RUBY, RUBY, RUBY, RUBY
Arsenal Women qualified for the 5th Round of the Women’s FA Cup with a consummate 4-0 win over 4th tier side Crawley Wasps at Oakfield FC on Sunday. Kim Little opened the scoring in the first half, before 16 year old Ruby Grant helped herself to a hat trick. The Gunners will find out their opponents for the 5th Round on Monday evening. For further reading on the game, check out Suzy Wrack’s report in the Guardian.
One of the best feelings so far! Love this club more than anything ?⚪️❤️ https://t.co/r8jiDfVpvo
— Ruby grant (@Rubyjaynegrant) February 3, 2019
Though 8 of the 16 ties were victims of the weather, so there is a good chance Arsenal will have to wait another week to clarify their opponents. Sunday’s WSL trip to Liverpool has been postponed because Liverpool’s cup tie against MK Dons was called off and has been rearranged for this Sunday. A rescheduled date will be announced in due course.
https://t.co/C7Wk5pomqs Highlights here from Arsenal's 4-0 win over Crawley Wasps yesterday in the Women's FA Cup 4th Round.
— Tim Stillman (@Stillberto) February 4, 2019
AWARDS SEASON
The nominees have been announced for the London Football Awards for 2018. Vivianne Miedema and Jordan Nobbs have been nominated for the Women’s Player of the Year award alongside Arsenal academy graduate and now Spurs striker Rianna Dean and Chelsea’s Ji So Yun and Erin Cuthbert. Joe Montemurro is up for manager of the year alongside Mauricio Pochettino, Maurizio Sarri (!), Javier Gracia and Lee Bowyer.
Congratulations @MontemurroJoe, @JordanNobbs8 and @VivianneMiedema ?#WeAreTheArsenal https://t.co/TwCdifjl20
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) January 30, 2019
MIEDEMA FOCUSED ON ARSENAL PRIZES
Gunners striker Vivianne Miedema has earned plenty of individual plaudits this season, having broken the record for goals scored in a WSL season with 7 games to spare. However, Miedema is only focused on winning trophies with Arsenal, “I think as a footballer you always want to be the best, but I don’t really care about individual prizes,” she told Joe.com.
“Right now I’m focused on winning trophies with Arsenal. I’m more worried about winning trophies at club level and international level rather than individual prizes.” In a wide ranging interview with Joe, the Dutch striker also talks candidly about why she does not consider current European Champions Netherlands among the favourites for this summer’s World Cup. Full interview below.
At the age of 22, Vivianne Miedema has already broken the Women's Super League goalscoring record this season with seven games left, netting her 16th of the season last Sunday. @ReubenPinder went to speak to her about her rapid rise to the top.https://t.co/2yKpasZmBs
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) February 2, 2019
LEWES LEAD THE CHARGE ON FA CUP PRIZE MONEY
Not strictly Arsenal news, but with the FA Cup 4th Round having taken place at the weekend, Lewes Women FC took the opportunity to publicly lobby the Football Association to increase the prize money for the Women’s FA Cup. Lewes are a club that pride themselves on their community work and commitment to equality based causes. They pay their men’s and women’s players the same.
Lewes wrote an open letter to the FA pleading for greater prize money for the FA’s premier women’s competition, “This year, the total FA Cup prize fund for men’s teams is £30.25 million. The total FA Cup prize fund for women’s teams is £250,000. The total prize money for women is less than 1% of the total prize money for men.
“Obviously, nobody at the FA has consciously engineered these relative outcomes; they are the aggregate result of many people making many decisions with various desired outcomes over time. But look at where we’ve inadvertently ended up. To drive the step change in women’s football that we all want, one of the main things that the women’s game needs is much more money.” You can read the full statement at the link below.
#FACupPrizeGap
BREAKING NEWS: An open letter to the FA Board, on Women's FA Cup 4th Round day. https://t.co/jdybG2v7SZFull letter and story here: https://t.co/cjykWCuBmW
— Lewes FC Women (@LewesFCWomen) February 3, 2019
EYES ON UNITED
The Gunners face Manchester United Women on Thursday evening at Boreham Wood in the Conti Cup semi-final. The match kicks off at 730pm and will be screened live on BT Sport 1. It’s the first time the teams have met since United reformed in 2018. The winners will play either Chelsea or Manchester City in the final at Bramall Lane on Saturday, 23rd February.
Our #ContiCup semi-final against @ManUtdWomen has been selected for TV coverage ?
? Thursday, February 7
⏱ 7:30pm (UK time)
? @btsport 1 & 4K UHD#WeAreTheArsenal pic.twitter.com/LkRVve3FIP— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) January 29, 2019
COMING UP
A full match preview for the Manchester United game will appear on the site on Wednesday, there will be exclusive player reaction online on Thursday evening too. February’s feature interview will be on the site during the middle of next week.
The youngsters done good!
The whole team are young when you reach my age!
But agreed a potential banana skin avoided and on to the next round.
Now let’s do the same to Casey Stoney’s lot for a place in the Conti Cup Final
There’s serious need to bridge the money gap between the men and the women’s game.
The ladies game will never generate anywhere near the number of viewers as the men’s. Therefore sponsorship & TV revenue will be nowhere near the men’s meaning the ladies pay will never be nowhere near the men.
Never is a strong word but the women’s game is decades behind the men. It just goes to show how well the WSL are doing to attract quality players from around the world and for the England team to consistently be in the top 5 international teams on the limited resources provided. Perhaps if the TV and FA made more of the She Believes Cup at the end of this month and the World Cup in the summer it might generate more interest leading to income. You have to allow small acorns to grow. Who would have thought that a… Read more »
Parity is a long long way to go, if possible anyways. The gap is too wide. The FA can at least increase that 1% to a 10% from the men’s money….
The EPL is the commercial king of leagues, at least a more conscious effort to commercialize the women’s game isn’t too much to ask. Baby steps
I’d like to see the FA take investment into the youth set ups at clubs a little more seriously. And look at how to compensate clubs when youth players leave for college football in the US.
The FA Cup having prize money so low doesn’t help. The men’s game should be able to subsidise the women’s game. It’s the FA who banned the women’s game for 50+ years and left it in the state it’s currently in.