Talking about Thailand, one player I have known since her days at the Arsenal Academy (Sophie) while dual signed with Brighton is now working at the Piing Academy in Pattaya and plays in the League for Chonburi FC.
Yes, mainly a league for youth development at the moment, I believe. From what the national coach (from South Korea) said, they had trouble finding many female players in Timor at first. The Thai Women's League had no shortage of participants, but think of the logistics... Before the qualifying play-offs, they had to test all 579 players and staff for coronavirus before the games could go ahead! Sixteen teams competed in 4 groups in these qualifiers in Sep/Oct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020–21_Thai_Women's_League_play-offs_round The 4 winning teams join the 4 semi-finalists of 2019, who qualified automatically – so, the premier league lineup for 2020/21 is Chonburi Sports School, BG Bundit Asia, Bangkok WFC, Air Force WFC and the qualifying winners, Lampang Sports School, BRU Burirat Academy, MH Nakhonsi and Chonburi FA. The last Thai season, 2019, ended without a final – Chonburi Sports v BG was cancelled to give the national team the best preparations for the World Cup. (kinda wish they'd done it the other way round...) This month's qualifiers had a close finish in Group A, and on Sunday in the deciding match of Group C, where BRU won 3-2 over Kasembundit with a hat-trick by the Thai international forward Nisa Romyen. (The eight teams who qualified in 2nd and 3rd place go to League 2.) The season kicks off on 31 Oct. On target for BRU: Nisa Romyen - (FA Thailand)
The AFC has actually published an article on Sophie. if you read between the lines, there is a criticism of Hope Powell's management at Brighton.
[QUOTE="shlj, post: 39019717, member: 101549"if you read between the lines, there is a criticism of Hope Powell's management at Brighton.[/QUOTE] You could say i'm not surprised...
What I heard is Sophie was one of the few would who actually tell Hope Powell when her training sessions were too boring or had too much running,
Indonesia: The first season of Liga 1 Putri was an amazing event that defied the odds in 2019. But what's the future for women's football in this vast area of the world? Previously, hosting the 2018 Asian Games pushed the federation PSSI to select its national squad from the clubs in the Pertiwi Cup, an occasional tournament - but clearly it wasn't enough. Ten major clubs agreed to field women's teams in a new championship, no small task in a country where women's football has struggled. West Papua won the most cups, but who would succeed in the league? (Peter Fitzgerald, cc-by-sa) The teams played 16 games each in two groups - Java was home to most of the teams, and three in the semi-finals in December, when Persib beat Arema 2-0 (agg) to reach the final. The other semi had comedy then tragedy then farce, as the Santa hat-wearing team from Papua, Galanita Persipura, gifted and received equally in a 6-6 aggregate result. But then, disaster as the coach took them off the field without any penalty shootout, in a dispute with officials over the away-goals rule. The PSSI maintains that away goals are not used in that competition, so the win was awarded to Tira-Persikabo.
And yes, it's a two-parter... Indonesia had the first final of the Liga 1 Putri in December 2019 after a successful season. The first leg went Persib's way, 3-0, and that Bandung city club sealed the title in the second leg (6-1 agg.), being hailed as heroes with an open-top bus tour. In West Papua, the club Galanita Persipura may have taken their ball home and lost the semi-final, but the TV show Trans World Sport visited them in an enlightening report: In 2020, the women's Indonesian league was cancelled, unable to start in April during the pandemic. Other troubling news in September was that the league's runner-up club of 2019, Tira-Persikabo, still haven't been paid.
Two champions are being decided this week: Urawa Red Diamonds are Japan's best club in 2020, their fourth title. They'll continue to vie with Beleza and INAC Kobe in the pro league from 2021: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2020/11/08/soccer/urawa-wins-era-ending-nadeshiko-league-title/ South Korea's WK-League champions put their record on the line in this week's 2-part final, a rematch of an epic in 2018. Incheon Red Angels won their 7th title in 2019, but opponents Gyeongju KHNP have the better head-to-head record this year. The final can be seen here: - 1st leg: Gyeongju v Incheon, 12 Nov 2020, 09:00 GMT - 2nd leg: Incheon v Gyeongju, 16 Nov, 09:00 GMT Korea's Incheon against Japan's Beleza, 2019 - (The-AFC.com) ⬤ The women's Asian club championship was scheduled for a "2nd Pilot Tournament" around now, but evidently it was cancelled long ago. Earlier the AFC said it might expand the women's continental cup from 4 to 6 teams. If Japan and S Korea keep the same system, their champions this week would qualify for a potential 2021 edition.
