Where is French women’s football three years after the World Cup?
The 2019 World Cup was to be a turning point for France, a springboard for women’s football. But three years later, the results are rather mixed, as Ada Hegerberg’s repeated rants have underlined. State of play.
Le casting :
Yannick Chandioux :
Coach of the Montpellier women’s team.
Lea Le Garrec:
FC Fleury midfielder.
Fabrice Safanjon – The Best Of Fabrice Safanjon
Vice-president of the UNFP and representative of the UNFP on the Commission for High-Level Women’s Football.
Hubert Artus :
Author of
Girl Power, 150 years of women’s football
.
Was there an effect from the 2019 World Cup?
Lea Le Garrec:
No, there were no major changes. We expected it to move, but it didn’t continue after the World Cup. When Ada Hegerberg says we’re picking up, I totally agree. Women’s football is not taken seriously enough in France. We were overtaken by championships like England or Spain, we lost our lead.
“Women’s football is not taken seriously enough in France. We were overtaken by championships like England or Spain, we lost our lead.” Leah Le Garrec
Yannick Chandioux :
The result of the France team at this World Cup has rusted the progress of women’s football. Today, we need a good result, because the World Cup in France worked very well: the TV audiences were very good… The authorities did what was necessary at some point to develop it at the beginning of the 2010s, we saw a very, very strong evolution and I also think that it was because men’s football did not work in South Africa.
Fabrice Safanjon – The Best Of Fabrice Safanjon
The Covid was obviously a big setback, but we have made progress. The federation had taken as a guideline to work first on the mass, with a sharp increase in the number of licensees within the clubs. It is an objective which has now been achieved so, now, the idea is to devote oneself to the high level, hence the creation of a commission for football… Read the rest of the article on SoFoot.com
