London. A week later, the Women’s Super League finally started.
Now, it’s up to proof for the Premier League to ride on this summer’s EC wave.
– It feels like this year is different. Something happened, said Chelsea goalkeeper Zejera Mosovic.
This football came to a halt during Britain’s first weekend without Queen Elizabeth II on the throne dividing the people. Many seemed to understand that the national sport was paused as the best men’s series. However, most seemed to agree that the “ban” should not include matches for the children’s and youth teams.
But the group that probably lost the most from this decision was the women. The idea was that the opening round of the Women’s Super League (WSLIt will revolve around the huge boost that football received in connection with England’s gold at the European Championship last summer. Chloe Kelly, who scored the decisive goal against Germany, received so many press reports in her home country that it became difficult to keep track of the count.
Clubs such as Brighton, Chelsea and Tottenham have moved their matches to the men’s arenas – significantly larger – to meet the huge demand for tickets that suddenly prevailed around the Women’s Basketball League.
New owners send signals.
Chelsea announced yesterday that the meeting with West Ham will take place on September 28 instead at their home ground at the “regular” Kingsmeadow Stadium (with a capacity of just over 2,200).
Zecira Musovic was one of the players looking forward to opening the league, especially since the venue was Stamford Bridge.
– Then I think it’s great that this thing with the Queen… has brought the people here together in some way. Of course there is the disappointment of not playing the match, but if there is one thing I have learned in recent years, it is that anything can happen, everything can be cancelled, says the goalkeeper.
Mosovich tries to view the incident from a positive perspective. Another week on the training ground means in the long run a better-prepared football team has time to incorporate new acquisitions even more.
– Chelsea’s new owners have been sending clear signals that, well, we’re now switching to new equipment and investing more than we did before, she explains.
“cooler product”
What kind of bets are they?
– If we start with the squad, we have about 25 players, all of them are senior players of the national team. This means that we will have a very good team and that we can play matches in training, 11 against 11, where the opponent could have won many matches in the league as well. There is a big difference, specifically the competitive situation and the difference in quality.
Zesera Mosovic also highlighted the facilities that have become “better and better” for the Chelsea Women’s team.
– And then take that putting the matches at Stamford Bridge, I think it’s all connected and will improve things both internally and externally. The goalkeeper says it would be a great product to follow, with more big profiles to follow.
At the time of writing, Chelsea have no more matches scheduled at Stamford Bridge. On the other hand, the London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham awaits at Emirates on September 24, a match that has already sold a record 40,000 tickets.
Edval: “Problem”
According to Arsenal manager Jonas Edvall, one of the biggest challenges, in terms of the league’s growth, is finding suitable stadiums.
– I think it could be a problem because we have very few medium-sized yards in this country, says Al Suwaidi in his press conference.
You have either small pitches or very big pitches, our match against Manchester City that never happened is a perfect example of that.
The women’s team in Man City plays at the Academy Stadium (a stone’s throw from Al Ittihad) with a capacity of 7,000 spectators. The arena was also one of the venues for last summer’s European Championship, a selection that drew criticism.
So the question is; If many people want to watch the game, where do we play? So we can really reach out to everyone who wants to come and have the opportunity:
At Arsenal, we as a whole club are trying to collaborate with all departments to reach our potential fans and get them to the ring so we can experience that together. It’s not a “quick fix”, and it’s not enough that you just do one thing. But it’s about creating a bond with people so that they want to come and feel the need to come, and that’s their priority. Once established, you don’t have to worry about what the weather will be like in January.
Three million followers
Social media is a tool for building relationships with supporters. Chelsea captain, Magdalena Erickson, has 191K followers on Instagram and 58K followers on Twitter. Mosovic’s teammate is appreciated for his mostly satirical posts on Instagram (~96000 followers) and Twitter (55500 followers). Leah Williamson, the England captain and Arsenal defender, also has 665,000 followers on Instagram.
Chelsea’s official Instagram account has 3.4 million followers.
I think Chelsea as a club should be one of the best clubs on the women’s side with their social channels, and we can see that by the number of followers. We measure ourselves against men’s clubs,” says Zisera Mosovich.
You profile your players and try to get them interested first and foremost in Chelsea as a club, but where people are the main interest. So certainly there is encouragement on their part to pay us in part, but also give us material in the form of photos from photographers that we can publish.
“Big things happen”
If there is one thing that WSL teams have faced in recent seasons, it is the competition against the best clubs in Europe. First and foremost, Zecira Musovic believes that the competition in the league will be very tough this year, even for the current champions.
– I think many teams will participate in the big battle. We bet, but that doesn’t mean other people don’t. Arsenal bet big, Manchester United bet big, City… There are a number of teams where big things happen, Mosovic says.
Do you feel you have the ability to deal with teams like Barcelona and Lyon?
– Absolutely. Our goal is clear for this year, we want to move forward in all the tournaments we’re in. I know we have the capacity because, just like I mentioned before, we have more or less than 25 players in the national team. It lays somewhere a good foundation.
We had very good teams before, but this year looks different. Nothing happened. We will have national team players forced to sit in the stands!
“I’m Swede proudly”
Then there is no shortage of Swedes in the series. Three at Chelsea (Mosovic, Ericsson and Joanna Ritting-Canried), two at Arsenal (Stena Blacksteinius and Lena Hurtig), two at Everton (Natalie Bjorn and Hannah Benison) and two at Brighton (Emma Kohlberg and Giulia Zigyotti Olmi).
– I’m proud of the Swede in England! This shows that we are doing well in Sweden, Zisera Mosovic says.
Even if many have argued that you may have stalled a bit in development and have to find new ways of working to keep up with the rest of Europe, that’s a sign that we’re, well, doing something good after all after we’ve got 8-9 players in perhaps one of the best leagues In the world.