I'm wondering if you guys find WEPL an interesting league to watch.

I'm really curious to read your opinions,
because I get a bit bored with Arsenal Ladies winning so easily
even when they have a bad day and let's not be blind - they don't have the best goalie.

Arsenal Ladies are on top of the table with no games lost.
The only two (or maybe even one) team(s) as good as Arsenal, are Charlton and Everton.

I've seen a quite few women's games here in England
and I think that EPL would have been a lot more competitive and interesting
if all the best players weren't in those 2-3 top teams.

Arsenal is loaded with awesome strikers, midfielders and defenders
- England, Ireland, Wales & Scotland internationals - I don't think I have to name them.

There are a few stars in Everton and Charlton as well.
The other teams (and that's 7!) have no players of their quality
(except for Leeds with Sue Smith and Birmingham with Karen Carney).

Don't you think that the top teams are overloaded with top players?
Wouldn't it be more interesting if some of them were playing in lower-ranked teams?

I mean today Kelly Smith did not play her best game,
but still she was playing 10 times better than the whole Fulham team.
It's like watching David and Goliath everytime Arsenal meet other teams.
You just sit back, relaxed, knowing it's going to end up 5:0, 5:1 or 6:0 etc.

Other good footballers like Rachel McArthur or Leanne Champ,
have to sit on the bench because there is no room for them in the first squad.
I think it's ridiculous. They could be the key players in other teams and help the league be more interesting.

The fact that there's so many of great players in the 2-3 teams
and so little of them in the lower-ranked teams,
makes the games easy to win and basically that's what may be "pulling down" the great players
- they don't have to play their great football in the league
and maybe that's why they they fail to win the big games, whether it's UEFA Cup or international games.
They are always close. They ARE great footballers.
But something's missing...

I hope I am making my point clear and I'm waiting for your opinions

Just adding to what you are saying, Arsenal ladies were missing, if I remember correctly, 7 players who were with the England squad when playing at Wimbledon in the County Cup.

And the final result (9-0) says it all. The reserves were way too strong for Wimbledon.

But other clubs must have to try and get better squads if anything's going to change, otherwise the top teams are just to try for the "perfect season" or something - win every match without conceding a goal.

But there are only 10 teams, so having only 2 or 3 at the top isn't so bad I suppose.

7 England internationals were in Spain and don't forget Julie Fleeting - she was not there either.

Wimbledon are not in the Premiership though, it was a County Cup game.

However it does proove how big the gap is between Arsenal and other teams.





You think it's OK?
I think it's boring. No competition unless Arsenal meet Charlton

Perhaps if Barça ladies team could play there it would be more exciting

I forgot Wimbledon weren't in the Premiership although I knew it was a County Cup game.

But I've seen Everton too this year, and they are good

But after thinking about it, I know what you mean. There's never really a chance of a bad result against a team from near the middle of the table, let alone near the bottom.
The worst that's going to happen is that the opponents will get a goal.

Until the women's game is taken more seriously in this country and more money is put in you are only going to get 2 or 3 teams competing at the high level. Yes Arsenal are the best team in the country by far and have the squad to prove it , Charlton this year have improved their squad with Keith Bonas saying it's the best squad he's ever had and they are now a lot closer to Arsenal.

It's up to the rest of the league teams to step up and improve , Everton are closing and I think Leeds are improving. Player's like McArthur and Champ don't have to stay but they choose to because they want to be part of a great side. Why did Yankey leave Birmingham? I know they had their financial problems but she could of stayed like Karney did.

As for Arsenal winning all the time without being challenged ( apart from Charlton ). I do agree that it would be great to have tighter matches but personally if I've travelled 60 miles to a game I don't care if they thrash their opponents or grind out a win/draw as long as they get points. Maybe my way of thinking comes from supporting a mens team that's be dominate for the past decade and I'm used to the easy wins.

I would love to see some of the big names come to our league so our girls can learn a bit from them but it isn't gonna happen until things change in the sport.

I think I may of contradicted myself somewhere in there but I hope you see where I'm coming from.

it is a very predictable league, agree with the comments above.

