HIDDEN SIDE OF WOMEN’S FOOTBALL
Rats in their digs, jam sandwiches for lunch, playing in children’s boots . . .
The Tottenham hotspur Training Centre is a part of the charm offensive for prospective signings; a 77-acre space with accommodation so luxurious that Jose Mourinho slept there on his first night as manager.
So it says something about the gender divide in British football that the Spurs women’s team usually train there only once a week. The squad, managed by Karen hills and Juan Amoros, spend most of the week half an hour’s drive around the M25, at non-league Barnet’s hive complex, where they also play matches.
Yet because there is no fridge in that public facility the players turn up for training with their own sandwiches.
Jam sandwiches are one of the staple lunches for the women’s team, who are seventh in the Super League (WSL) table.
A Sportsmail investigation into the state of the women’s game has established — despite a huge rise in attendances, four matches at Premier League grounds and a 1million weekly audience for the BBC highlights show this season — that some teams are left with rudimentary facilities, far from the ‘elite performance environment’ promised by the FA when they made the league fully professional.
Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City have integrated their women’s teams and accepted that they will make financial losses as they grow. Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck is also chairman of the club’s women’s team.
But others leave much to be desired. Birmingham ask players to bring their own packed lunch to training. Spurs told their players before the season that there would be no catering provided.
The big three aside, few clubs are paying women players more than £20,000 a year — plus club accommodation, which in some cases has been barely habitable.
Brighton players describe a house with a rat problem. A player from third- tier Southampton reports mice. Sportsmail has seen images of a rodent in a player’s kitchen.
The women’s game is still in its infancy. The league is only 18 months into professional status. A year ago, Tottenham’s team was being run by two volunteers as a community club and the fact that they are in the WSL is progress.
But many players feel that a living wage and the same elite training facilities and nutrition as men are fair expectations, given the wealth of the clubs. One of
Liverpool’s managers fought to have players moved out of accommodation considered substandard, with inadequate heating and a condemned boiler, before the club agreed to find better flats.
Many women who play must take a pay cut and find additional work to make ends meet.
One player has taken a £60,000 pay cut to put her career on hold and play for a club.
The average salary at Liverpool — whose team has a dedicated sponsorship deal with Avon — is just £20,000 a year, plus accommodation. West ham pay £15,000 annually.
The league’s new professional status has not had a huge impact on average wages. The 2017 Global Sports Salaries Survey revealed that the average salary of the 157 contracted Women’s Super League players in 2017- 18 — the last season before women’s football went fully professional — was £26,752. Now it is around £32,000.
Though the houses save on rent or a mortgage, most players would rather be paid enough to get on the property ladder, rather than live in ‘ tied’ accommodation. ‘When you’ve got mortgages and bills, football is not financially sustainable,’ Wendy Martin, the ex-Chelsea midfielder, said.
Some Liverpool players describe a struggle to plan for a professional or financial future, with the club seemingly reluctant to discuss new contracts with agents, even if a deal is due to within months. Most women are offered maximum two-year contracts, with the club retaining a one- year option to extend.
Though Chelsea’s salaries mean most of their players can get a mortgage, with an accommodation allowance on offer, WSL club Bristol City have told women players that club housing options are limited because flats are ‘largely reserved’ for the men’s Under 23s or players arriving from abroad.
An offer of accommodation can also depend on how important a player is deemed to the team. Birmingham, meanwhile, stopped providing accommodation recently for financial reasons.
Only the top three clubs can be said to provide equal facilities for all. Chelsea’s women train at Cobham, City’s at the etihad Campus and Arsenal’s at London
Colney — albeit the men and Under 23s often take priority.
Liverpool’s women use the Tranmere Rovers Solar Campus training ground, where their access has been limited when the League One club’s Under 18s need the facility for games.
The drainage at Tranmere’s Prenton Park, where Liverpool play their home games, is so poor that several fixtures have been cancelled. Chelsea manager emma hayes said: ‘This pitch shouldn’t be part of our league. We deserve better standards. Liverpool should provide their women’s team with significantly more.’
Liverpool’s new men’s and Under 23 training facility at Kirkby will have no provision for their women’s team. Manchester United’s women have an elite performance environ
ment, with even sleep therapy available thanks to progressive boss casey Stoney. Like at city, the men and women have featured together in promotional films.
