1. What is The FA WSL?
The FA WSL (short for Women’s Super League) is a new semi professional, summer women’s football league. 8 teams will play in the league which kicks off on Wednesday 13th April 2011. Here are some key stats which may be useful to know when you’re talking to your local clubs about the new league.
- 8 teams:
o Arsenal LFC
o Birmingham City LFC
o Bristol Academy WFC
o Chelsea LFC
o Doncaster Rovers Belles FC
o Everton LFC
o Lincoln LFC
o Liverpool LFC
- Played in the summer
o The WSL season runs from April – September
- Semi professional status
- Broadcast by ESPN
o Weekly shows on ESPN, every Tuesday at 6.30pm
o 5 live matches shown throughout the first season
- New league website produced: www.FAWSL.com
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- An interactive league – our aim is to bring fans and players together. Our Facebook page aims to enable fans to feel close to both the players and league – allowing them to ‘Call the Shots’ on things within the league and their club. For example, fans will be asked to tell us what they think the new WSL mascot should be called before the league launches in April.
www.facebook.com/FAWSL
2. What are The FA‘s motives behind the introduction of a full-time women’s league? Why has The FA WSL been developed?
The FA’s ambition is to create a competitive, sustainable and commercially attractive league at the top of women’s football in this country. We want to make sure that our talented players can play semi professional football in an exciting top flight domestic league, which will also help to prepare them well for international competition.
The FA WSL’s marketing vision is to revolutionise and grow women’s football so that the game is more commercially sustainable, the players are seen as icons, the clubs build bigger and more loyal fan bases, and these fans enjoy a greater experience.
Currently our top players compete in The FA Women’s Premier League, which is a winter league. Matches are regularly postponed because of bad weather, and pitch conditions are not always of the required quality. This can affect the quality of the football played and there are not enough spectators currently attending matches other than the showcase finals that draw large crowds. Also, many established fans of women's football do not get the chance to go and watch FAWPL matches as they are playing or coaching at the same time. There is very little televised football at this level and many of the clubs are not commercially sustainable.
The FA WSL has been developed to address these problems for our top-level footballers. Over time, the benefits should also filter through to the lower levels of club football as there is greater investment in women’s football, standards improve both on and off the pitch, and higher profile role models emerge for young women.
3. How much money is The FA investing in The FA WSL?
The FA is investing over £3 million of new money into the new league. There is also considerable indirect investment from The FA that is difficult to quantify in staff resource and support provided by other FA departments.
4. How do you think the new league will help in terms of women’s football development throughout this country? Will it help get more women involved in club football, whether it is amateur or professional?
We anticipate that women’s football will be a sport with:
• Even more participants, remaining the number one team sport for females
• More talented youngsters coming through our development programmes
• A thriving adult women’s game with more sustainable clubs
• More female, highly qualified coaches, volunteers and officials
• A sport regularly watched on television
• A sport with thousands of spectators going to support their club teams
• Better access to quality football facilities for female players
• An England senior national team higher in the rankings, qualifying for major international
tournaments and consistently reaching at least the semi-final stages
The FA WSL will help with football development, for all of the above reasons – that is one of its objectives – and it should help more women and girls become involved in amateur and semi professional football, with better-organised and sustainable clubs.
5. How is it going to be different to The FA Women’s Premier League?
It will be a new semi professional summer league as opposed to a winter amateur league. It will showcase England’s best players and the best domestic women’s football in this country, and it will be televised.
It is a smaller league with just 8 clubs initially. There will be more quality players spread across fewer teams; there will also be more resource and investment from both The FA and the clubs into the league. This will be spent on, for example, commercial development, better facilities, and career opportunities for players. A host broadcaster will also play a pivotal role in ensuring matches are televised and a wider consumer fan base is attracted to the sport.
The FA Women’s Premier League is still a very important part of The FA’s competition structure and talent pathway for women footballers – it still sits at the top of the winter pyramid. It is the obvious ‘next tier’ where the very best amateur clubs can compete and prove themselves.
6. How can my County use the WSL to promote women’s and girls football if we don’t have a WSL club?
In a recent CFA marketing brainstorm it was suggested that one of the ways Counties that didn’t have a club could use the WSL to promote participation could be to use players who have come from their region or through a centre of excellence in their County. By using players that have come through your system it’s easier for girls in your County to relate to them and be inspired to follow in their footsteps.
The FA will also look to run national initiatives that allow all Counties to get involved – regardless of whether they have a WSL club or not. Examples of this may be all expenses paid trips to WSL Cup Final or fans deciding on the player of the match when the matches are shown live on ESPN or online.
