Putting Celtic on the map in the UEFA Women’s Champions League may well be a double-edged sword for the Parkhead side.
It is not just that the levels are significantly raised as they compete in a group with Real Madrid, Chelsea and FC Twente. Or that the finances involved in competing in the tournament dwarf the outlay to play the games; with just €400,000 guaranteed from UEFA for their participation, it is a paltry return.
Nor is it that the congested fixture list could well play havoc with their ambitions to retain their title. This month Celtic have had 7 games across 21 days and games, too, that are pivotal to how their domestic season will shape up.
They play Glasgow City this afternoon in the Sky Sports Cup quarter-final before then facing up to Rangers – so far unbeaten this season – as they look to compete against the best in Europe without allowing their domestic aspirations to take a dent in the process of their two-pronged challenge.
What has also, unquestionably, happened across the journey into the latter stages of European competition is that Elena Sadiku has put herself in the shop window.
Less than a year in the job and Sadiku has attracted a fair bot of attention. Indeed, it was notable that on the night qualification was assured that Sadiku herself casually observed that it was good news for her CV. And rightly so.
Across recent weeks, Sadiku has been profiled by the Guardian and a prominent freelance women’s football writer, Rich Lavery, whose focus tends to lie south of the border where the growth of the game has been drastically accelerated across the last decade, has been up to spend a day with Sadiku and chart what goes on in her inner sanctum.
There has been chatter in wider circles, too, given the fact that at 30, Sadiku is still younger than some of her senior players. Indeed, taking Celtic into the Champions League makes her the youngest coach in either the male or female tournament.
She assumed the role after Fran Alonso, who took Celtic within a whisker of their first title, left for the USA in a move that would have been game changing in terms of the finances on offer. He is now, however, out of a job after his time at Houston Dash came to a formal end in October; he had been on a leave of absence since June.
In that time, Sadiku’s star has risen exponentially in Glasgow. Giving Celtic their first taste of title success, and in the most dramatic of circumstances, was always going to invite a certain level of domestic attention.
Taking them into the Champions League was has brought focus from elsewhere. The kind who likes to call a spade a spade, Sadiku has something in common with Brendan Rodgers, her male counterpart at the club. With her career cut short because of injury – and at one stage the possibility of amputation after serious infection – there is a drive now to make the most of it in a coaching sense.
There is no great surprise that Celtic have found the going tough in the Champions League playground. So far they are two games in with little to show other than a steep learning curve for their efforts.
There were positives on show in both games against Twente and Real Madrid but an inevitability about how they subsequently played out. Unlike their male counterparts, this is not an environment that Celtic have had time to acclimatise to as they appreciate the chasm they need to straddle to compete against Europe’s elite. Nor are they serial winners in the domestic game where they can expect the door to open to the group stages of the Champions League very year.
The qualification route was kind to them this season, which is not to detract from the magnitude of the achievement. It is realistic, though, to say that getting themselves back to this position in subsequent seasons will be extraordinarily difficult.
Whether Sadiku is there to lead the charge will be an interesting watch. AND ANOTHER THING
Scotland have a play-off to concentrate on later this month as they look to get past Finland and qualify for the European Champions in Switzerland this summer.
But following the qualification campaign in which they have been unbeaten, they have been promoted to League A in the Nations League with this week’s draw described by Pedro Martinez Losa as “the second most difficult.”
They will face Germany, the Netherlands and Austria next year with the group stage running from February until early June.
The calibre of opposition will offer a chilling reminder of how sobering Scotland’s experience was the last time they were in League A but if they are to consider themselves capable of mixing it with the best at the Euros, this is the level they need to test themselves against.
AND FINALLY
There is always a scoff and a guffaw if a conversation turns to the topic of equal pay within women’s football.
Yet, it is not the eye-watering sums of those at the top of the end of the game that needs to come into line for female players but simply a viable and fair age.
There will be a few players who will have nodded in sympathy this week at news Steph Houghton, capped 121 times for England and a three times Women’s Super League winner, was earning £4000 A YEAR with Arsenal in 2012. Coaching and working as a club ambassador lifted it to £9000. Per year.
