She pointed to the rise in viewing figures, boost for domestic leagues and increased investment after major tournaments as arguments in favour of more World Cups.Įllis failed to give detail about just how much power the TAG has in the decision-making process. “It’s statistically written that the lever the World Cup pulls in elevating our sport is massive and that’s why a biennial one is in conversations,” Ellis said.
“I don’t want us to be a sport that fits in, I want us to be a sport that casts a shadow, that has a bigger footprint,” said Ellis in her introduction, before single questions without scope for follow-up were allowed. It was disappointing and, in the questioning that followed, not much more clarity was garnered.
#Fifa women's world cup bracket windows#
On Monday Ellis was expected to address some of those challenges in a media briefing but she spent three minutes talking about a potential biennial women’s World Cup after 15 minutes covering the minutiae of the number of international windows and their lengths. For each there are different challenges, and the global football community has been vocal – on the physical and mental toll of a World Cup every two years, on the impact on the Euros and other confederation tournaments, on a watering down of the impact of the tournament and, in the case of women’s football, on the impact on the Olympics (in which senior women’s national teams compete). The list of arguments against biennial men’s and women’s World Cups is lengthy. “There is no representation of confederations or leagues that have the key expertise to run women’s football competitions within the framework of football calendars on a daily basis,” it said in a statement. Uefa has publicly criticised the group too.
The balance of continents represented on the TAG is askew, with South America and Asia particularly underrepresented, there are no media or fan representatives and Ellis is the only member responsible for running a club team (San Diego, a newly established team without players and yet to kick a ball). In tasking Ellis with pulling together for the TAG some of the biggest names in women’s football – including the US forward Alex Morgan, the Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, and the referee Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb – Fifa has outdone the doomed club-led revolutions of the ESL and PBP and recognised, albeit belatedly, that you cannot ignore women’s football when discussing the game’s future.