Changes to the structure of the SWPL from next season will mean fewer games in the top flight as the card is reduced to 28 per season; it will, though, mean the pressure is on big time this term with three top teams faces automatic relegation.
The current 12-team SWPL will carry on as normal this term but there will automatic relegation for the bottom three teams in the league this season with the winners of SWPL 2 promoted.
That will create two leagues of ten, with clubs playing each other once at home and once away with the popular split remaining in place; however, that falls into a top six and bottom four split.
It will mean a nervy finale to this season for those at the bottom end of the table while those at the top end – who are more likely to be involved in international games - will play four games fewer from the start of the following season.
There are arguments for and against the new format as the league seek to make the league attractive from both a commercial point of view as well as well as from a players perspective. The league is keen to attract players as well as retain them while there is also a desire to continue to offer young players a platform for progression, as has been witnessed across recent seasons with the emergence of players such as Emma Watson and Mia McAulay.
For those at the bottom end of the table the pressure of relegation next year may well inhibit the wish to blood young players given what is at stake, however there will be a consensus that fewer games is a step in the right direction.
With this season’s European Championship qualifiers running into July and Celtic and Rangers both straight into Champions League qualifying pathways, the games stack up fairly quickly.
Given that this season’s attendances in both a domestic and international context were fairly disappointing when compared to where they seemed to be going last term, there is a feeling that anything that the current structure needs some joined up thinking for the game to try and move itself forward.
Certainly, Pedro Martinez Losa who has coached in the USA, in Spain, in France, in England and now here in Scotland with the national team, believes the long-term strategy that was put in place a decade ago in his homeland and in England points the way forward.
And his first wish list for the women’s game involves a push towards the full professionalisation of the SWPL.
“Firstly, here in Scotland, it has to be about trying to professionalise the league,” he said. “I want to look to the football and I think the standard is good but we have to develop professional athletes and I think a lot of clubs don’t have the resources to do that.
“The competitiveness of the league is an important factor. I think we should do a marketing analysis of the crowd who engage in the men’s game and how many of them can also potentially be involved in the women’s game.
“But also I have that there are surveys where you can see that the supporters of the men’s team are not always the same supporters who turn up for the women’s game.
“At Arsenal, for example, the demographic that goes to the women’s games are totally different from those who have season-tickets for the men. For me, the first thing is we focus on the standard to produce the best standard.
“There has been a lot of work but there are still gaps in terms of resources and facilities for players. Stadiums also make a difference. Spain was a good example of that. When Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao all got involved to put the women’s game in their stadium and get the games on TV, it facilitated a total transformation in perception of the women’s game.
“It is the combination of all the stakeholders working together with a clear goal and strategy.
“Back in 2012 the English FA started a programme to develop the professionalism of the women’s game with a really high investment.
“When you look to the success of this current England team it is a decade of work to get where they wanted to get to – and their clear strategy was for England to win a trophy. And a decade later they got it when they won the Euros.
“It is a long-term journey but the process can be accelerated.”
Having worked around the globe in women’s football, the Spaniard has had a window into successful strategies that others have utilised.
This season Arsenal will use the Emirates as their main base for the women’s team with their progression across the last decade taking them from selling just over 1,000 tickets for a UEFA Women’s Champions League game to selling out the stadium. They have committed to 11 games next season with Martinez Losa urging Scotland to heed the lessons of elsewhere if they are to avoid being left in the slipstream as the global women’s game pushes on.
“I have been in France where the World Cup looked like a great opportunity to professionalise the game more but I don’t think they really took advantage of that,” said Martinez Losa, whose name continues to be linked with Lyon.
“In Spain, in the last year we have seen what might look like the rapid development of the game but it was not as fast as what it looks when you see the team win the World Cup. There was a lot of work before that.”
