Women’s Champions League gets a revamp
New format more in line with men’s equivalent, including a new anthem
It would be easy to scoff at UEFA commissioning an anthem for the revamped Women’s Champions League. But there is no doubting Tony Britten’s Handel adaptation has become an intrinsic part of the success of the men’s competition, recognisable worldwide as the sound of the Champions League. Players and coaches talk about how, when they stand on the pitch hearing it before a game for the first time, they know they have arrived in the sport’s elite club competition.
So there is emotional as well as marketing logic in creating a soundtrack for the women’s competition as it moves into a new era, 20 years after it began as the UEFA Women’s Cup and 12 years after rebranding as the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Now, it will ape the men’s competition with its own TV deal, logo and anthem. More pertinently for the clubs, it has an expanded entry from the big leagues and includes group stages. Ironically largely a reversion to the original format, this guarantees more matches and enables them to budget better and increase revenues.
For now, the expansion is limited. Unlike in the men’s competition, in which Spain, England, Germany and Italy each have four direct entries into the group stage, no league has more than three clubs in the WUCL and only the holders and the title winners from Spain, France and Germany gain automatic entry into the 16-team group stage.
This year that is Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich – with last season’s runners-up Chelsea also gaining direct entry as the “holders”, given that Barcelona are also Spanish champions. As it happens, this quartet also made up the semi-finalists last season.
Such a small pool of automatic qualifiers (in the men’s competition 26 of the 32 are direct entrants) means many major clubs face the uncertainty of the qualifiers. This includes Lyon (champions for the previous five seasons prior to dethronement at home and abroad by PSG), Wolfsburg (finalists five times in the last nine seasons), Arsenal, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Juventus and Milan.
A complex qualifying process features 14 mini-tournaments of four teams each, then a knockout round. As with the men’s competition, there are parallel streams, one for league champions, one for non-champions.
Juventus are in the Champions Path, through which seven clubs reach the group stages.
The other six clubs are in the more demanding League Path from which only five can emerge. Besides the aforementioned sextet are 16 clubs including Slavia Prague, Rosengard, Levante, Hoffenheim, PSV, Celtic,
Now, [the Women’s Champions League] will ape the men’s competition with its own TV deal, logo and anthem
Bordeaux and Brondby. The qualifying stages start on August 18.
The team no one wants to meet in the elimination round will be Lyon. Arsenal (assuming they get past Kazakhstan’s Okzhetpes and either PSV or Lokomotiv Moscow) and Real Madrid (who enter at that stage but are also un-seeded) have a one in four chance of doing so.
Should Arsenal draw Lyon that would mean reunions for Nikita Parris and Danielle van de Donk, who traded places during the summer, with Parris returning to WSL after two years and 31 goals in France. Lyon have a new coach in Sonia Bompastor, previously a highly-respected player, formerly academy director, and the first woman at their helm.
They have also signed Christiane Endler and Signe Bruun from PSG but will have to negotiate the qualifying rounds without a trio of stars – Eugenie Le Sommer, Sarah Bouhaddi and Dzenifer Marozsan – who are on loan to offshoot NWSL club OL Reign until December.
PSG are also under new management with Didier Olle-Nicole, a veteran coach of men’s teams from Nice and Le Mans to Apollon Limassol and the Benin national team, taking over from Olivier Echouafni. Player recruitment began in defence with French internationals Sakina Karchaoui (Lyon) and Estelle Cascarino (Bordeaux), and Sweden’s Amanda Ilestedt from Bayern.
There is also a new coach at European champions Barcelona, with Jonatan Giraldez stepping up from assistant to replace Lluis Cortes,
who resigned stating: “Winning our first treble has made us extremely happy, but it has also been a very tough season… 353 days of very hard work, effort, being together…with all the conditions surrounding COVID. I don’t feel I have the energy to keep leading this team.”
Giraldez has sought to build on Cortes’ success with a trio of shrewd signings: Spain’s Irene Paredes (PSG), Norway’s Ingrid Engen and Sweden’s Fridolina Rolfo (both Wolfsburg). Club captain Vicky Losada has moved on to Manchester City.
Barcelona won the domestic league by 25 points last season, winning 33 of 34 games. The only team that beat them, Atletico Madrid, came fourth, missing out on Europe, but are hoping to regain their status as contenders by signing Argentina’s Estefani Banini from Levante and South African Thembi Kgatlana from Eibar. Toni Duggan has returned to her first club, Everton.
The Blues have made other smart signings, among them France’s Kenza Dali (West Ham), but will find it hard to break into the top three of Chelsea, Arsenal (who signed Japan’s Mana Iwabuchi from Aston Villa) and Manchester City. The latter have lost US stars Sam Mewis and Rose Lavelle but signed Jamaica’s Kadija Shaw as well as Losada.
Everton are more likely to overhaul Manchester United, who have issues behind the scenes after the departure of head coach Casey Stoney. Americans Tobin Heath and Christen Press have also left amid reported discontent among players at the quality of facilities and level of investment, while promising young forward Lauren James has joined Chelsea (incidentally the same club as her brother Reece).
In Germany Bayern look capable of pulling further clear of Wolfsburg, while Juventus will be seeking a fifth straight title since formation in Italy. Former Arsenal coach Joe Montemurro, who began his career as a player with Australian club Brunswick Juventus, has taken over. For him, as with several other coaches, the main focus will be Europe.