What hope does Finland even have when the top countries are crushed in the European Championships? Experts don’t want to hide behind an easy excuse

What hope does Finland even have when the top countries

The European Championships have seen a few crushing victories, which may continue to be commonplace in the future. The experts do not want to hide behind the lack of resources, but tell how development can continue in Finland despite the setback.

Germany–Denmark 4–0, France–Italy 5–1, England–Norway no less than 8–0. The European Championships have seen surprisingly crushing results, when the countries that are among the champion favorites have crushed the so-called countries of the next basket ugly.

The same countries, including Spain, are also the ones where a lot of money has been increasingly invested in women’s football in recent years. Based on the UEFA club ranking, the four best leagues in Europe are France, Germany, Spain and England.

International women’s football is in transition, where general interest is growing and it is possible to attract players to the best leagues with higher salaries than before.

Urheilu’s expert, coaching HJK in the National League Jonne Kunnas sees that the gap between the top countries and others is growing even more as the top players gather in the best leagues. However, he reminds that individual matches do not tell the whole truth.

– If I think about Norway’s composition, it is worse than England’s, but most of the players play in exactly the same leagues. 8–0 does not say everything. The difference in level between the top and the rest increases when investments are made in large countries and the financial resources and player mass are greater, Kunnas states.

International giant brands have invested in women’s football in a significant way in recent years, and for example FC Barcelona and their national team players have won the Spanish championship four times in a row.

Last year the club celebrated winning the Champions League, and last spring the “Blaugrana” twice broke the all-time attendance record. In the home games against Real Madrid and Wolfsburg, more than 91,000 spectators arrived at Camp Nou.

Urheilu’s expert who coached AIK in the Swedish Damallsvenskan until May Maiju Rootsalainen reminds that the big clubs are able to give the financial impetus to the professionalization of the women’s team.

In part, it is also about the requirements of the partners.

– Many large companies, where equality issues are strongly present, will not sponsor if the club does not also invest in a women’s team. I visited Lyon in 2005, and there it was reported that the mayor had appealed to the club how important it would be for the city’s image to invest in a women’s team.

The result has come, and the French club has dominated the Champions League, winning it no less than eight times, most recently in May. Sweden’s Damallsvenskan, which used to be a very tough series internationally, is also rattling as the bigger countries pick up their pace.

– It is really difficult to stay in the competition when there is no money. In Sweden, many players live out of a suitcase and go from one studio to another because they just love futs so much. Elsewhere, the clubs are already able to offer such a standard of living that it’s a nice home and life on the side, Ruotsalainen illustrates.

The possibility of continued success

Even though the top countries are going hard, the best players from many countries, including Finland, play in the best leagues. According to Kunnas, it also makes it possible in the future for surprises to be possible in value competitions.

– I believe that the situation will change so that if there have been many champion favorites in these games, their number will be reduced. It still does not eliminate the possibility of continued success when the best starting line-up is in order and the players play in the right leagues and clubs.

Outside of the value competitions, the level differences in the World Cup qualifiers have been even more brutal. Last fall, for example, England beat Latvia 20–0, Belgium Armenia 19–0 and France Estonia 11–0. Matches like this serve no one.

The Swede sees that the possibility of staying in the competition largely depends on everyday professionalism. The intensity in everything you do must be at a high level.

– The pace of women’s futsal is growing fast, because the players are better athletes. If you can’t keep up the intensity, the top countries will go away. When you watched the training game between France and Finland in the spring, you can talk about positioning or decisions on the field, but for example the speed and ability of the French players to press and change direction were at a completely different level than Finland’s.

– If there is no such thing in everyday life, how on earth would you be able to react to such a thing in a game?

Before last season, the English premier league WSL signed a three-year contract with Sky Sports and the BBC to show the league. Sky shows 44 matches and BBC 22 every year. The annual value of the deal has been reported in the British media (you will switch to another service) around eight million pounds, or closer to 9.5 million euros, which will be distributed to the clubs.

According to the Telegraph’s report (you will switch to another service) players in the league earn between £20,000 and around £250,000 a year, some more. In the US, the minimum salary for players in the NSWL is set at $35,000. In Finland, such readings can only be dreamed of, and the opportunity to focus only on football is primarily at KuPS and Åland United.

According to last year’s research, women’s sports in Britain have huge potential and the opportunity to triple the turnover and reach up to a billion pounds by 2030. According to the data, tennis and football generate more than half of the turnover.

Kunnas reminds that when the clubs start to have more money through, for example, TV contracts, a small share of it might also be available through player sales to Finland.

– I believe that player sales will be a big market in the future, and it is one opportunity in the breeding series to collect money. In Finland too, you have to be ready to make such agreements that the players don’t always leave for free.

– The national league has taken good steps, but there is still a long way to go to what it could be without any crazy things. In the league, you have to be able to guarantee sufficient conditions and demand more from the clubs.

“You can’t hide behind resources”

Kunnas and Ruotsalainen do not see anything negative in the fact that international top football is developing and resources are improving. Growing differences between countries is a normal result of development.

– It’s a natural way of how elite sports work. There will be a division into top series, so-called intermediate series and breeder series. I see it as pushing us forward in Finland as well, Kunnas states.

– You must not just hide behind resources, even if they are bigger elsewhere. It is important to find ways to do things on the scale of each country as well as possible so that the series and the players develop.

The Swede hopes that clubs in Finland have long-term strategies that are not dependent on individual people. Women’s football has a potential in Finland that has not been fully utilized.

– How would we get spectators to the women’s games and how would we get the media to be more interested? We need good plans for the long term and a strategy that is as finely divided as possible.

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