Mongolia's new champs are Deren FFC, winning their first title. The Women's National League expanded to an 11-team round robin with 5 new clubs. Runners-up on goal difference, Tuuliin Tom Tulnuud were ahead of the previous 3-time champions Arvis who placed 3rd. And the players of the year were named at a nice award ceremony. The national team had a decent start in competitions in 2018/19. If it and the league are going to kick on, they'll need to use this Fifa money wisely: https://news.mn/en/793911/ (Archive)
Some shocking petulance and a day of shame (but good publicity! ) in the Vietnamese league's week 5 match. Kenh14.vn tells the story: "In the 89th minute, referee Trần Thị Thanh cut the whistle and pointed to the penalty spot for Ho Chi Minh City I. Immediately, the 'king in black' faced the backlash of PP Hà Nam players. Referee Thanh held a yellow card for the hot heads, but in the end, the incident was far beyond the imagination of herself and many others. The players in the yellow shirt, after a few words, did not play anymore." - (Kenh14.vn / Archive) Highlights | TP. HCM I – PP Hà Nam www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGiiEIDMqBA The ref hadn't had a great match and refused two likely handball decisions - in Hà Nam's favour. The penalty call against them was no scandal. After she was pushed by their players and the full team walked off, she was really lenient but made the right choice eventually, after half an hour of intense phone calls! Match abandoned as a 3-0 win for HCM I. After the unpleasantness, the fun: Who Gets Punished? The main burden falls on the coach, while the club is fined 50 million Dong (€1800) with only a warning for the team, plus a 2-match ban for captain and international player Trần Thị Hồng Nhung. But the team manager is out - Nguyễn Thế Cường is banned by the federation for 5 years. Senior players, given their threatening actions on the pitch, might have expected a harsh punishment, but they mainly had to write public apology letters, including to the ministry of sport. The drama was widely seen in national media - this incident had similar repercussions to a 2017 team walkout in the men's V-League.
Overdue league news, but at least it's still within the Year of the Rat... China's new champions: a win for Wuhan The CWSL 2020 took a different shape as every game was in one city, Kunming in south China. And former champions Dalian are gone - they actually survived the 2019 relegation playoff, but major problems at the owner Quanjian Group led to the club's collapse. A full rundown of the ten teams is on Medium's CHNWNT page (Archive). Before the season Tabitha Chawinga won player of the year for 2019/20, when her club Jiangsu won the double. But this season, Barbara Banda (of Shanghai Shengli) took away the top scorer award, and Jiangsu were knocked down to a 2nd-place finish. The week 1 review is on the AFC site, and after a single round robin, the top 4 teams competed for the title. In the final, Wuhan were 4-0 winners over Jiangsu. Although it's Wuhan's first title after 2 decades, it shouldn't be such a surprise. They signed players of a fine calibre: Wang Shuang (returning from PSG), the Brazilian forwards Bia Zaneratto and Millene, and Malawi's Temwa Chawinga. Final info is online, and this year there's even a video or two. - Match report by The-AFC.com (11 Oct 2020) - "Wang Shuang savours Chinese Women's Super League title triumph after tough year" - Season review by the CFA (12 Oct) www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kSSs0T8AB8
★ Exciting experimental championship: It's gonna be the best AFC Women's Club Championship 2021 Pilot Tournament ever! (And if you're into long PDF docs...). Set for November. Will it lead to an Asian women's Champions League in 2023? So says the head of women's football, Bai Lili.
News from around the grounds in SE Asia: Indonesia will host the U17 Women's Asian Cup in 2022 Singapore has a new national coach, the ex-international goalkeeper Stephen Ng - he worked for 6 years in Brunei women's football development, and there's no doubting his support for the women's game: https://www.aseanfootball.org/v3/fas-unveil-stephen-as-new-womens-head-coach/ Timor-Leste: In a close title race, Buibere were the champions, a point ahead of Maranatha and S'Amuser FC, all with 8 wins out of 10. Cambodia: The newly established league format for the Women's Championship started in September, was suspended by Covid restrictions from November-January, then they played up to the playoff semi-final in Feb 2021. The division winners Nagaworld were set to face the 4th-placed PKR Svay Rieng, who won through to the final, but no info on RSSSF yet.
