Finally. The announcement that Manchester United are to launch a professional women’s team and have bid for a place in a newly restructured second tier next season has provoked a variety of responses but overall it is deeply welcome.
Why? Because whatever you may think about United’s late arrival to the party, one of the superpowers of world football entering the arena will boost the profile of the game and show that women’s football has reached the point where it must be taken seriously. And United, seen by many as stubborn and out of step, will benefit from an enhanced reputation and will be able to expand their extensive sponsorship portfolio into a new market.
As Chelsea and Manchester City turned to women’s football – Arsenal are the only top-six club to have been involved in the game since the 1980s – the pressure built on United, the last Premier League club not to have a women’s side. Yet they still held out. A situation seemingly always “under review”.
However, this impasse has not always existed. In 2000 United took over the running of the local side Corinthians. Five years later, after the Glazer takeover, the senior side was deemed “not part of the core business”. While it has been widely thought the decision to ditch the side was financial, as the game has grown and gained traction commercially that argument has become void. A former employee of the Regional Talent Club, run by the Manchester United Foundation, told the Guardian that running the team at a time when the football was amateur and unmonitored across the board, far from being too costly, was simply too much hassle. That they have been forced to care and pitch in should be applauded and sends a message about how much the game has changed and that it has a vibrant future.
The Football Association has long coveted United’s involvement in the women’s pyramid. The FA chief executive, Martin Glenn, and head of women’s football, Baroness Sue Campbell, expressed disappointment at the lack of a team at the FA’s Gameplan for Growth launch in March 2017. More recently, the new England manager, Phil Neville, hinted at movement. “I will be encouraging them,” the former United defender said at his unveiling. “A club of the size of United should be the leaders, the pioneers.”
It would appear, this time, that the FA has played a blinder. Its restructure of the women’s pyramid has come under repeated criticism but with this announcement it would not be presumptuous to assume the whole process has been designed to usher in United. Many hoped the opportunity to leapfrog into the game’s upper tiers would prompt them to move but the strength of the club’s resistance had left many believing the FA’s gamble would not pay off.
This is familiar territory. In 2014 the revamped Manchester City were controversially given a top-tier licence at the expense of Doncaster Rovers Belles, who were demoted to WSL2. Today, no one could doubt the club’s commitment to women’s football, even if the manner of their arrival remains a significant footnote.
While United, and the FA, may face similar criticism should the club be given a sought-after spot in the newly named second-tier Women’s Championship – at the expense of an established side such as Charlton, Coventry, Crystal Palace, Derby, Leicester, Lewes and Sheffield United – it is unlikely to last. Their decision to enter a professional team at tier two with the semi-pro sides gives the club a chance to blood young talent on the way to earning a place in the elite.
The new side may look to bolster their squad to complement their young charges and they are unlikely to be short of willing participants in their project – there are plenty of United fans working and playing in the women’s game. But they will also be keen not to undermine their Girls’ RTC, which has been producing top players and strong youth teams for years that clubs such as Manchester City and Liverpool have eagerly snapped up.
The England and Manchester City star Izzy Christiansen, the 18-year-old City forward Ella Toone, Liverpool’s Ellie Fletcher and Emily Ramsey, Juventus’s Katie Zelem and the Chelsea keeper Fran Kitching all began their careers at United – the list could go on.
Current girls on the books will be able to continue their development alongside the players and coaches they have grown as footballers with – hopefully the talented coaches at the MU Foundation are being pinpointed for roles in the new senior set-up – and can go beyond dreaming of breaking through at their childhood club.
Clubs at the very top will carefully follow developments in the north-west but, for those involved and invested in women’s football, there will be delight about the credibility this brings to the game.
Wolfsburg run riot
Wolfsburg hit the goal trail in their Champions League quarter-final tie with Slavia Praha, sealing a 5-0 first-leg lead. Pernille Harder led the way with a brace while Caroline Graham Hansen, Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir and Ewa Pajor were also on target. In the other first leg encounter, Lyon claimed a 2-1 win over Barcelona but the Catalans scored the vital away goal. Dzsenifer Marozsán and Ada Hegerberg were on target for the home side but Barcelona hit back through Patricia Guijarro.