1. not much funding in the womens game
2. Arsenal have pretty much all the players (like Fulham did when they were pro)
3. this lack of competitive action at home does not benefit the home nations in international competitions.

It's ashame because we have a lot of young players that will benefit heavily from a more competitive league at home and find it easier to compete at the higher level in internationals.
The Swedish, French and German leagues attract plenty of outside intrest from players i.e; the Americans, Brazilians, etc... the WEPL just cannot compete on those kind of levels.
All would change if better funding was found/attracted and implimented - we have the players Smith, Williams, Chapman, Fleets, White, ect.. we just need it all to come together and become a more attractive propostion for investment and outside players.

(well that's my 2p )

I don't think there was money for it from the beginning in Sweden, Germany etc.
They somehow attracted the sponsors.
Maybe Agent W. will explain what's it like in Sweden, when she finds some time




Exactly. Nobody wants to leave the best team, everyone wants to win cups.
But that's the problem with WEPL - anyone would want to sign Arsenal because that guarantees trophies.
I don't know personal or financial reasons why Rachel has left Birmingham and Karen stayed.
The fact is that Birmingham are at the bottom of the table now.
They lack quality players, obviously Carney can't win all their games.
Most of the players just prefer to go to the better teams than challenge them.
That's not very ambitious in my opinion.
I'd rather play and improve my game
than sit on the bench and let my team mates win the cups for me.
But that's just me




As a Gunner, I know what you mean. I'd be gutted to see them lose.
I really don't know what it's like, cos I haven't seen them lose yet
But I wish Arsenal Ladies had better opponents and could improve their game playing against them.
And it's not gonna happen if all the best players in the league are in the top 2-3 teams.




We've got big names in the league - they all play for Arsenal I'm joking now,
but I know what you mean - and I'm also wondering what happened to Miss Milbrett
- is she going to show up in Chelsea finally? And is that going to change anything?

Yes, everybody knows WEPL needs money,
everybody talks about it but nobody seems to do anything
I don't see anything going on.
I don't see Arsenal Men mentioning the women's team on tv.
All I saw is that 2 of Arsenal Ladies said something like:
"Arsenal men are behind us, we have their support"
- where is this support? That's praising Arsenal Men, not the other way around.
The fact that Ashley Cole has presented the Player of the Month award to Kelly Smith,
does not mean or show a big support yet.

You have to remember that Bham last year had quite a few London based players. If the club can't afford to even pay their petrol fare, how do you expect them to stay at the club. The players were left with no choice but to leave.

Ask yourself the question would you drive from London to Bham twice a week, forty odd weeks of the year and not be able to claim the petrol fare. Not many would I tell ya.

The only time I've seen the men supporting the girls was at Highbury in 04 the last game of the sesaon when they won the league , not seen them at a game since.

Agent Smith is right. There was no money in our Swedish league. It’s for the last few season that there has been money involved. And who made this happen was the club Umeå. I’m not saying that just because I’m a fan of theirs, but they were the ones who started to take womens footie very serious here. Other clubs did that too of course, but there was much to do to improve the quality of their footie.
UIK created a strong organization for the club and were able to get the local companies to start supporting the womens team, they also got the players to start training a lot harder than before to achieve their dream, to become a team in the top division.
All that is history now, but UIK’s success the past years, winning the UEFA womens cup twice made the other teams realize that they had to do something to be able to compete with UIK.
At the same time, our national team got more successful, the silver in the WC 2003 gave womens footie a huge media breakthrough and introduced our players to a big audience.
Since then you have been able to watch womens footie regularly on national tv here. And that kind of media coverage has given the clubs more money. So now there is money to make in womens footie here. A proof of that is that Hanna Ljungberg/UIK was the first woman going pro here in Sweden, without having to play abroad to make a living on her footy.
In 2004 Linköping FC with our beloved Caroline Seger , started to collaborate with an ice-hockey club, to get more financial resources, since their goal is to become a top team.
In 2003 Djurgården/Älvsjö and Älvsjö AIK were joint as one team to try and win the Swedish championship within three years, which they did, twice!
Saying that, I do think it’s really up to the clubs to try harder than they have so far.
I’ve never been to a home game with UIK, but going to a game there is to go to an event.
2005 UIK had an average attendance of 3271, not bad for a town of 110.000 people, compared to London