(AFF/FA Thailand) Thailand: BG Bundit Asia have won the Thai Women's League 2020/21 in the 4-team championship round, after the club shared the national title last time. Thailand last played internationally in Feb 2020 and the national team's start-of-2021 training camp was postponed during a Covid lockdown. In April/May the 30-player squad has been preparing for September's Asian Cup qualifiers. The team's new head coach from Japan is Miyo Okamoto, former assistant coach of the Nadeshiko U16 team (nicknamed the...? Mini-Nadeshiko, or something? @blissett, @Lechus7 I'm sorry for getting it wrong)
Vietnam: The 2020 champions were Ho Chi Minh City I, the southerners' second title in a row, as they beat Hanoi I into 2nd place. Runners-up Hanoi did have the top scorer, Pham Hai Yen, and they were the season's "Team that won the award for style", apparently. (Even beating Hà Nam who walked off the field early!) In the new season, there's a late addition to the lineup, Hà Nam II, making it a 9-team league. Hanoi I 1 - 2 Ho Chi Minh City I (red), 2020 Pham Hai Yen 53'p / Nuynh Nhu 12'p, Nguyen Thi My Anh 85' www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSIgBA2P17w - Match report: VFF (Archive) / Table (Archive)
Not sure if they do have a proper nickname, but normally the U-19/U-20 cycle is the Young Nadeshiko and the U-17 are the Little Nadeshiko: I guess the U-16, being in the same cycle that will lead to U-17, are Little Nadeshiko too.
N Korea U20 women at 2014 World Cup - (greentea, cc-by-nc-nd) North Korea withdraws from Olympics: No sportspeople will go to Tokyo 2021, though football was already out of the running for the women (withdrew) and men (lost in the 2020 qualifiers). I mentioned before that I find North Korea difficult to talk about, as there's so much that is unprovable or misreported (as that 38north site often laments). The few neutral facts we can be sure of are that N Korean women's World Cup players were convicted of drugtaking in 2011 and have withdrawn from senior tournaments since 2019. Whether the two are related, as @Lechus7 believes? The first question mark would be if N Korean sport has a GDR/USSR situation of mass doping, which the evidence doesn't support. A sport shooter took beta blockers in 2008, there were problems in weightlifting; more recently N Korea was briefly suspended by WADA for insufficient testing, but resolved it in 5 months. The serious charge is that North Korean footballers have been avoiding drug-tested events, which I'd suggest, probably not. They certainly competed in the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games (with hundreds of the country's sportspeople), where gold medallists and 20% of competitors were tested. And if WADA didn't focus on past cheats who win gold, that'd be a major problem too. Similar if Fifa or the AFC didn't test in the DPRK. The men's World Cup withdrawal is a further example of an event involving a visit to South Korea that the North withdrew from (in times of worsening relations and even blowing up buildings), though I can believe that this withdrawal was truly caused by the Covid catastrophe in North Korea, which is, er, pretty bad. Behind North Korea’s Olympic Decision – The "Worst-Ever Situation" Facing Kim Jong Un - (Tokyo Business Today)
Oh, another vital quote - in the 2011 steroid scandal, "North Korea officials blamed traditional musk deer gland medicine used after a lightning strike", which is quite poetic, I have to admit.
Well if bilatreal relations will worsen still, then Kim will be forced to pull out from joined bid with the South for 2032 Olympic...barely a month after the proposition was sent to IOC. NK politics is in genreal based on one simple rule "what brings the best payoff". I don't believe in some systemic doping of majority of NK atheltes the way it was done in USSR.or Russia. Imo NK simply lacks resources for it to happen on such big scale However, I do believe that Kim's regime would send doped athletes in order to win singular match/event against their "enemies" from US/Japan/South Korea - even if there was a price - ban - to be paid afterwards. State propaganda is a vital tool of any totalitarian regime and it needs fuel.
That may be, but even if North Korea's team has been 'clean' for a decade (which in the eyes of the law, it has), either way it's a huge cautionary tale for anyone who considers using drugs and deer gland medicine. That one punishment in 2011 has absolutely ruined their program.
