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A Copa de la Reina QF gets a crowd of 48 thousand in San Mames.



Unfortunately (because the fans deserved to see a win) the game ended as:
Athletic 0-2 Atletico.

Impresionante.
 
Not a surprise. The FA Cup games that were postponed due to weather get priority so:


United will have another game in hand and another match rescheduled to be played (presumably) midweek at some indefinite point in the future - which will mean that the game will lose most of the family groups that attend. MUTV lose the match they'd scheduled. Leigh stadium loses its weekend match. Fortunately, as we're United we don't have to think about the financial hit. Still, it's a reminder that we're looking at what's essentially an amateur game.
 
Yeah it's amateur like you said @jojojo ...sigh.

As a fan from outside UK I cherish a weekend game with MUTV being able to broadcast it, more often than not. That's my selfish reason. But I do know some fans there waiting for a home game and want to attend. Those fans want to bring kids usually. I thought they want to market it as family friendly game but sure they do all they can to make it difficult sometimes.
 
Chelsea will entertain Manchester United for a place in the FA Girls’ Youth Cup Final after both sides won their quarter-final ties on Saturday.

Manchester United ran out 6-1 winners at York City, where Fran Stables hit a hat-trick.

Cara Milne-Redhead, plus substitutes Holly Davenport and Tigana Gent got a goal each for United.

Chelsea just got the better of Southampton by three goals to two.

https://shekicks.net/stables-treble-sends-man-utd-girls-storming-into-semi-finals/

Tigana Gent, what a great name :drool:
 
As expected, Alex Greenwood is in the England squad for the She Believes Cup.
The Lionesses open up against Brazil in Philadelphia on Wednesday 27 February 2019, followed by a meeting with USA in Nashville three days later and then Japan in Tampa on Tuesday 5 March 2019.
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The matches will be on the BBC

Lizzie Arnot and Kirsty Smith will be with the Scotland squad for their friendlies in the Algrave Cup - Scotland will play Canada and Iceland.

We're very much into Women's World Cup countdown, so the managers aren't doing a lot of experimenting now.
 
The Women's Euros in 2021 will be played in England. It was the group stage draw today.

Qualifying groups:
Group A: Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Kosovo, Estonia
Group B: Italy, Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Malta, Georgia
Group C: Norway, Wales, Belarus, Northern Ireland, Faroe Islands
Group D: Spain, Czech Republic, Poland, Moldova, Azerbaijan
Group E: Scotland, Finland, Portugal, Albania, Cyprus
Group F: Sweden, Iceland, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia
Group G: France, Austria, Serbia, Kazakstan, Macedonia
Group H: Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, Croatia, Lithuania
Group I: Germany, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Greece, Montenegro

The group stage matches will take place over the next two years - starting in August 2019 continuing until September 2020. Group winners qualify automatically, the runners-up compete for the other 6 places.

England are there as hosts.

Any bets on how many women United will have there in 2021? :D
 
jojojo said:
Alex Greenwood is in the England squad for the She Believes Cup.
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That's a cringe-worthy name.
Women's football has been there for ages. A women's tournament need not sound like a liberation rally of sorts
 
Beth Mead's a United fan. She plays for Arsenal and scored two of England's goals in the SheBelieves Cup. Just saying :lol:
 


Atletico Madrid break the attendance record for a Spanish women's club match. Barcelona are currently winning 0-1 with half an hour to play.
 
jojojo said:


Atletico Madrid break the attendance record for a Spanish women's club match. Barcelona are currently winning 0-1 with half an hour to play.
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That is amazing. A couple of months ago Bilbao had 48k attending their women's game. Never mind - just saw it at the top of the page.
 
Damien said:
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That's a big deal for the women's game and, I suspect, very good value for Barclays marketing department. If England have a good run in the Women's World Cup in the summer we could see a real growth of interest in the club game in the next few seasons - the World Cup will be on BBC. The fact that Atletico broke the 60k crowd barrier last week is a great sign as well. Typical club crowds are a long way below international match crowds but good quality, competitive international football can really help build the fanbase and player participation as well.

It looks like Barclays are going to be spending around £10m over the next three years. 500k per season on prize money in WSL1 (WSL has never had prize money before), with the rest as yet undefined but expected to go on projects to promote the women's game, including at youth and community level.

