By Richard Murray |


Over 10 years ago, I became enthralled by professional women’s football. I saw the French women’s team and thought, “They’re good.” Many of the players were recent transfers to the Ligue 1 side I follow closely, Olympique Lyonnais. While I support OL, it is originally a men’s team that developed a women’s side through sharing resources with the former. Chelsea; Atlético Madrid; Borussia Mönchengladbach; Olympique Lyonnais; Santos; at one time, Botafogo; AC Milan (which recently absorbed Brescia Calcio Femminile): All are men’s teams that share or shared infrastructure with a women’s team.

Two clubs I support, Turbine Potsdam in the Frauen-Bundesliga and INAC Kobe in Japan’s Nadeshiko league, are standalone women’s clubs. They have no straight or dis-connectable affiliation with a men’s club, though behind-the-scenes relationships exist.

Photo: turbine-potsdam.de

In the National Women's Soccer League in the U.S., a regional problem exists. The Northeast, home to New York City, Boston, and most of the highly rated colleges in the U.S., such as Colombia University, Harvard, Yale, and NYU, is unable to maintain a women’s soccer team.

The annually poor-performing Boston Breakers finally folded. The Western New York Flash, who achieved great success at times, were sold to North Carolina FC and rebranded as the North Carolina Courage. A new version of the Flash plays in the second-division United Women’s Soccer league and is still owned by the Sahlen family which sponsors the stadium the Courage play at.

Meanwhile, Sky Blue FC replaced the Boston Breakers as the Northeast’s bottom club that has no sign of getting better.

A Deadspin article by Erica L. Ayala and RJ Allen goes into a little detail about Sky Blue FC’s troubles, citing former players and staff, as well as former US. international goalkeeper Hope Solo.

But the article missed a key point – in its early stages, men’s football was no different. One of the problems people have concerning sport is they forget or ignore the time to grow the infrastructure some revered sports clubs use today. Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Juventus, and even PSG, which was founded in 1970, did not have the infrastructure they do now.

I saw photos of early men’s football and read some biographical info; their pitches were like the many women complain about all throughout women’s soccer. The players’ relationship to owners or salary was less positive compared to many at Sky Blue FC.

Earlier this year, OL Féminin won its third straight Women’s Champions League title. But it does not fill up the stadium like the men’s team, which has never won the men's CL, not even after becoming Ligue 1 champion and having held the spot consecutively for seven seasons (from 2001-02 to 2007-08). It still does not get sponsors or fan attention superior to the men’s team.

RENVERSANT. FANTASTIQUE. HISTORIQUE. ⚡⚡⚡
Notre équipe remporte pour la 3ème fois consécutive la Women’s Champions League ! La #TeamOL s’est imposée 4 à 1 face grâce aux buts d’ @amandinehenry6, d'@ELS_9_FRANCE, d'@AdaStolsmo et de @cam10abily23 !
Bravo ! 😍😍😍 #UWCLFinal pic.twitter.com/ed5L0Aa9pk

— Olympique Lyonnais (@OL) May 24, 2018

Women’s-only football clubs have to survive. Those that do will have a great story. They will be able to say they survived not only the early years where fiscal absence or organizational neglect were more common, but will also be able to state the competition in their environment to fellow clubs who are benefiting from already existing infrastructures was a large mountain, one men’s clubs did not have.

When I first watched the Frauen-Bundesliga, Turbine Potsdam and FFC Frankfurt were the top clubs. Then Wolfsburg came in, as well as Bayern, Bayer Leverkusen, Essen, Gladbach, and others. However, Frankfurt and Turbine are the sole standalone women's clubs in the top flight, part of a small number of similar clubs in the top flights throughout UEFA.

Is that a bad thing? No. I have nothing against affiliation with men’s clubs, but I do not think women’s football must have them, and that is where the surviving has value. Not every men’s football club has an affiliated women’s club. Many men’s clubs thrive well in finance or fandom without them. Why can’t women’s clubs do likewise?

Richard Murray’s work has appeared in The Botafogo Star. Follow him on Twitter at @thetenner10.