When we cheered for the Chinese women's soccer team at the East Asian Cup, we couldn't help but notice the empty stands and the cold atmosphere. This is obviously closely linked to the current situation of epidemic prevention. However, the broadcast of the European Women's European Cup showed a hot scene, full of spectators and teams are in full swing, compared to the mood we can not help but feel a lot of emotion - the gap is significant!
▲Amazing attendance at this year's Women's Europa League opener
Compared with the rich and powerful European men's top five leagues, the development of European women's soccer clubs is relatively lagging behind. However, in recent years, the rapid development of European women's soccer and the remarkable improvement of players' level are mind-boggling. Among the top 8 teams in the last World Cup, European teams occupied 7 seats, which made many senior fans start to worry about the future of Chinese women's soccer.
▲Large crowd for hosts England game
Business operations and policy support drive rapid expansion of women's soccer
The semi-finals of this year's Women's Europa League saw an influx of 32,000 fans and more than 14 million viewers watched the matches in a variety of ways. Through the official website of the tournament, we learned that all 90,000 tickets for the final had been sold out. We could feel the deafening cheers through the screen, and it was a spectacle that rivaled the scale of the top five leagues.
▲England's Women's Super League is a "model for Europe"
The opening match of the Women's Euro attracted a staggering 68,871 fans, thanks to the "no-control" attitude of the host country, England. The growing number of spectators is not only a testament to the growing popularity of women's soccer in Europe, but also reflects the reality of its rapid development. Despite the fact that the development of women's soccer in Europe was once difficult, the major clubs still fully support it and operate it at a loss. In fact, European women's football players have not yet been able to achieve "equal pay for equal work", but UEFA and the clubs have focused on packaging commercial interests to obtain large broadcasting and sponsorship contracts, which has led to a substantial increase in the dividend amount of the women's Champions League matches, and indirectly increased the income of the players.
▲ Youth competitions such as the UEFA Youth Championships have produced a large number of hopefuls for women's soccer
On the other hand, UEFA is committed to building the "Big Four", represented by France, Germany, Spain and England, and extending the model of the Women's Premier League, which was the first to be fully professionalized in Europe, to other soccer powerhouses. At the same time, the major television stations also responded positively, for example, Sky Sports has committed to broadcast at least 35 to 44 matches per season, and at least one match per round for free, in order to attract more young viewers to pay attention. This initiative led to a surge in viewership of the Women's Premier League from 37,000 to 114,000 per game last season, while viewership on the bbc reached an average of 501,000, all of which will translate into real money to promote local women's soccer.
▲90,000 tickets sold out for this year's Women's Europa League Final
Innate strengths and system building to help women's soccer succeed across the board
UEFA has seized on this wave of enthusiasm and has accelerated its efforts to urge countries to build and improve their full competition systems. A European women's soccer player now plays at least 40 official matches a season at all levels of the ladder from youth onwards to ensure they have enough experience when they move up to the adult team. In comparison, the number of matches played by a Chinese female soccer player in a year may be less than half of the number of matches played by a player of the same age in Europe. Looking at the quality of play of European women's soccer players now, they are quite skillful in running, penetrating, holding the ball, passing and cutting under the premise that their physical qualities occupy an absolute advantage, while our players may make some basic technical mistakes in the game.
▲Wang Frost has better prospects at European luxury clubs
Nowadays, the coaches of major European women's soccer teams are not idle, they are all retired from the excellent men's or women's soccer team after re-education, re-employment to the team. Europe vigorously implement the "men with women" system, such as Barcelona, Paris and other men's football clubs have women's football, Wang Frost, Tang Jiali, etc. in Europe to play football news exposure and attention is much higher than the domestic. On the other hand, we ourselves, for a long time will be the national team and the league cut off, women's super league is still in the "barbaric era", which is mainly attributed to the FA's inaction and in recent years a series of disregard for the interests of the club's operation. The Women's Super League lacks good commercial operation, and the marketization process is slow, relying on the women's national team to win a little heat.
▲Facing European powerhouses, Chinese women's soccer needs to build on its strengths and avoid its weaknesses
Just yesterday, the famous soccer commentator Huang Jianxiang posted an article commenting on the progress of the European women's soccer level. Whether it is physical conditions or technical and tactical level, European women's football has realized a qualitative leap, emerging a number of high-level teams and individuals. The future of the international competition, the two strong North America will no longer dominate, Asian teams are also difficult to reproduce the scene of China and Japan to create surprise. Not to mention the gradual rise of South American and African teams, the Rose's path to bloom will be full of challenges.
