Tuesday 22 July 2014, 14:31

New international calendar for women’s football in the spotlight

A possible new structure for the women’s football international calendar was discussed by stakeholders at a workshop today at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, with the aim of coordinating international match dates in all the confederations.

“Women’s football is getting more and more professional and we need to get more consistency at the international level in order to support the confederations, member associations, leagues, clubs and players. The balance and the coordination of the commitments of a player for her duties at the club, but also at the national team, must be coordinated and streamlined,” said Tatjana Haenni, FIFA Deputy Director of the Competitions Division and Head of Women’s Competitions.

Representatives from all the confederations were invited as well as the European Club Association (ECA), FIFPro and some key women’s football representatives.

Any decisions made will be presented to the Committee for Women’s Football and the FIFA Women’s World Cupä and to the Players’ Status Committee before finally being submitted to the FIFA Executive Committee for approval.

During the workshop, the draw for the CONMEBOL and CONCACAF play-offs for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015™ was done by Caroline Jonsson. The CONMEBOL representative team will play at home first on 8/9 November and then away against the CONCACAF team on 22/23 November.

List of participants: Cheryl Bailey (National Women’s Soccer League) Olivier Blanc (Olympique Lyonnais) Horace Donovan (CONCACAF) Man Gil Shin (AFC) Rei Ishikawa (INAC Kobe Leonessa) Olivier Jarosz (ECA) Caroline Jonsson (FIFPro) Etsuko Miyazaki (JFA) Anna Nilsson (Elitfotboll Dam) Kelly Simmons (The FA) Tijs Tummers (FIFPro) Heike Ullrich (DFB) Anne Vonnez (UEFA)