After only six minutes of play on Sunday’s Women’s Super League match between Chelsea and Liverpool due to a frozen field, coaches and players complained that the league wasn’t being taken seriously enough.
Before heaters were deployed to try to make the surface playable, there was a field inspection between the two teams three hours before the scheduled kickoff.
The teams were removed from the field shortly after the game at Chelsea’s Kingsmeadow stadium after the referee conferred with both managers “in order to preserve the safety of the players,” the league said in a statement.
🗣️ "It just looks really unprofessional. That can't happen again." ❌
Sue Smith discusses the Chelsea vs Liverpool match that was abandoned after just six minutes due to frozen pitch ❄ pic.twitter.com/Zd2Byxq70t
— Sky Sports WSL (@SkySportsWSL) January 23, 2023
It’s time, according to Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, for women’s football stadiums to have under-soil heating just like in the men’s game.
Hayes told the BBC, “We’ve got to take our game seriously. Yes, we can use our blowers and little pitch tents, but that won’t be sufficient.
The English Football Association oversees the 12-team WSL.
The evening match between Brighton and Arsenal was canceled, according to a later statement from the Seagulls, because the Broadfield Stadium “was found to be frozen after an inspection this afternoon.” The similar circumstance caused Tottenham’s home match against Leicester to be postponed.
It is “mind-boggling that there are games/trainings being cancelled because of frozen surfaces throughout the league,” Chelsea defender Kadeisha Buchanan wrote on Instagram. We ought to have heated fields, too.
So so sorry to all our fans who turned up today and braved the cold weather. This shouldn’t be happening and we will demand more for our game. Angry and frustrated but we will be ready for Wednesday 💙 @ChelseaFCW
— Erin Cuthbert (@erincuthbert_) January 22, 2023
Erin Cuthbert, a teammate of Buchanan, tweeted further clarification: “This shouldn’t be happening and we will demand more for our game.”
😂😂 on a serious note, one of the top leagues in Europe and we are cancelling games cause of frozen pitches. Not good enough, the women’s game is heading in the right direction but still a long way to go. https://t.co/I7Da1PqMl7
— Beth Mead MBE (@bmeado9) January 22, 2023
The women’s game is moving in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go, said England and Arsenal striker Beth Mead on Twitter, calling the situation “not good enough.”
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