Match week 22
A week in which a female referee makes history, an update on Coventry United LFC, and memes
The past few weeks have served as a stark reminder that the pandemic is far from over, with cases of the very contagious Omicron variant is making the rounds with everyone, including myself, meaning that for the past week I’ve spent 85% of my time in bed, watching all the romcom’s that netflix has to offer. That’s why this week’s letter might be a bit thin, as my energy levels have yet to get back to anything that resembles normalcy. Furthermore, I made the mistake of watching Tottenham’s game against Chelsea in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semifinal on Thursday, which just further depleted me. The thought that we have to do it all again tomorrow, with key players out injured, is just scary.
- Davy Pröpper is retiring at the tender age 30 because he “lost the love of the game” and that he does “not feel comfortable in the world of football,” quotes which are heartbreaking to read from a person who has spent their whole lives in service of the game.
- Off the back of exhausted players, FIFA president Gianni Infantino is planning on getting through his plans to hold biannual world cups AND euros tournaments. Musa Okwonga and Ryan Hunn talk about this, and Pröpper’s retirement, among other things on one of their latest episodes of the Stadio podcast.
- The AFCON, Africa Cup of Nations, has kicked off, with some interesting results already, but that’s not what caught my eye. Rather, it’s Salima Mukansanga, the 33-year-old Rwandan referee who is making history as the first woman ever to referee at the tournament. Out of the 63 match officials there are three other women, Cameroon’s Carine Atemzabong and Morocco’s Fatiha Jermoumi and Bouchra Karboubi, but Mukansanga is the only one who will referee matches. She’s previously refereed at the Women’s World Cup, the Tokyo Olympics and CAF Women’s Champion’s League.
- It’s been announced that Barcelona Femení will welcome Real Madrid to the Camp Nou for the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal clash with their historical El Clasico rivals.
- Following last week’s story about the shutdown of Coventry United LFC, and the last-minute buyer who swooped in to save the team, Faye Carruthers and Farah Williams talk to Lewis Taylor about his takeover of Coventry United LFC on the Women’s Football Weekly podcast this week.