Match week 21
A week in which a professional women's football team evaporated two days before xmas and what is going to be done about it, as well as some ambivalent feelings on which women's team to support
We have now come through the most intense time of the year, the holidays, and life is starting to settle back into a somewhat more familiar rhythm, including everyone catching COVID left right and center, meaning that we’re seeing football games (and other sport events) getting canceled and re-scheduled for later dates (which means I see my work slip away out of January and pile up, lol). One football team that cannot be stopped at the moment however is Tottenham, as our mens team managed to clasp a 1-0 win over Watford with a Davinson Sanchez header in the 96 minute! The kind of appreciated Spursy which has started to emerge a little bit under Antonio Conte. Meanwhile their women’s team has not gotten enough of my love and attention.
While this will (and should) be a separate text in itself, to keep myself short: I do not consider myself to have allegiance to any one women’s team because I want to be able to enjoy all of the women’s game (meaning that yes, controversially, I’m saying that football fandom to a specific club destroys football a little bit yes I said what I said.) I kind of slipped in to it with Tottenham’s mens team and I feel very attached to them because it’s been a day-one kind of deal. With that being said I am also contradicting myself and have found myself, in true bandwagon-fan-style, absolutely looooving Barcelona Femení (but who hasn’t tbh.) BACK TO MAIN POINT being that a lot of discussions currently circulate around whether folks who support a men’s team and want a women’s team (and vice versa) will just pick the team in the same club, or purposefully not? Because in all truth it’s not the same at all, and it’s interesting hearing the reasoning. I’m gonna be honest - I’m still struggling to truly get attached to the Spurs women’s team. I want them to do really well and I cheer for them, I just don’t find myself fervently following their every step. Well, this whole rant to say that I’m really happy to find them currently third in the WSL, just behind Arsenal and Chelsea, which for their second season in the top league is very promising and exciting.
The story that has captured my attention this past week is the one of Coventry United Ladies. A dedicated team playing in the FA Women’s Championship who, today on January 4th, have their new contracts terminated after only four months as a professional outfit. Two days before Christmas the players and staff were informed, out of nowhere, that the club was going into voluntary liquidation, effective immediately.
Paul Wheeler, who has covered the team extensively for a Coventry Radio station and who is also a big fan, has explained the situation better than I ever could, so head over and read his account of the current situation. The Telegraph and the BBC have reported on it as well. Here is also a link to the current fundraiser, which has raised £14,000 for the club and the people involved with it, including an anonymous doner pledging £5000.
The latest update: there’s a potential buyer for the club, as CEO of Energy Angels, Lewis Taylor, has declared interest in acquiring the club, but the deal needs to be finalised today (Jan 4) before midnight (BST), which The Telegraph reports is in the bag after a verbal agreement has been struck. the SU-SPENSE.
Whichever way this particular story goes (of course we’re hoping the deal will go through and that the team can continue to EXIST and also push for promotion as they were) this is just one story out of many. It painstakingly highlights just how fragile of a state the women’s game is still in, despite all the hype and the coverage in recent years. There’s a lot of visual support, but when words need to be transformed into action there are a lot of players missing. Case in point that the (former) sponsor Hycolin STILL HAS (as of Jan 4) the text “sponsoring @CovUnitedLFC” in their bio on twitter, and were tweeting away on Jan 3 at the latest, meaning they’re well aware of the situation that has unfolded and have just chosen to not remove that part. Like Wheeler points out in his text, this allows for them to get the clout of being seen as a brand that supports women’s football, when they’ve actually pulled that financial support.
Another point of Wheeler’s that is very clear in the unfolding of this situation is the lack of support and outspokenness from the women’s football community, like the Football Association and the leagues as well as other fellow clubs (especially in the initial stages, since then some football coaches have reached out to the team to offer their support). The fact that this was allowed to happen with close to no reaction from the community that has power to actually do something is upsetting and poses a lot of questions, like how seriously is women’s football really being taken? Despite the fact that the players had just turned professional there was no safety net for them to fall back on. Not to mention the cruelty to do this to the players and staff two days before the holidays. Shocking.
So, what steps are being taken? What can we do?
Well, we can start by staying in the loop on the situation as well as similar ones that occur. The hashtag #ProtectWomensFootball is currently very active, and a twitter account has been created called FAWC Fan Collective to, as they describe it themselves in their bio, “bring[ing] together fans of women’s Tier 2 clubs in England to protect & promote our game.”
Another sad aspect to this, however, is that this is just one of many clubs struggling to make ends meet, especially following the conditions of the pandemic and serial-lockdowns during which female footballers were hit especially hard. The news came out today that Holwell Sports Women FC, who were playing in the FA National League Div 1 Midlands, are having to fold “due to unforeseen circumstances.” Arguably, because they’re playing in a lower division, I can only imagine that this will be even less talked about, and that there will be no investor swooping in at the eleventh hour to save the day. So is the circle of life, but a shame for the community nonetheless.
Since it’s my birthday today (like, actually), I wish that we all read up on the situation, maybe consider donating to the crowdfunder and, most importantly, TALK ABOUT THIS, spread the news about what’s going on in women’s football. It’s important to note that this happens alongside all of the fantastic breakthroughs within the sport that advertisers and brands are so quick to put front and center of their campaigns.
*blows out candle*