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Article written by Jacob Omolaso for ladiesprofessionalsports.com

There’s a bullet train with carriages labelled WPS (USA), W-league (Australia), Bundesliga (Germany), Division 1 Féminine (France) and Damallsvenskan (Sweden). Lagging behind is the England Women’s’ Super League (WSL) only just commencing in 2011 which is supposed to be the women’s’ professional equivalent to the men’s Premier league. The Men’s Premier League started in 1992-3 season and has since been awash with cash, which is regrettably wasteful.

The England Premier league is considered to be the best men’s league in the World. To date The FA has had seventeen (17) years to establish the women’s football league.

I have been following the development of the women’s game in England tentatively for the last 20 years and there’s a critical issue which the FA did not address before launching WSL; that is:

 Is there an adequate pool of English players in the league to make the league successful?

To be clear…..I don’t believe there are enough quality English players in the current league to justify WSL in 2011. I appreciate the introduction of WSL but The FA has not done the necessary ground work in building the existing clubs infrastructure.

A recent example can be illustrated with Charlton LFC which was disbanded 2007 due to the relegation of Charlton FC, the parent club. Unfortunately, there was no olive branch given to the ladies to secure their budget by The FA. Charlton LFC was a successful outfit in their own right, competing and winning the FA Cup.

The FA would notably argue that there has been record investment in the women’s game; to which I commend their efforts. But the association is missing a few lessons from other modestly successful women’s leagues mentioned at the beginning. The lesson primarily concerns the question of investment. The investment which I refer to loosely concerns the quality of the players that exist within the existing English league. The WPS inaugural season, which I followed all throughout the season, is a reasonable and most recent example of how to operate a league.

Even without the limited five international per team, permitted in the WPS, the collegiate system which is operated in America provides enough quality to sustain my interest. There is a wealth of competent players from within the US. Much can be said about the collegiate system but the Women’s Bundesliga, Division 1 Féminine and Swedish Damallsvenskan operates a divisional promotion and relegation system.

There’s actually a tangible in-depth quality to sustain supporters at the games in these leagues.

WSL is being thrown in the deep-end with the announcement of ESPN obtaining exclusive media rights to the new league.  This deal is a way forward in terms of raising cash flow for subsequent re-investment.

 However this brings us to the main concern of the league being a game of CATCH22. The existing players are not strong enough to maintain supporter’s interest and the league itself needs to generate funding.

The situation has become direr with the potential departure of existing England Internationals for the American professional league of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS). There are already five regular England players, playing at WPS; and another three will join next season.

The quality of the games will be substandard and this I fear would either drown the league or create a minor league unworthy of investment, ticking along a slow track enviable of the bullet train.

This is not intended to be a doom monger of an article but to put the league on a higher gear and prevent a slow burn in the short term; in order to maintain the vision for the long term. There are a lot of people waiting at the next station for a sustainable and attractive league, the FA should not disappoint.

Article written by Jacob Omolaso on behalf of ladiesprofessionalsports.com

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