With many of the big guns qualifying for the quarter finals of the Women’s Euro 2017, there was bound to be plenty of excitement in the first knock out stage of the competition. The biggest shock of the competition so far was Norway’s failure to make it out of the group stage as Denmark out did them in the 3 group stage match days. Austria took everyone by surprise by not only getting out of their group but topping their group ahead of European giants France.
Although, the biggest shock took place in the quarter finals as the current competition holders and 8 time winning side Germany were knocked out by underdogs Denmark who came from behind to win 2-1 in a game that was postponed on Saturday and then played on Sunday morning. With both Sweden and Germany exiting the competition in the quarter finals, it means that we are guaranteed that a team that has never won the Euro’s before will lift the trophy this summer.
In the final week of July, the third groupstage matchday for the Women’s Euro 2017 took place. This round of games were crucial for deciding which teams got out of their groups and progressed to the quarter finals of the competition. Most of the giants of women’s European football made it through to the final eight while Austria turned out to be the surprise package as they topped their group and progressed to quarter finals on their first appearance at the Euro’s.
The 8 teams who qualified for the quarter finals were: Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Austria, France, England and Spain.
The Women’s Euro 2017 opened with the host nation Netherland securing a narrow 1-0 victory over Norway thanks to a header in the second half from Liverpool’s Shanice Van de Sanden. Narrow wins and headers were the common trends in the first round of games for Group A as Troelsgaard’s header secured Denmark an important 1-0 win over Belgium.
The opening game of Group B brought more goals as Russia looked impressive and secured a 2-1 win over Italy while the highly anticipated Germany v Sweden game that evening ended in a disappointing 0-0 draw.
Group C carried on the trend of low scoring games as Austria defeated Switzerland 1-0 and France converted a penalty to defeat Iceland.
Group D brought entertainment and excitement on Wednesday as the Spanish defeated their neighbours Portugal 2-0 in the first game of the day. The English then raised the bar when it comes to standards for this summer’s tournament as they trashed Scotland 6-0 thanks to a hat-trick from Jodie Taylor and goals from Ellen White, Jordan Nobbs and Toni Duggan.
Did you know?
Jodie Taylor’s hat-trick makes her the first female England player to score a hat-trick in a major tournament and only the third England player (male or female) to score a hat-trick in a major tournament.
The UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 kicks off today, Sunday 16th of July with competition hosts Netherlands taking on Norway at 5pm. There are 4 groups and 16 teams in total competing in the competition with some exciting fixtures taking place in the first round of games including England v Scotland (Wednesday), Spain v Portugal (Wednesday) and Euro giants Germany and Sweden face off on Monday evening. After the success of the Women’s World Cup in the summer of 2015, the competition is expecting huge turnouts at the games but you can also tune in to every game on Eurosport while Channel 4 will be showing all of the England fixtures.
Liverpool Ladies have impressed recently in their transfer market activity as they signed England legend Casey Stoney in December 2016. Scott Rogers has now added two more talented English women to his squad as Liverpool signed Laura Coombs and Jess Clarke this week.
Laura Coombs
Laura Coombs is a player that Liverpool Ladies fans will already be familiar with as the talented midfielder spent last season on loan at Liverpool from London club Chelsea. Coombs started her football career as a youth at Charlton before moving to Arsenal where she played her football until 2011. During her time at Arsenal, Coombs had a loan spell as Nottingham Forrest and Los Angeles Strikers before returning to London and then moving permanently to Chelsea. Coombs featured for Chelsea Ladies 52 times between 2011 and 2016 and also gained experience during her loan spells at Barnet, Los Angeles Strikers and Liverpool.
Laura Coombs has also experienced playing for her country as she featured in the England U-19 side who won the 2009 UEFA Women’s U-19 Championship in Belarus. England Senior National coach Mark Sampson gave Coombs her first senior international debut on the 23rd of October 2015 against China.
Jess Clarke
Jess Clarke began her football career at Leeds where she played for them until 2010. The versatile attacker who can play as a striker or winger moved to Notts County in 2010 and spent six enjoyable years at the club. Last season Jess Clarke impressed in the WSL as she netted 5 times in 15 appearances for Notts County. The 27 year old is an exciting prospect for Liverpool Ladies as she has speed, skill and is lethal in front of goal.
Clarke has represented England at youth level and also made her senior debut in March 2009 against South Africa. The forward then impressed in her second England appearance as she netted in a 3-0 win over Scotland. Clarke has so far scored 11 international goals for England.
Liverpool Ladies manager has explained his delight at signing Coombs and Clarke as he stated this week that,
“These are both fantastic signings for the club. Jess is lightning quick as well as being clinical in front of goal. I’m also really pleased to re-sign Laura permanently. She played a key role for us last season”.
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It was only a matter of weeks ago when Irish football legend Robbie Keane referred to playing for the Republic of Ireland in glowing terms as he stated, “I’m very proud to have had the opportunity to play for my country, my fondest memories are in that green jersey”. Today, an entire Republic of Ireland squad have aired their concerns with how they are being treated by the FA as the Women’s senior squad have threatened to boycott their international game against Slovakia on Monday.
What do they want?
The Irish women’s team have had their issues overlooked again and again by the FAI and have been left with no option but to take drastic measures. The squad wants the FAI to address the following issues:
Access to nutritionist, and individual strength and conditioning programmes.
Gym membership for squad.
Hotel accommodation to include at the very least working and reliable WiFi.
Apparel for travelling to be provided to the squad prior to meeting up at airport.
More home-based training sessions.
All non-professional players to receive loss of earnings documented from their employers.
Goalkeeper coach to remain for campaign, not change from game to game.