About the players, yes they have a responsibility too. Like some of you say, why stay in a team warming up the bench? Don’t they want to play footie? On the other hand, to play in a cup like the UEFA cup, you need good player’s on the bench too. There will alwayss be injuries, suspensions aso.
UIK got the same problem as Arsenal now has too many good players. But some of them have left, since they didn’t get enough play time. Most of them young players, who have gotten a good education in UIK. They are also in the U21 national team, and they realized that they had to move on if they were to get to play footie, not just sit and wait for a 20 min substitution.

I don’t know how much support the clubs get from the FA, but a thing like what lvblue mentions, is something they could take care of. It’s not a lot of money. Give each team the same amount.

And that's just horrible that a good footballer decides to leave the club for such reason.
You don't have to ask me such questions lvblue, I was just trying to point that out.
The clubs just seem not to care much about their female players.

And that's just horrible that a good footballer decides to leave the club for such reason.
You don't have to ask me such questions lvblue, I was just trying to point that out.
The clubs just seem not to care much about their female players.

I'm not saying that was the only reason those players left. Remeber that lady footballers earn very little money. Most of them dont have full time jobs because of their commitment to the England team. What employee is going to let you have 10-15 weeks off a year to play for England. Not many. So that £50 a week petrol becomes a hell of a lot of money for the players.

And that is why I am trying to point out the clubs do not much for their players.

Please note I have mentioned a few things I don't like about WEPL here.

I don't blame the players for what their clubs don't do for them.

I think individual players at Linköping FC are sponsored by local firms, i.e; Seger & Linköping-Posten, Jossan & Bilglis, Hedvig & 3KomBud, same applies at Umeå also, i think, So that shows the local commuinty getting involved.
Quite a few Swedish teams have partnered-up or joined together like DIF & LFC, i also think Umeå IK have set up an arrangement with Umeå Södra FF recently in a bid to help develop youth players.
(maybe Agent W could help me with that if i'm wrong )

But it does all come down to funding, but on a positive the FA are actively working to help at grass-roots level to get more people involved.

Would like to see more mens teams helping their ladies teams out! a few comments here and there wouldn't go a miss!

No you are right about that!

I was on the phone about a credit card today, and the bloke I spoke to was a footie fan, and we were chatting about going to games, and when I said I'd been to Arsenal Ladies, he said he thought the womens' game was getting better - some being really skillful.
He's a Leeds Utd (men's) fan, but he'd seen highlights of Leeds ladies v Arsenal ladies on tv recently and was impressed.
So, maybe a bit more publicity will help a bit, and help get his team supported more or sponsored enough to get somewhere, and improve the WEPL, so more teams have a chance of winning it.

That's the point, there are a lot of skillful and talented players in the league.
And there would be more - from abroad as well - if there was more media and investors' interest in it.
I get the feeling that FA does not bother to work harder on getting them though

But at least people are starting to find out about it. And if there is a demand (to see more women's football) then someone eventually notices - even if their motives are selfish. They might just push things along a bit.
But the FA are and have always been pretty useless and unimaginative

What exactly is the FA doing?

Apparently they are.

If they invested a little in media - ads and stuff,
women's football would have become more popular
and even more people would get to know about it.

That's how it works.
You have to invest first, attract people to come to the games and then get the profit.
It's a stupid and ignorant excuse to say there's no money for women's footie
cos the interest is so little. That's ridiculous.

So their support is like what the Arsenal mens do the women? They support them by holding the champagne bottle as the player of the month

And the photo and short note about is published afterwards in the Women's section of the FA site only
- the section which is visited by existing women's footie fans - that's not exactly getting new supporters, is it?

Get the womens footie on tv. That will create an interest from the sponsors, and that would give the clubs more money, which would give better conditions for women to play, which would improve the quality of the play.... see where I'm getting?