CWSL is back in action for 2021, running a May-November season - but another big club name is no more. This year, China's former champions Jiangsu Suning lost their major sponsor and became simply Jiangsu LFC. They are still in the division - unlike their men's team, who left the CSL - but maybe no more titles will be coming to the eastern province The reigning champs Wuhan are now supercharged with both Chawingas(!) and Bia (Beatriz), and the club won its first 3 games of the season. Taiwan: In the extraordinary year in the Mulan League 2020, which continued through the original Covid crisis, the 6-team division was won by Hualien for the first time since 2016. They knocked down a blue whale - no easy feat - as Taichung Blue Whale finished 2nd with six points less. The playoff semi-finals put those two teams into the championship game ('Mulan League Cup'), which was won 1-0 by Hualien (goal by Wu Shiping, 52' / match report). Wu won the game MVP with her 19th goal of 2020, a year when Hualien were undefeated. Season 2021 has also begun with those two in the lead. Indonesia: Liga 1 Putri isn't playing in 2021, a move blamed on the pandemic. There is activity in women's football nonetheless: there'll be the traditional tournament Piala Pertiwi (Motherland Cup, in August), and the national women's team gathered for a March training camp for 3 weeks. One player in the 2019 women's league was the teenage Indonesia international Zahra Muzdalifah (Fifa interview). A football school in Indonesia is named an SSB, Sekolah Sepak Bola, and a female-focused institution in Java includes some of the top young players: - "Goal Aksis Women", lebih dari sekadar sekolah sepak bola / "Goal Aksis Women", more than just a football school - (Antara News)
Bad news in Vietnam: the recent Covid spike suspended the 2021 league season shortly before kickoff. The country had managed to prevent big outbreaks earlier. Clubs did play in the women's cup tournament in April as far as the May semi-final games (below). The youth championship did play to a finish, won by the coalmining club's TKS u19s. Vietnam National Cup: Hanoi I - TKS Vietnam, semi-final Ho Chi Minh City I - Hà Nam, semi-final The Philippines' hosting of the women's AFF (ASEAN) championship is postponed from Aug 2021, as is the U16 women's tournament in Indonesia, said the VFF - but no word about the new dates.
Hong Kong may have lost its freedom, but the Women's Football League goes on! Albeit with a lot less arguing with the refs Defending champions of 2018/19, Happy Valley, led the league when the next season was abandoned due to pandemic. Season 2020/21 is complete and the title went back to Citizen AA after four years. They didn't lose any games, but nor did they beat Happy Valley, the top clubs drawing 1-1 (Goals: So Hoi-lam / Ng Wing-kum) and 0-0. It was Happy Valley's 2-3 loss to Shatin (3rd) which gave Citizen their chance, and they became champions with a win last week: Citizen 4 - 1 Hong Kong FC youtube.com/watch?v=JMehkq-OKzQ Citizen win the league by 3 points, and as usual, Chelsea FC Soccer School ended last with 0 points, there's probably a joke there, I won't make it. One Hongkonger who is succeeding beyond measure is the former Shatin player Chan Yuen Ting, a title-winning manager in Chinese men's football, now coaching China women's U16s: "Chan Yuen Ting: I'm touched to be an inspiration to other women" - (AFC)
pff.org.ph/2021/07/29/phi-wnt-training-camp-to-be-held-in-the-united-states/ PHI WNT training camp to be held in the United States Thursday, July 29, 2021 With the target of reaching the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in sight, the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) aims to strengthen its player pool of the Philippine Women’s National Team with a training camp and player tryouts set this August 2021 in Orange County, California, United States. The tryouts and training camp mark the team’s preparations for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers scheduled for 13-25 September 2021. The Philippines, ranked 68th in the FIFA Rankings, will face Hong Kong (ranked 76th) and Nepal (ranked 100th) in Group F of the qualifiers. The top team at the end of the group stage will qualify for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 next year, for a chance to qualify to the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Philippine Women’s National Team head coach Marlon Maro will oversee the tryouts and training camp in the United States. Joining him are assistant coaches Rose Ton Barinan, Michael Agbayani, Anthony Albao, and Marlon Pinero, together with physiotherapists Red Sajonia, Anna Demigillo, and Stella Perreras. PFF invites all interested US-based women’s football players to join the tryouts which will be held on 04-12 August 2021. ___ @sbahnhof BTW before the Covid pandemic struck last year, the Philippines has had a successful Women's Football League(PFF Women's League) running for the past couple of years starting in 2016. Unfortunately because of the quarantine in place in the country since last year that league has been suspended indefinitely.
By the way, you did well posting the general info here, @Pelefan, but I inform you, in case you weren't aware, that we also have a specific and dedicated Philippine women's football thread here on BigSoccer.