As Riteesh Mishra emerges from his dugout at Bramall Lane on Sunday afternoon, the crowd will be treated to the extremely rare sight of a British Asian manager on the touchline.
During his time as head coach of Charlton Women, Mishra has commanded a few headlines but on Sunday he knows his team’s third-tier promotion play-off final with Blackburn will merely serve as a footnote to a ground-breaking announcement from the Football Association.
Once the final whistle blows in this clash between the winners of the Women’s Premier League northern and southern divisions, the FA will begin revealing the final composition of its radically rebranded top two tiers.
Officials are scheduled to spend the evening telephoning those 15 clubs who applied for the maximum of nine places still available in next season’s Women’s Super League first and second divisions, informing them if their bids have failed or succeeded. Then, on Monday morning, they are scheduled to make those decisions public and an overhaul destined to change the entire topography of the female game in England will be complete.
While WSL 1’s dramatic makeover entails the top flight not only becoming fully professional but expanding from 10 to either 12 or 14 teams, the still predominantly part-time second tier stretches to 12 sides, has been renamed the Championship and is expected to welcome the newly formed Manchester United as well as either Blackburn or Charlton.
Since March, when 10 clubs were awarded WSL1 licences for 2018-19, the FA has been considering the financial viability of further bids from, among others, Sunderland and West Ham.
The imperative to turn fully professional creates both exciting opportunity and apparent unfairness, with Sunderland appearing emblematic of the latter. Despite finishing seventh in WSL 1 this season, Melanie Copeland’s side are struggling financially after being cut adrift by their parent men’s club.
Although seven of Phil Neville’s current England team – including Lucy Bronze, Steph Houghton, Jill Scott and Jordan Nobbs – began their careers at a team integral to the wider development of the women’s game, Sunderland were duly left to make a joint, late bid for WSL 1 status with Northumbria University. Should it fail, they will be demoted, possibly to the third tier northern section.
It seems particularly harsh on Copeland, who assisted Neville during England’s recent World Cup qualifiers. Highly regarded in FA circles, she hopes to become one of only a handful of English women to gain the Pro-Licence coaching qualification yet is struggling to fund the £9,000 course.
Similar anomalies abound. Yeovil scored two goals and collected two points in 18 WSL 1 games this season, yet, after raising the £350,000 needed to turn professional, secured a licence to remain in the top division.
A rung lower, Manchester United are investing around £5m into building a fully professional squad from scratch under the novice coach Casey Stoney. The high-profile former England defender faces the daunting task of assembling and moulding a winning team while cutting her managerial teeth.
United must eclipse the WSL 2 champions, Doncaster Belles, whose “promotion” has been blocked by inadequate finances. “It’s really unfair,” says Faye Lygo, the club’s outgoing chair. “Sadly, it’s money, not football ability, that counts.”
Tellingly, many talented players are departing WSL 1 clubs. They simply dare not risk abandoning longer-term, often significantly better-paid and infinitely more secure, careers such as teaching, by turning professional.
Hope Powell, despite her newly promoted Brighton side having been granted a top tier licence, is slightly concerned. “If you stretch WSL 1 any further than 12 teams you’ll dilute the talent,” says the former England manager. “The quality will suffer.”
