with the draw below.

Liverpool (1) / Milton Keynes Dons (3) – Millwall Lionesses (2) / Lewes FC (2)
Bristol City (1) – Durham (2) / Cardiff City (3)
Reading (1) / Keynsham Town (4) – Yeovil Town (1) / Birmingham City (1)
Chelsea (1) – Arsenal (1)
Manchester United (2) – London Bees (2)
West Ham United (1) – Charlton Athletic (2) / Huddersfield Town (3)
Stoke City (3) / Aston Villa (2) – Loughborough Foxes (3) / Sheffield United (2)
Tottenham Hotspur (2) – Manchester City (1)

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

BBC Sport's headline at the moment reads "England's Nobbs out of women's cup".

[Janik]

You have to consider Hegerberg's goalscoring record in context of the team she has been playing for, and just now dominant they are. Lyon had topped 100 goals domestically in each of the four complete seasons she has spent there, which is a considerable number when you consider that the Ligue 1 Feminine season is only 22 games long. They averaged 5.3 goals per game from 2014-2018. A lot of their matches are shooting fish in a barrel.
For Lyon's main striker to be rumbling along at a shade over 1 goals per game is about par, really. It's more or less what Hegerberg's predecessor in the role, Lotta Schelin, managed. That Hegerberg hits the level she does is what keeps her place in that team

[Uncle Ethan]

This season I've started commentating on Perth Glory in the W-League for TV. Some good football and one of the world's best in Sam Kerr so you get plenty of enjoyable moments. The Matildas (Australian Women's national team) are drawing decent crowds every time they play at home. Avoiding the twerking twerp, it's worth checking out Hegerberg's stats. She has some goalscoring record.

[ad hoc]

So, finally women's football gets a ballon d'or... and when the winner - Ada Hegerberg - gets on stage the host asks her to twerk.

I truly despair

[Janik]

It may just be an effect of the floodlights (probably is), but the Women's away kit somehow seems to be a strong shade of pink than the Men's.

For comparison, against a similarly kitted out South Coast side. Though maybe not in the long view.

[Kevin S]

Crowds seem to be 2000-2500 so far for their home matches by the way, but they even managed to swell this Lewes (Sussex!) crowd up to nearly 2000 today.

[Kevin S]

Haven't seen a pitch like this for a while.

https://twitter.com/ManUtdWomen/status/1069255303194136576

[Kevin S]

Pick. That. Out.

https://twitter.com/fc_video/status/1051534173410873354

[Janik]

A crowd of nearly 5,000 showed up yesterday for Manchester United's first competitive home match. That is a very impressive number. It's probably inflated by the historic nature of the fixture, but if they maintain something somewhat similar to that in the long term it will throw a gauntlet down to Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and in particular Manchester City to drive up the attendances at their Women's sides games. Which would be a positive impact.

Man U lost the match, btw. 2-0 to Reading.

[Uros Predic]

And yes, the whole thing seems very flimsy and beholden to charity. They are trying to run before they can walk in establishing a pro game...

Exactly that. A friend who works with the Belles, just posted this on another forum, which speaks volumes about the issue at hand for the sides not affiliated with men's clubs...

"If the FA would just let the game grow naturally, even slightly, then the Belles would be fine. But rising demands from the FA have meant they had to abandon their own growth plans and prioritise other things [i.e. finding money very quickly] to stay sustainable".

[Janik]

Man Utd are semi-pro, aren't they? Doubtful that the money will be better, though they may be paying an established international like Greenwood rather more than some of her younger teammates.
I think many of the players who moved are former Man Utd youth team players who were forced to find new clubs due to the lack of a senior side, and are now coming 'home'.

And yes, the whole thing seems very flimsy and beholden to charity. They are trying to run before they can walk in establishing a pro game, though that aim does remain a meritorious one. However if they did it by having a joint TV contract for the WSL and Premier League, with a stipulation that just 1% of the money went to WSL sides, that would give a pot of £27.7m a year to fund the Women's game (based on the 2016-19 Premier League deals totaling £8.3b overall). If that method was used it would result in clubs running sides to access this money rather than funding them, and would allow independent operations to contemplate running a pro outfit. It seems so simple, and whilst the male clubs would surely object it would be politically difficult for them to resist such a small fraction of their revenues being redirected, just £1.38m per club redirected when the lowest paid in 2016-17 got £93m and the difference of a single place in the Premier League table was £1.94m. That is lost in the wash stuff, given that one win turning into a draw can be more costly...

[Doraemon]

They have all turned up at Man Utd.

It seems slightly odd in a World Cup year that they should choose to drop down a league. But I guess at their level, money is as important a factor as career goals.

The new structure appears to now be totally beholden to the men's game and its not hard to see individual clubs being significantly affected by the performance of their men's team, rather than anything they do themselves.

[Janik]

Some weird shit is happening at Liverpool. Three players - Alex Greenwood, Martha Harris and Amy Turner - have all just left.

They have all turned up at Man Utd.

[Ray de Galles]

Terrible news and disgusting behaviour by the FA.

[Kevin S]

Fuck! Sorry to hear this UP, that's just utterly shite.

[Uros Predic]

I was worried about the Belles, considering how many players had left the club of late... turns out I had good reason to be.

Today the Belles have taken voluntary demotion to the third tier National League as they feel they're unable to meet the criteria demanded of the new Championship. Not at all unexpected sadly, as they follow Sheffield in dropping down. The FA's money-led approach always meant time was running out for independent women's clubs and that has come to pass.

It's an absolute travesty that the FA have not just allowed this to happen, they've pretty much full on facilitated. When the playing field was level the Belles showed themselves to be the best in the country; but from the moment the FA got involved in the women's game that field has been tilted further and further against them. In hindsight it's remarkable that they've managed to fight against it for so long. I'm genuinely gutted.

[ursus arctos]

It isn’t completely clear, as this was only announced this week.

Strangely enough, PPV and I are discussing it on the “youth team” thread. As far as I can tell, at least some of the Brescia players will be offered laces with Milan Femminile, but the Brescia club will continue to exist as an amateur organisation.

[Kevin S]

Yowsers! How will that affect the players and staff?

[ursus arctos]

Juventus finished the season on equal points with Brescia, and won the title on penalties after the spareggio finished 0-0.

Milan have now acquired Brescia’s license and will play in Serie A Femminile next season.

[Kevin S]

So I'm guessing she's referring to the men's team when she talks of 'overwhelming history'...

[Kevin S]

Some weird shit is happening at Liverpool. Three players - Alex Greenwood, Martha Harris and Amy Turner - have all just left.

Meanwhile Eni Aluko has signed for Juventus. I didn't realise until she tweeted this they in fact won Serie A femminile in their debut season.

https://twitter.com/EniAlu/status/1004370247305121793
https://twitter.com/EniAlu/status/1004370247305121793

[Uros Predic]

Neil Redfearn has been appointed manager of Liverpool Ladies.

Shame for Doncaster on three fronts;
1. I was hoping he'd be appointed manager of Doncaster Rovers
2. The Belles are now looking for a new manager as well as a new chairperson
3. A number of Belles' better players will very likely follow Redfearn to Liverpool given that they can't go up to the top flight with their own club.

2018-19 already looking set to be a sizable challenge for the Belles