Wise words (as usual ) from BtR. I particularly quote the idea that, to reach parity, it should be more other teams growing up than INAC's weakening! And also, as Kawasumi noticed in a recent interview, it's very important to keep the interest for the domestic league alive in Japan: and often some big names to watch for the audience can do more for that than a more open tournament. I guess that's real Nahomi's doubt: right or wrong that it is, she knows that she's the name and the face of the league for many; if she goes to play overseas, could it do any damage to Nadeshiko League's visibility? It's true that many fans on her blog encouraged her to try the overseas experience, but that doesn't mean that the less "dedicated" audience wouldn't suffer from Kawasumi's sudden disappearance from the league. It's true that many very high-profile names (Sawa, Miyama, Ogimi, Ando) went to play in USA or Germany before, but this was when interest for Nadeshiko League was anyway at his lowest, so on one hand it did make great sense for the players trying their chance and gaining experience in bigger leagues, and on the other hand it couldn't really damage a women's football's movement that wasn't very popular at the time, big names or not. Now situation could be a little different, so, although I guess that Kawasumi should go for it and try to play overseas while she's at the peak of her form and WWC is just one year and a half away, I can understand that she meditates a lot about it, before making her choice.
Meanwhile, since I'll be busy in the evening (and anyway I know that 2014 is approaching and is closer in Japan than in Europe and USA ), I already opened new 2014 official thread. I'd say that the current one should remain open at least for the next hours (and we can answer here the open discussions and close them). Meanwhile all the rest can migrate on the new thread. Later (maybe tomorrow or anyway in the next days) I'll ask one of the moderators (probably very kind Dax_) to lock this thread; anyway this post will remain here to remind everyone of where the new 2014 fun® is.
It's not properly my decision: hearing the opinion of most posters, I saw that the majority of them seemed to like this solution better... So I acted accordingly. This doesn't lock up the thing for 2015 at all, should we debate more and take different decisions during next year.
Anyone, just let me know if there's any particular reason as to why this should stay opened, otherwise I'll lock it in a few days.