The FA WSL Facebook page is now live and this is really a vehicle to promote the league to all fans of the game – but particularly girls and women who may not have a club nearby where they can watch live matches. The Facebook page aims to bring fans and players closer and give a real insight to a semi professional player’s life – with the aim of inspiring girls to recognise there are opportunities to continue playing the game and potentially making a living from it.
www.Facebook.com/FAWSL
7. Are there salary caps / minimum wage requirements at each club?
A club can register up to 20 players. A club can pay no more than 4 players an annual salary of more than £20k. Other than that, each club has the choice as to how to remunerate its players: the rationale being that if we have 8 clubs, and each has a maximum of 4 players on a wage band of £20k or more, this will help spread the talent pool and also ensure there is a core group of players at each club in the tier below that will still be able to earn a wage playing and working for that club.
We will review this annually, to make sure it is set at the right level. Club licences will also contain minimum financial provisions and standards which should allow all clubs to operate at a good, semi professional level.
In the future, we may weigh up the effectiveness of the individual salary cap against the alternatives to this e.g. ‘wage caps’ which are already in place on a club wide basis in other leagues and sports, whereby a club cannot spend a total of more than £xyz on salaries. It will be easier to take a fully considered view on this in due course, once we have a greater understanding of the range of club finance and salary provisions.
NB The salary cap excludes the £16k per annum The FA pays to international players under their Central Contracts.
8. Why keep the rest of the game in winter? Wouldn’t it better prepare clubs ahead of potential further expansion to replicate the new format?
The FA is taking one step at a time. Understandably, the FAWPL clubs not forming part of The FA WSL want the success of a summer league to be tested before they consider such a move. In addition, securing facilities for all 36 FAWPL clubs to play in the summer would be a challenge at this point in time.
9. What will happen when The FA WSL clashes with the FIFA 2011 World Cup – how long is the break in fixtures?
The FA WSL fixtures will break for the FIFA World Cup in 2011 and the Olympic Games in 2012. There will be a 9 week break in the fixture programme in June – July 2011 and a shorter break in July – August 2012.
10. When will The FA WSL commence?
The FA WSL will launch in April 2011. The fixture schedule has been developed in close consultation with the international calendar to ensure that our international players are available to compete both in The FA WSL and for England.
DATE KICK OFF HOME TEAM AWAY TEAM
1
Wed 13 April 2011 5.30pm Birmingham City LFC Bristol Academy WFC
Thurs 14 April 2011 7.45pm Chelsea LFC Arsenal LFC
Thurs 14 April 2011 7.45pm Lincoln LFC Doncaster Rov Belles
Thurs 14 April 2011 7.45pm Liverpool LFC Everton LFC
2
Thurs 21st April 2011 7.45pm Arsenal LFC Bristol Academy WFC
Thurs 21st April 2011 7.45pm Chelsea LFC Lincoln LFC
Wed 20th April 2011 7.45pm Everton Doncaster Rov Belles LFC
Wed 20th April 2011 7.45pm Liverpool LFC Birmingham City LFC
3
Sun 24th April 2011 5.00pm Birmingham City LFC Lincoln LFC
Sat 23rd April 2011 6.30pm Bristol Academy WFC Liverpool LFC
Sun 24rd April 2011 2.00pm Doncaster Rov Belles LFC Chelsea LFC
Sun 24th April 2011 2.00pm Arsenal LFC Everton LFC
4
Thurs 28th April 2011 7.45pm Arsenal LFC Birmingham City LFC
Sun 1st May 2011 2.00pm Bristol Academy WFC Doncaster Rov Belles LFC
Sat 30th April 2011 3.00pm Lincoln LFC Everton LFC
Sun 1st May 2011 2.00pm Liverpool LFC Chelsea LFC
5
Wed 4th May 2011 7.30pm Lincoln LFC Arsenal LFC
Wed 4th May 2011 6.30pm Bristol Academy WFC Chelsea LFC
Wed 4th May 2011 7.45pm Everton LFC Birmingham City LFC
Wed 4th May 2011 7.45pm Doncaster Rov Belles LFC Liverpool LFC
6
Sun 8th May 2011 2.00pm Chelsea LFC Birmingham City LFC
Sun 8th May 2011 2.00pm Doncaster Rov Belles LFC Arsenal LFC
Sun 8th May 2010 2.00pm Everton LFC Bristol Academy WFC
Sun 8th May 2011 2.00pm Liverpool LFC Lincoln LFC
7
Thurs 12th May 2011 7.45pm Birmingham City LFC Liverpool LFC
Thurs 12th May 2011 6.30pm Bristol Academy WFC Arsenal LFC
Thurs 12th May 2011 7.45pm Doncaster Rov Belles LFC Everton LFC
Thurs 12th May 2011 7.30pm Lincoln LFC Chelsea LFC
Rounds 1 – 7 of The FA WSL will be played before the FIFA 2011 World Cup in Germany, when the league will break and release international players. Rounds 8 – 14 and The FA WSL Cup will be played after the FIFA 2011 World Cup with the season closing at the end of September. Fixtures for the second half of the season will be announced in June.