The exact distribution hasn't been announced yet, but I think most fans will be hoping that it helps the entire division rather than just the top group, which could make the league even more top heavy. The other risk is that it could allow the FA to start reducing funding, rather than an overall budget increase. There's also the question of how it will leave the Championship clubs. If promotion/relegation is going to mean something, then club finances are an issue.

Good news in principle though and I suspect the shape of things to come. I filled in a fan survey from United a couple of weeks back and it seemed like they might be weighing up whether to approach some companies as women's team, rather than club sponsors. Barcelona have already taken that step with Stanley (the tool company) as women's team sponsor. Liverpool have Avon as their shirt sponsor.
 
jojojo said:
Good news in principle though and I suspect the shape of things to come. I filled in a fan survey from United a couple of weeks back and it seemed like they might be weighing up whether to approach some companies as women's team, rather than club sponsors. Barcelona have already taken that step with Stanley (the tool company) as women's team sponsor. Liverpool have Avon as their shirt sponsor.
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That makes sense but guess it depends on the wording in the Chevrolet contract. Don't think there's long left to go on that so we'll probably be looking at negotiating a new deal for the "men's shirt" sponsors too.
 
Damien said:
That makes sense but guess it depends on the wording in the Chevrolet contract. Don't think there's long left to go on that so we'll probably be looking at negotiating a new deal for the "men's shirt" sponsors too.
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I think what makes it worth looking at is that for the big potential shirt sponsors for example the women's team probably adds only a little extra value. For a company with a smaller sponsorship budget, or a local supplier, that wants to tap a United related market, the women could be a good standalone deal. For other sponsors, United are probably better as a package - Kohler seem to have taken most of the advertising hoardings when United are at Leigh Stadium for example.

If we decide to move from Leigh (which is a good stadium but awkwardly located if you're relying on Manchester public transport) then I hope/expect it'll be to a similar or better stadium. If we did that, I certainly wouldn't begrudge the naming rights being offered as part of the package needed to fund it. :D

Mind you, I'd be just as happy if we offered a deal to Bury (for example) to help them sort out their stadium at the same time.
 
Some more on attendances. The women's CL QF first legs were played this week and:
Chelsea v PSG - 2616
Slavia Prague v Bayern Munich - 6822 (a record for them)
Barcelona v Lillestrom - 5563 (their best home gate this year)
Lyon v Wolfsburg - 17,840

It's a young game, very young in terms of the pro game, but it's a growing one.
 
So while the first team were winning against Charlton, our Development team were playing in the Academy League Cup semi final. They beat Reading 2-3.

We'll play Arsenal or Ipswich in the final.
 
International call-ups for the upcoming break.

England Women: Alex Greenwood
England U21: Ella Toone
England U19: Ebony Salmon, Aimee Palmer, Lauren James, Emily Ramsey, Naomi Hartley

Scotland Women: Kirsty Smith, Lizzie Arnot
 
Hoping this is okay to post - https://www.justgiving.com/fundrais...utm_content=ManchesterUnitedWomenStaffSkydive

Looks like the staff skydive is going ahead Monday, was postponed last year. See Casey Stoney's Twitter among others. Would be good to circulate this more if possible. It all leads back to Steph Houghton's husbands diagnosis last year with MND. Just a good cause and something that shows the character of the staff I think.
 
Just a sidenote for people who've wondered about the TV deals associated with women's football and women's sport in general - and who knows, maybe it'll come in handy next time you hear people complaining about the BBC wasting money on minority programming because of political correctness. :smirk:

"The FA will also go to tender on a new TV deal next year given its current deal with BT Sport and the BBC expires in 2021. The current deal is neutral, with clubs providing broadcasters with free content in exchange for free publicity."

The https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...board-overseeing-development-womens-football/ article also notes that some women's sports are paying the TV companies to be broadcast (presumably picking up some/all of the costs of setting up the outside broadcast).

I suspect something similar will continue with the next contract, as it's still about building an audience, rather than trying to get immediate money - but maybe they can also get better guarantees around how it'll be covered and how highlights will be handled. I'm also hoping that United can continue to air (non-broadcast) games on MUTV once we're in WSL1.
 
