Voices from across women’s football have become the latest to criticise Fifa’s plans for a biennial World Cup, laying out 13 reasons why it is bad news for their game.
Calling for a “balanced and inclusive” approach to the global development of football, signatories of an open letter – which include the the FA Women’s Super League and Championship – say the effects of the new proposals have not been assessed ‘adequately’ by their proponents.
“We approach the future of the game’s development with an open and progressive mindset, and we appreciate the stated intent of the idea of a biennial Women’s World Cup is to develop football and provide more playing and hosting opportunities,” the letter read.
“However, such a far-reaching proposal requires serious scrutiny within the context in which it sits – the women’s football ecosystem. An ecosystem that is growing at pace but has not fully matured.”
While Fifa’s chief of global development, Arsène Wenger, has presented plans for reforming football’s international match calendar [IMC] in ways that would allow for more World Cups, they apply only to the men’s game.
The former US Women’s national team coach Jill Ellis was only appointed last month to develop a similar proposal for the women’s game, however, with a vote on implementing a new calendar potentially taking place as early as December.
The haste with which Fifa has launched is proposals is a central complaint, but the letter also claims that any further expansion of the men’s World Cup would be harmful, whatever changes are made to the women’s game.
“Further congestion to the men’s IMC with more men’s final tournaments … will hamper the visibility and growth of women’s youth, club and national team competitions and women’s domestic leagues around the globe,” the letter says.
It goes on to claim that the needs of an altered men’s game would place “further strain on technical, medical, and administrative resources available to women’s national team football players, as the need for regular year-long provisions of such expertise is removed and resource is focused on men’s competitions”.
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Other criticisms include the effects more World Cups would have on the growth of the women’s club game and the “upheaval” forced on other sports and events as a result. Most notably this would include the Olympics where the women’s football event currently holds real prestige.
Among the signatories of the letter are the European Club Association and Uefa, who are seen as the main opponents to Fifa’s reforms and increasingly rivals in a battle for the game’s future. The letter is not a political manoeuvre, however, according to its signatories. “To be clear,” they write, “this is not in any way about Europe defending its position, nor a question of national team versus club football.”