BUT united players find themselves training at Leigh’s rugby league ground — sharing a fitness centre with the public — when the vast, modern, 100-acre carrington complex with its superior pitches and facilities would easily accommodate them. the women only access carrington for medical testing and scans.
Something as basic as women’s boots are not widely available, leaving many WSL professionals to play in children’s boots or smallsized men’s boots. ‘Sometimes we were advised to wear another pair of socks or insoles to fill out men’s boots,’ says one source.
Scientific studies have demonstrated that women’s feet are not just scaled-down versions of men’s but have different characteristics in terms of the arch, the side of the foot, the big toe, and the heel. Podiatrists believe cruciate ligament problems sustained by some players may have been caused by women wearing men’s shoes. there have been seven AcL injuries in the WSL this season.
Sportsmail contacted Nike and adidas about the lack of women’s boots. Nike said their boots were ‘dual gender’, adidas said they had made boots specifically for women ‘in the past’ but added: ‘these are in markets where demand is highest, such as the Nordics and the uSA.’
Sportswear firms have displayed next to no interest in boot and kit deals for any but the top international players in the WSL.
‘It’s almost impossible to get a deal unless you are one of the england team — and one of the six more marketable england players at that,’ says one source.
One agent in the women’s game said the value of such deals is too small for her to even take a percentage. Sportsmail has established deep uncertainty among players about how to strike commercial deals.
Some are paying agents without any guarantee that commercial tie-ups might materialise.
WSL referees operate in a different world from those on full-time contracts in the Premier League, earning a match fee of £60 plus a basic travel allowance.
the allowance per mile drops according to the level of league in which the official is refereeing.
the Professional Footballers’ Association declined Sportsmail’s request to discuss women’s wages and facilities.
A Spurs spokesperson said: ‘Our training sessions are held at the Hive and tottenham Hotspur training centre. We provide cooked lunches to our players on days when they are in for a full day’s training. Our sports scientist provides nutritional guidance to our players on what they should be consuming.’
Liverpool said: ‘ Our players share training facilities with tranmere in a deal which is mutually beneficial. they have excellent access to training pitches, a fullyequipped gym, physio room, backroom offices and analysis facilities, as well as a canteen with a nutrition-based chef.
‘those players who choose to take advantage of club accommodation benefit from living in a sought-after riverside location.’
Birmingham said: ‘ the club no longer provides accommodation for players, but wages have been raised to reflect housing costs.’
KELLY SIMMONS, the FA director of the women’s professional game, said perspective was needed so early in the WSL evolution. ‘Just a few years ago, women’s teams were existing on grants as community clubs and now they are being integrated,’ she said. ‘clubs are on that journey.’
the FA, who are investing £7m a year in the league including £2m for youth development, will not grant WSL licences unless clubs provide a dedicated strength and conditioning coach, marketing and commercial plans and a female coach scholarship scheme.
But the governing body, who must rely on Premier League clubs to invest as they choose, did not see fit to stipulate the provision of catered food.
Baroness Sue campbell, the FA’s director of women’s football, said decisions on the level of commitment rested in Premier League clubs’ boardrooms. ‘We have to win hearts and minds and it’s not a quick fix,’ she said. ‘We have to convince the game that women’s football is worth investing in.’
the game is on the rise, attracting a £10m sponsorship deal from Barclays and more fans than ever.
chelsea’s 4,790 attendance for their 1-0 win over Manchester united in November was a record for a WSL fixture not held at a men’s stadium. Some believe the next step requires a Premier League takeover of the division, bringing far bigger revenues.
But Sportsmail’s findings suggest that the women’s game needs longer under the control of the FA, continuing the work Simmons and others have done to build a strong professional infrastructure.
West Ham and Brighton have committed to men and women using the same training facilities but many have not.
the FA want to be collaborative, not what one source described as ‘Big Brother’. A feasibility study on a Premier League takeover will be considered at the league’s next shareholder meeting.
Most players feel that clubs should simply deliver equality when it comes to facilities.
‘A fridge would be a start,’ said one source. ‘Players are happy to take the pressure and criticism that comes with the game’s advance. But if there is no catering, let’s at least have somewhere to put food we bring in.’