So with the women winning the Championship title yesterday, we have another chance to win a trophy today. This time it's our development squad (basically the U19s) taking part in the WSL Academy Cup final. We're playing Arsenal.

D4qP4cbWkAExpar.jpg
 
jojojo said:
So with the women winning the Championship title yesterday, we have another chance to win a trophy today. This time it's our development squad (basically the U19s) taking part in the WSL Academy Cup final. We're playing Arsenal.
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Yeovil, who got relegated from WSL1, and who nearly went bankrupt this season have now been refused a licence to play in the Championship. The FA didn't accept its business plan. The sad thing is that the club themselves felt that they could do it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48296709

In theory it's a system designed to stop clubs in the pro/semipro leagues from going bankrupt. In practical terms though it's a real blow to the clubs involved. Yeovil will actually lose sponsors as they slip down into the amateur league, making it hard for them to get a licence to get promoted in the future. It gets tougher all the time for clubs whose finances aren't guaranteed by men's teams to survive in the WSL divisions.
 
It's the final of the Women's Champions League today and as I've mentioned attendances etc in this thread before, I'll say the final in Budapest has sold out - the standard stadium capacity is 23,689, and the tickets were incredibly cheap by French/Spanish standards at around 3 to 5 Euros. Lyon have the best squad in Europe and are certainly the favourites for tonight.

The semi-finals were mostly played in the club mini-stadia/training ground stadium. The exception being Lyon, the reigning Champions League and French League champions, who've been taking the women's team seriously for a while now, and who now play a few big games each season at the main stadium.
Lyon 2-1 Chelsea - 22,911 (played at the main stadium)
Chelsea 1-1 Lyon - 4,670

Wolfsburg 0-1 Barcelona - 2,500
Barcelona 1-0 Wolfsburg - 12,764

The match kicks off at 5pm, the French and Spanish men's leagues have pushed their games into other timeslots so they don't clash with the TV broadcast. BT have got it as a free to air game from their website: https://sport.bt.com/football/lyon-...gue-playoff-final-on-bt-sport-S11364362179611

Just in case you get bored with the FA Cup final.
 
Just came across this series of tweets that contains a potted history of the earlier United women's team.


Click on the tweet to get the related series of tweets.
 
Interesting tweet from Lewes on average attendances in the women's leagues this year.



No surprise to see United at the top. A bit shocking to note that longstanding women's teams like Liverpool and Everton aren't even getting 500 regularly.
 
One for the salary watchers. A new article looks at the kind of wages on offer for the top USA national team players (about $250k/year with some earning more due to sponsorships).

The money Lyon pay biggest main stars (around €500k to Hegerberg, €350/400k for their to French stars like Renard and Henry). And finally the earnings in the English WSL which are currently constrained by the League salary cap.
https://www.si.com/soccer/2019/07/06/global-market-womens-soccer-players-uswnt-europe-nwsl

Inevitably we get our own mention:
Another agent said: “From what I’ve heard and seen, Man United has been doing a lot of talks with a lot of players promising big wages, and every time they try to wrap up the deal they kind of disappear. In England, you have basically a salary cap in place, and some teams are able to go around it because it’s a softer salary cap with more ways to bend the rules. I think Man United will be fairly competitive fairly quickly, but I just don’t know if it will be killing everyone like Lyon does in France.”
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Our Game magazine has an interview with Casey Stoney where she talks a bit about the salary cap, and why she thinks the League still needs it, despite some England players heading to Europe.
http://www.ourgamemag.com/2019/08/30/fa-wsl-salary-cap-not-up-for-review-this-season/
 
An interesting transfer rumour from Las Granotas:

Ona Batlle estaría en estos momentos muy cerca de fichar por el Manchester United (por dos años). El acuerdo está avanzado y no cerrado. El Manchester City también puja por la joven lateral del Levante que jugará fuera de España las dos próximas temporadas.

— Marc Lorenzo @marclorenzo83

Ona Batlle is currently very close to signing for Manchester United (for two years). Negotiations are advanced but not finished. Manchester City as well is trying to get the young Levante full back to play her footballoutside of Spain the coming seasons.
 
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