Competitive And Competing Women’s Professional Soccer Leagues Will Help Develop The Global Game

This post is in response to the Guardian.co.uk article published on August 18th titled, “New US league targeting our players, Arsenal warn.”

Anyone who knows me will say that my one true ambition in life is to help develop the game of women’s soccer. I believe that the advent of Women’s Professional Soccer here in America, which sets as its mission to be “the global standard by which all leagues around the world are measured,” will do more to encourage women’s leagues, teams and players than anything else the world over.

In his article, Leighton rightly identifies WPS as the successor to the “ill-fated” Women’s United Soccer Association that suspended operations in 2003. However, let’s be clear that WPS is not WUSA. The 1999 Women’s World Cup saw nearly 100,000 fans packed into the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, CA. This brought hope, pride and celebration to the world, and from this, an American women’s soccer league (WUSA) was born. However, trying to run a start-up league on a Madison Avenue budget with an office in downtown Manhattan, salaries for executives and players that had no relationship to actual income streams, and questionable business decisions – for instance the national television contract with Pax – all combined to sink the venture.

What’s changed? Tonya Antonucci’s incredible diligence over the past five years brought together both a group of investors in multiple markets and a viable business model where each franchise is owned by local investor groups with proven success on a myriad of fronts. These organizations, in conjunction with the league, have developed a plan for fiscal success that adds smaller venues, tighter budgets, grassroots efforts and viral marketing tactics to the strength of local ownership groups.

Baseball failed in America the first time around. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. It took Abraham Lincoln 30 years to achieve his dream of becoming President of the United States. Americans don’t lay down easily – we fight onward and upward. WUSA didn’t work here because the business model lacked foresight and experience. WPS will work, and the local individual ownership groups will ensure its longevity.

The article further states, “Several England internationals are being headhunted with the carrot of professional contracts.” Yes, WPS will in fact be offering well-deserved professional contracts. These are women who have spent their entire lives in pursuit of a dream to become top-tier professional athletes. Sadly, they’ve been halted because there hasn’t been a realistic option for them to play soccer on a full-time, professional basis. Many women have been playing at semi-professional levels for years, both in America and abroad, in anticipation of this opportunity. They’ve been washing men’s kits, shining their boots and coaching youth soccer camps to make ends meet.

The U.S. “headhunting” has prompted the English FA to call an emergency meeting to change their current format in an attempt to retain players. According to Peter Hough, the Premier League chairman, “We are hoping to create full-time opportunities for girls in English clubs and we will do all we can to retain the players.” This is a tremendous statement, and perhaps a very positive step. If I was sitting in a room with Hough, here are the five questions I’d ask:

1. Why now? Has the threat of Women’s Professional Soccer in America prompted this change?
2. Why the sudden and heavy focus on retaining talent, when instead you could be building a system that fosters and develops the next generation of stars – both English and foreign – in a positive and competitive environment?
3. WPS has been planning their business model for five years, and with the experience of a previous league behind them, has at least ten years of combined work. What sustainable foundation will the FA be able to put in place with this sudden intervention?
4. What kinds of opportunities will you be providing? Will the FA give the girls contracts as professional athletes and pay them for their time and talents, or will they still be folding the men’s laundry?
5. Will the FA guarantee that if a Premiership team is relegated, their women’s program will survive? (P.S. Leighton, if you’d like to discuss “ill-fated” teams, how about Charlton Ladies and their demise?)

WPS will create a level of parity across the board that will help to further develop the players’ talents at the highest levels by creating a competitive environment. Of important note, Arsenal is an incredible club with a rich tradition and solid women’s program. Leighton wrote on May 6, 2008, that the FA Cup final produced an “outclassed” Leeds United and Arsenal was able to score “three times inside six minutes in the second period” to claim their ninth FA Cup final victory. Let’s take a moment to ask ourselves how this environment is challenging to top-level players physically, tactically, technically and even spiritually? If it’s a “one-horse race” year-in and year-out, how are the players growing and developing? We learn from adversity; not from a cake-walk.

In Leighton’s article, Vic Akers names four players and claims that “if these girls and other England players go to America, it could set the game here back 10 years.” How strong is your existing league if the departure of four players is that threatening? That’s quite a statement to make about the FA, especially from the manager who’s won ten Premier League Championships, nine FA Women’s Cups, nine FA Women’s Premier League Cups, five FA Women’s Community Shields, seven London County FA Women’s Cups and the UEFA Women’s Cup during the past 20 years.

A reminder here that WPS is restricted to five internationals on each roster, and with seven teams in the League, that equals 35 players from a multitude of countries.

Sure, WPS may not be initially popular around the globe by signing the best players (as Arsenal most certainly couldn’t have been popular with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish leagues throughout the past ten years by signing their top talents). But hopefully the American league will prompt more countries to put out quality products themselves. If WPS can lead the way by creating this self-sustainable professional women’s league, with multiple franchises based all around the country successfully operating in the black, it will serve as a model for other countries to pick out the parts that work for them and alter their business models to suit their cultures and environments. Just the way the WPS is learning from the successes and shortcomings of existing pro leagues like MLB, NBA, NFL, and MLS, and also the experiences of the Swedes, the Germans, the Dutch, the Chinese, the Australians, and many, many more.

I’m writing this post because I feel that the development of the game itself is really the development of people. It’s important that in this venture to grow the women’s game, we all become part of the solution, not the problem. Let us never forget, it’s about the players. It’s about the pro players, it’s about the college players, it’s about the high school players, and it’s about the millions of little girls and boys playing soccer all around the world. It’s about the women and girls playing basketball, lacrosse, field hockey, swimming, gymnastics, track and field, and tennis. Developing the world game of soccer is about creating community, nurturing growth and supporting equality.

Tagged as: arsenal, vic akers, womens pro soccer, wps