Wither the women’s tournaments?
While the global sporting community slowly returns from the COVID19induced shutdown, the economic impact of the pandemic threatens to derail the momentum women’s sport has built up over the years. From a string of cancellations and their impact on disciplines and players to fears of a fall in investment in the women’s game, here are the developments from biggest tournaments from around the world. mer Olympics and men’s EURO were postponed to 2021. Qualiers for the Women’s EURO have also been postponed with no teams having conrmed their berths so far. Sarina Wiegman, head coach of defending champion Netherlands, believes the postponed competition will give “our own stage, our own platform for the women’s game” with no other football tournaments during that summer.
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour has been shut since February and is aiming for a resumption with the Marathon Classic from July 23 in Sylvania, Ohio. Ocials are pushing the state’s governor to allow fans to attend to make the tournament commercially viable. “If the question is, ‘Could you play the tournament without spectators?’ we couldn’t,” Marathon Classic tournament director Judd Silverman said. With 11 tournaments already cancelled this year, the LPGA announced that its fulltime members can retain their cards until the end of 2021 season. Indian golfer Aditi Ashok welcomed the move by the league and said, “It’s a huge relief for sure and it’s one less thing that we have to think about while playing.”
The Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 qualier, which was scheduled for July 319 in Sri Lanka, has been postponed. Three teams among the 10, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the West Indies, can still conrm their places in the 50over World Cup to be held in New Zealand next year. The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) head of events, Chris Tetley, said, “We will work in partnership with the members to nd an appropriate window to reschedule these events as soon as it is safe and practical to do so.”
Ed Joyce, head coach of the Ireland women’s team, said, “The xture schedule ahead is certainly going to be a busy one for all cricket nations given the postponements, and we’ll need to develop a preparation programme in the leadup to the tournament, so we hope the ICC can give ample notication of the new dates.”
Here are the developments from biggest tournaments from around the world.
The FIFA Under17 Women’s World Cup, originally scheduled for November 2020, will be held between February 17 and March 7 next year. FIFA has claried that despite the postponement, the original eligibility criteria will be retained with players born between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2005, allowed to participate. The tournament will be the second time India will host a major FIFA tournament, having held the FIFA Under17 Men’s World Cup in 2017.
India coach Thomas Dennerby, whose girls will be making their World Cup debut, feels the postponement will allow this team to further improve. “I think the postponement of the World Cup could give us an extra advantage. All the girls have individual training programmes and we follow their progress on a daily basis. I think their tness level will be very good when we return to the camp. The postponement also gives us more time to work with on their technical skills and this will help us make up for lost time,” said the Swedish coach.
The tennis calendar has taken a massive toll as this year’s French Open has been moved to September, Wimbledon has been cancelled, and the WTA tour will not resume until at least midjuly due to the COVID19 pandemic.
“Following the announcement of the WTA Tour suspension through July 12, the WTA events in Bastad, Lausanne, Bucharest and Jurmala scheduled for July will not be held, due to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic,” the WTA said in a statement.
However, stars have taken to the court in exhibition tournaments such as the UTR Pro Match Series. Bianca Andreescu and Soa Kenin, winners of the last two Grand Slams, are featuring in a 16player invitational tournament in Charleston in South Carolina beginning on June 23. This will be followed by the World Team Tennis season, which will be held in Greenbrier, West Virginia. The top women players in action here include world No. 4 Soa Kenin and 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens. The tournament will run from July 12 to August 2, and 500 spectators are to be allowed to attend the matches.
France’s Division 1 Feminine has been called o for the rest of the season. The decision was taken on April 2■ when French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced that no sporting events would be held until September. Lyon, which led the table with 44 points from 16 matches, was declared the winner, while Paris Saintgermain nished second.
Lyon’s Ada Hegerberg, who won the inaugural Ballon d’or Feminin, told ESPN: “We’re kind of at the stage where we’re still in need of that help and when you see football as a whole and men’s football is struggling, you can also imagine yourself how women’s football is aected.” Hegerberg, who has been out of action owing to an anterior cruciate ligament injury, added: “We would all love to nish a league, but that is the decision that was made, but you have to adapt and we will take the title. We were happy about it.”
However, the decision to end the D1 Feminine, along with the men’s Ligue 1, has received widespread criticism, and clubs have also threatened legal action.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was forced to postpone the inaugural edition of The Hundred, which comes as a blow to the women’s calendar in England as the hugely popular Kia Super League was disbanded to make way for the inaugural edition of this 100ball extravaganza. One of the biggest draws for women was the parity announced in the tournament’s prize money — however, player contracts handed to the top male (£125,000 being the highest) and female (£15,000 being the highest) cricketers reveal a huge pay gap. This tournament was due to be a main if not only source of income for many female cricketers in England, other than the 21 players centrally contracted to the national team, and the postponement will threaten their residential arrangements and nancial security. The 2021 edition also faces the questions of player safety, international travel protocols and investments to make up for losses this year. start, England’s women’s top ight has not been as lucky.
The Football Association (FA) announced the cancellation of the season for the Women’s Super League and Championship, with clubs overwhelmingly vouching for the season to be declared void and Chelsea declared the Super League winner on a pointspergame basis. The Blues along with Manchester City will now represent England in the Champions League. At the other end of the table, Liverpool has been relegated to the Championship while Aston Villa is all set to enter the top ight next season.
Perhaps the most important part of this development is the FA’S announcement that it has no plans of providing nancial support to clubs during the COVID19 pandemic.
This comes at a time when the Italian FA has released (£623,000) for Serie A Femminile teams and the French FA has dedicated €6 million in support of Division 1 Feminine and €5,000 for each club in the second tier. Pundits and even the shadow minister for sport in the UK have expressed their disappointment with the development and the lack of support from the cashrich Premier League.