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22 hours ago
03 January 2013
Women's Super League football hatched for 2013
By Olmin Leyba
MANILA, Philippines - Lady booters will soon get to strut their stuff in a top-flight league as the local version of the Women's Super League is expected to get off the ground in 2013.
"We're really pushing for that. We're looking to start off our Women's Super League (this year)," said Malditas coach Ernie Nierras.
The endeavor, which has the blessing of the International Football Federation (Fifa), will feature both local, Fil-foreign and foreign female players in a highly competitive setting like the United Football League of their male counterparts.
"Right now, we’re trying to figure out how best to do it and what the right schedule should be. Most likely, we'll time the competition with the off-season of the National Women's Soccer League in the US since clubs there have expressed intention to send players over," Nierras said.
The planned women's league is expected to elevate the status of women's football in PH, with the Malditas benefiting in the long run.
PH XI, coming off a conquest in the LA Viking Cup in California and tabbing a talented bunch of Fil-Am and Fil-Canadian recruits, will embark on an ambitious quest to qualify for the 2015 Fifa Women's World Cup.
The bid starts this year with the first round of the Asian qualifiers in May in Bangladesh, where they are bracketed in Group B with the hosts, Thailand and Iran. Winner of the group will advance to the Asian women’s championship, which will then award slots to the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada to the top 5 teams.
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Good luck in setting up a league for women, especially those who are not playing in University. I have no objection to having foreign based Pinays playing for the Malditas but I do hope that the league does not try to bring players from other countries to play. The financial stability of the league will be in jeopardy if the teams feel that they have to spend thousands of dollars in airfares and living expenses in order to compete. The most important goal is to give women a place to play in the Philippines so that they can develop into elite players. Foreign based Pinays have many leagues and teams that they can play for.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to the Malditas in their World Cup goal. It may seem like a dream but as my coaches always told me "If you don't take a shot, you will never score." I am glad that the Malditas are finally getting a chance to take their shot.
Very well said. I couldnt agree with you more. I think the inclusion of Pinay players based abroad for is necessary for the short term success of the National Team because the talent they bring will help them win more tournaments and eventually raise the much needed awareness.
ReplyDeleteHowever, developing a league is whole different animal altogether. Even the US, which has a seemingly bottomless talent pool and abundant resources, has found that developing a league faces overwhelming challenges.
I agree with both of you...
ReplyDeleteBut you still need to add those Fil-Am and Fil-Can girls to the league...They add that certain quality/dimension on the field that could potentially bring in financial support for the league.
Right now, the league as it is (with only local players) is not good enough.
One of the things I noticed, especially from the local girls on the NT, is that they need to be pushed. And if you have a league with only local girls, who's going to push those girls? who's going to make them better?
You only get better by playing with/against better girls.
I guess it depends on what ambitions you have for the league. These teams will not be able to generate income from spectators no matter how many foreign based players come. Friends and family might come to watch. The Fil-Am and Fil-Can players are either university students or graduates looking to start a career. Some might come for a season as a holiday before they look for full time work but they are not like the men who are chasing the dream of being full time professional footballers. They have the educatiion and talent to become professionals in the workforce. I would rather see 25 stable teams with a modest budget than 12 teams that are struggling to pay bills. I don't want to ban foreign based Filipinas but teams cannot expect to pay $15,000.00 to $20,000.00 for airfares and living expenses for 2 or 3 players and expect to survive.
DeleteWell said! For the most part, aside from families and friends, its mostly young girls that have any genuine interest in watching a Womans League. Its hardly enough to become financially viable. Even the US has seen enough of it to fold its own pro-effort....twice! Adding less than 5 foreign based players in the whole league will not make much difference. Heck, the national team that competed last Sept in in AFF had 4 or so foreign players and it didnt change the results. It wasnt until the team was stacked with NCAA Division 1 players that it finally won a tournament in LA. The league will probably need quite a few number of foreign players to make it truly competitive, but that will most likely break the bank.
DeleteYou also bring up an excellent point. Unlike the men, who typically see college as a means to get into a professional career in sports, most women use sports as a way to fund their college. Many submit to the notion that they are done after college. So it is unlikely that you will see post graduate women play in a Philippine league for an extended amount of time, if at all. Most would prefer to pursue a career in line with their academic training. Even the more competitive ones will likely rather coach in one of the thousands of club teams in the US. It'll pay more and offer better stability.
In my opinion, since the Philippines have been out of the global radar for all these years now anyway, might as well stay out for now and develop talent at the grassroots level. It will take time but its probably more feasible in the long run. Im no expert but I imagine that there has to be a way to develop healthy competition within the country. A lot of other countries are able to figure that out, we can too.
You were somewhat unfair to the AFF team. After all they were able to pound Singapore 7-2 and they competed strongly againsts Vietnam. Fil-Australian Patrice Impelido scored a fantastic volley in that tournament. Heather Cooke scored a hat trick.
DeleteBeating a Singapore team 7-2 is hardly a measure of success when that same team was severely beaten by Vietnam 10-0 and by Myanmar 11-0. You measure your success by overcoming tough opponents, not weaker ones. With all due respect to the national team, it was still a distant 3rd in the group.
ReplyDeleteBut we digress. The point is that running a womens league with costly foreign players is a risky proposition especially considering that it will probably take several of them to make it truly competitive. And even that will not guarantee enough paying spectators to keep it sustainable. Add to that the possibility that very few(if any) will really have faithful fans since its unlikely they will come to play in the league year in and year out. Most are destined to pursue other careers after they graduate from college.
Its not unrealistic to consider that maybe we're not ready for a pro league yet. At least not until there are enough talented local players to comprise a bonafide league. Maybe its better to focus the effort on grassroots development and make it easier to hold competitions that are open to various club levels. Make it easier and affordable and it will likely generate more competition.
Until those efforts bear fruit, foreign players can, and probably should , be utilized in international competitions where they have a legitimate chance of winning. That can only get our young generation of girls be more excited about playing. Obviously it will take at least the same skill level that they had in LA to achieve that, but who ever said thats not possible.
Sorry. I don't know what you mean by "competitive". What "competitive" means to me is that there is good competition between evenly matched teams. If every team is weak then it could still be competitive.
DeleteWe don't need to wait to set up a good quality league. The players just have to realize that they are playing for the joy of football and not because they hope to make mopney.
Sounds like you are missing the point behind the intent of establishing a league. It is to raise the level of competition for the female footballers in the country. Obviously these women already play for the joy of football, else they wouldnt be playing at all. But here is the reality, they also need to make a living. Here is another reality, team owners will expect a return in their investment, because they are not in it for "the joy of football" as much as the players are. They are there because its business.
DeleteSo here is the thing, in order to raise the level of competition, you will need a sizable amount of foreign players because there simply arent enough local based players to make it interesting to watch for paying customers. With all due respect to the locally based Malditas, even they are not considered good players in the grand scheme of things. And I dont fault them for that. They are from a generation where introduction to the sport came very late in life compared to most other national team players in the world. If you look at their roster, most started around high school already. That is way too late from a country the has very little competition right now to begin with. Kids from many other countries start playing competitively around 5 years old. However, I do respect them for paving the way for all the young generation of players in the country. Which is what I am driving at. I believe the effort will be better spent on investing the next 10 years trying to establish regular competition for the really young girls across the county right now and develop it at the grassroots level. LIttle by little as they grow, they themselves will raise the level of competition amongst each other and generate a larger pool of good players in due time.
The simple fact is that there arent enough good local players right now to sustain a league whose revenue relies on paid admission or even bonafide sponsorship. To include foreign based players will add some excitement but its going to be risky at best because it will come with significant cost.