That would be great for women's football, the same thing should apply to the women's game as the men's, but I am not sure if UEFA or the individual European football federations are willing to put money into that. Maybe the Scandinavian countries, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, England, France, Spain, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. But for the rest I am not so optimistic. I feel that there are too few spots available in the world cup for the European countries so it feels kinda like a private club for the powerhouses of women's football (US, Germany, France, England, Sweden, Norway, Australia and Japan). Next year we could see a world cup without the European champions or without Pernilla Harder, arguably the best player in Europe. That's a loss for the game. So I hope in the future they will expand the world cup for more teams that can compete, especially from Europe. Maybe a Nations league could then help further some European teams up the pecking order, which in turn will make them believe a seat in the World Cup or the European Cup is attainable. Here's to hoping.
there's not much money to be made as of yet. on woso; case in point a match from the top flight Fraulein's Bundesliga between Bayern Munich vs Hoffenheim(who were in 2nd & 3rd place in the league) had an attendance of only 456 fans. A men's meeting between those two clubs would most likely draw 150 times more paying customers. The woso match probably wasn't even shown on tv(as compared to what TV contracts bring in for men's clubs). Besides, the Euro ladies clubs seem to be fairly busy anyways. CL champs, Lyon, came over to the US & got promptly beaten by our top club(NC Courage). And their main excuse was that their off season,/weren't training hard enough for their US game, blah blah blah...... since that game, played in Miami, between arguably the two best clubs in the world. wasn't well attended either, it goes to show another problem; most woso fans don't really care much what happens outside their own boundaries. This is especially true here in the US. where the womens' game is popular, but ask a typical fan & the've never heard of Lyon or Marta or any of the foreign female players but they've all heard of Man U or Ronaldo or Messi
I was talking about national teams. They need to play regularly versus competitive teams to improve. The qualifiers don't fit that.
The groups/leagues based on current rankings would be: League A: Germany, England, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Scotland, Austria League B: Iceland, Belgium, Ukraine, Russia, Wales, Ireland, Finland, Czech Rep., Portugal, Poland, Serbia, Romania League C: Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Belarus, Slovenia, Turkey, Northern Ireland, Israel, Greece, Bosnia & Herz., Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Albania, Faroe Islands League D: Latvia, Moldova, Montenegro, Estonia, Malta, Lithuania, Georgia, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Macedonia, Kosovo, Andorra, Armenia, Gibraltar, San Marino*, Liechtenstein* *National teams have yet to play an official FIFA match.
Maybe, but hotjam2's point was driving home the fact that there isn't enough capital in WoSo yet to support a Nation's League. There's no attendance and no TV money except for the top echelon of nations. Heck, though hotjam2 talked about club attendance, the same argument can be made for NT attendance, which is similarly awful except for those top nations. I would focus instead of trying to build domestic club leagues in the smaller nations instead of asking the NTs to play a few more games between qualifiers. Domestic leagues are way better for development since they make players play games far more consistently, plus cover a much larger number of players.
Whereas I think that promoting the national teams is a better way to break into mainstream media than promoting clubs. Player development is another story.
Well now you've moved the goalposts. Do you want the teams to improve, or do you just want mainstream media to notice?
I don't see what purpose this would serve. I don't think that the men's NL competition is all that hot; it's really just a way for UEFA to try to make some more money. There needs to be a more concerted effort to establish some credible women's leagues in the various UEFA countries and gain support for that. The post above that mentions only about 450 attendees for a match between Bayern and Hoffenheim is telling. Even in the US, it's not clear that the women's league is financially viable.
Kind of doubt it would be, European soccer has always been by the Clubs, for the Clubs and from the Clubs. It have overall worked out quite well so I doubt UEFA have any intention of changing that (except possibly when they see a chance to cash in). The best promotong tool is probably UEFA WCL, increasing compensation and prize money is likely to have a better effect on promotion WoSo in Europe than anything UEFA could do with the national temas. .
I agree with that; Europe is the only region that has the long, drawn out, one year process of qualifying for the World Cup(along with doing it again for the Euro Champ.) in women's soccer(as the rest of the world determine it by quick tournaments) and yet look how weak the eastern half of Europe(or former communist bloc) been? Only one team out of 16 made it to the Euro final tournament. They simply refuse to spend time. money & effort on their women's programs; so looking at England's road/group to the WC; they probably had the weakest group to qualify yet the longest road trips as they to go & play in Bosnia, Russia & Kazakhstan(where the Barcelona woso squad got food poisoning last in their CL game). So how does that help England prepare to take on the stronger teams of the world? in my opinion they could just make all the eastern euros just play each other for one or two qualifying spots, whereas you mentioned the top grade western Euro squads could play in a way more competitive league ...................................................................................................................................