On face value Asia’s performance at the Women’s World Cup was a good one, with Japan and Australia making deep runs, and the Philippines providing one of the fairytale stories of the tournament with their historic win over New Zealand. But dig a little deeper and the results reveal the chasm that has developed between Europe and Asia.
If you remove Australia and Japan’s results, the ledger makes for worrying reading – just two wins, one draw and nine losses. More concerning is in those 12 games, Asian teams scored just three goals while conceding a whopping 31. Vietnam, the Philippines and China suffered some of the heaviest defeats of the tournament.
Asia used to be a torchbearer for women’s football, with Japan, Australia, China and North Korea all inside the top 12 as recently as 2016, but the recent evidence suggests the balance of power has fully swung in Europe’s favour. Fifa’s latest rankings put just one team, Japan, inside the top 10.
It makes the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) recent announcement of a Women’s Champions League all the more significant, as it tries to claw back lost ground and maintain the momentum from just the second Women’s World Cup hosted in Asia.
Mongoljingoo Sodgerel, an AFC women’s football committee member, says the league would give clubs across the continent “new ambition and a new target to reach”.
“Previously the local domestic women’s leagues [were the ceiling], but now we have more steps further ahead to reach with the Women’s Champions League,” she says. “It’s a very positive development for women’s football, because now is the time to step up more to make the amateur part more professional.”
That last part is pertinent, because as it stands in Asia you can count on one hand the number of leagues that could be classed as professional; Australia’s is one, as are leagues in Japan and China, while those in South Korea, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have professional and semi-professional elements.
Investing in and developing the ecosystem at club level is a key factor in raising the overall level of the game. Creating a professional environment for hundreds of players, rather than a select few within national teams, is ultimately what will raise standards, and Australia has an important role to play in leading that charge.
With the Australian Professional Leagues targeting further growth in the coming years , A-League Women’s (ALW) teams should be the standard bearers of the new Asian competition. Winning could be a realistic target, but silverware or not, the competition’s existence would be a boost for the game.
An obvious bonus would be more matches in a calendar year, something Adelaide United women’s coach Adrian Stenta says has been lacking. “It might also assist with attracting good quality players to our shores or with retaining top quality Australian players who wish to experience playing in a continental club football competition,” he says. “Obviously the competition is starting small, but the potential for growth is there and has the added benefit of exposing Australian players to a range of Asian opposition and environments.”
But the global players’ union, FIFPro, has cautioned against putting the cart before the horse, saying more work needs to be done to ensure it’s sustainable and players are fairly rewarded for the extra workload.
The FIFPro Asia chair, Takuya Yamazaki, says while there is demand for women’s international club competitions, it’s “imperative that we avoid repeating the same mistakes” made in the men’s game. “Under the current football governance system … players can be called up without incurring costs such as player salaries. Within this framework, the creation of new competitions could easily occur without a sustainable business plan, thereby imposing significant burdens on clubs and players.”
While the Women’s Champions League stands to redefine women’s football in Asia, it could go even further, with Fifa announcing its intentions to launch a Women’s Club World Cup in the near future.
It creates a possible scenario whereby Melbourne Victory, for example, win the Women’s Champions League and with it a spot at the Women’s Club World Cup. Suddenly, the world is their oyster. An ALW side taking on Sam Kerr’s Chelsea, Hayley Raso’s Real Madrid or Ellie Carpenter’s Olympique Lyon? It could happen.
Fifa’s chief of women’s football, Sarai Bareman, has said it would be an important step forward: “We need to make sure that in between the World Cups every four years, the club game is retaining the interest that we see from the World Cups. A Club World Cup is a fantastic way to drive momentum in the leagues and the clubs.”
Driving momentum is what the AFC wants for the Women’s Champions League. Will it bring about an immediate closing of the gap? That’s unlikely, given its initial small scale, especially as Europe continues to invest at far greater levels. But this is a long-term play aimed at raising standards across the board so the ledger at future World Cups makes for much more pleasant reading on more than just face value.
"asian" - Google News
September 01, 2023 at 10:00PM
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Can an Asian Women’s Champions League help close the football gap with Europe? - The Guardian
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