Match fee for all international fixtures of €300.
Bonus for competitive fixtures of €150 per win and €75 per draw.
Qualification bonus to be agreed with team captain and player representatives at least four weeks prior to start of qualification campaign.
It is unbelievable that in 2017, a senior football team representing Ireland have to share tracksuits, have no access to nutritionists, strength & conditioning professionals and a regular goalkeeping coach which are all key to any squad in the modern game. It is also disgraceful that these group of players are expected to regularly sacrifice portion of their own personal earnings to represent not just their country but also an association that does not value their hard work and sacrifice. This group of players do not earn anywhere near what the Irish male professional footballers in the Premier League or Championship earn so it is completely ignorant and ridiculous to expect them to sacrifice a portion of their income on a regular basis. At the very least, the FAI could offer to pay the squad players a fee per game and also offer bonuses when the team wins key fixtures or qualifies for international competitions.
The FAI
To see the Ireland men’s team play at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, one ticket may cost you anywhere between 60 to 100 euro. This is for one ticket in a stadium that can fit 51,700 fans in it for a football game. We know this money isn’t paying for the already wealthy male professional footballers, we know it’s not paying for the ignored Irish female footballers, so where exactly is it going?
There has been plenty of rumours that the CEO of the FAI John Delaney is earning around 400,000 euro per year which more than the CEO of the Spanish or Italian national football associations. In July 2014, John Delaney signed a new contract to keep him as CEO until 2020. After doing so, he stated, “You go back to 1996, the turnover of the FAI was 7 million euro, last year it was 36 million euro, next year it will be 40 million euro”. Yes you read that right, 40 million euro turnover and the FAI can’t even fork out a few quid to give our women’s national team tracksuits. Shameful.
Respect & Equality
One thing that is striking that when reading these news articles is the blatant lack of respect that our own national team gets based on the fact that they are female. Comments such as “no one cares” and “women’s football is sh*t” are thrown around by people who have never even seen women’s football in action.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015 which took place in Canada was a massive success as the competition broke attendance records as it had a total of 1.35 million fans attend the competition with an average of 26,029 fans attending every game. The competition also had commercial success as it broke viewing records in Canada, USA, France, Japan, Australia, Brazil, China and Norway.
The biggest success story from the Women’s World Cup in 2015 wasn’t Carli Lloyd’s incredible long range effort in the final against Japan but was the incredible run that the English national team went on. In recent years, the FA and the English media have supported the English Women’s international team and they have come on leaps and bounds since.
The Women’s Super League has seen an increase in clubs and players turning full time professionals in the sport, the FA has employed female coaches, the English Women’s international squad often train in the top of the range training location at St. George’s Park while sports channels such as BT Sport & Eurosport show women’s football games more regularly. This year, the FA announce a new strategy to double the amount of women and girls playing football by 2020. If the FAI can’t look at the growth of the sport in England as an example of how women’s football could really take off here in Ireland if given the deserved support, then what the hell have the FAI been doing these last few years?
Our women’s international side includes many successful athletes that play in the WSL 1 & WSL 2 in England which means they face great professionals such as Carli Lloyd, Fara Williams and Casey Stoney on a weekly basis. Our captain Emma Byrne spent 16 seasons at Arsenal where she won 9 FA Cups, 9 Premier League National Divisions, 2 WSL titles, 3 WSL Cups, 5 Premier League Cups and 1 Champions League which is a hell lot more than any of the male international players can claim they have accomplished.
Sunderland midfielder Stephanie Roche took the world by storm when she scored an incredible goal in October 2013 against Wexford Youths during her time at Peamount United. The goal went viral on social media and got the Irish international nominated for the 2014 Puskas award where she came second and narrowly missed out on the award to Colombia international James Rodriguez.
Our current international squad includes 6 players who play in the WSL 1 for sides such as Manchester City, Reading,Sunderland and Notts County while there are 2 players from WSL 2 who play for Brighton and Hove Albion. The squad also have players from the Scottish league, the Irish league, America and Germany.
These Irish international players deserve respect from the FAI. They work extremely hard like all athletes who compete on an international level and deserve to gain some form of financial support from the Football Association of Ireland. Wake up FAI, the future of Irish football is at stake here!
Last week, Liverpool Football Club announced their plans to increase ticket prices for home games next season which included plans to have some tickets priced as high as £77. Understandably, the fans reacted with complete outrage as £77 is a lot to be playing to watch a Premier League game and it is especially overpriced for to watch a team which is currently struggling to string results together.
The Liverpool fans took to social media to come up with an idea to show the club that they had pushed them too far this time and the fans attending last weekend’s home game against Sunderland decided to carry out a walk out on the 77th minute. This idea was supported by the majority of Liverpool fans on social media and grabbed the attention of football fans everywhere. Over 10,000 fans walked out of Anfield last Saturday after 77 minutes of football and it resulted in the club’s owner being forced to re-think their plans for ticket prices next season.
FSG held talks early this week to resolve the ticket price crisis and they wrote an open letter to Liverpool fans on Wednesday evening to share their new plans for ticket prices next season. The maximum general admission ticket will now cost £59 rather than £77 while all away fans will pay the same regardless of the game. The maximum price for a season ticket at Anfield is now £869 and 20,000 tickets per season will be allocated for half price tickets for fans aged between 17-21 while 1,000 free tickets will be given to local schoolchildren in Liverpool. FSG have also promised a freeze all ticket prices for the next two years.
Liverpool fans can now take pride in the fact that their actions and solidarity have resulted in a positive change in their club while it has also reminded FSG that the fans are the most important aspect of Liverpool Football Club.
Sarah Fitz Knows Best 