Women's Professional Leagues

[numberten]

I was just wondering if anyone out there knows much about any professional leagues outside of North America for women? And if so, how to find out more about it. It would be a big help if anyone knew about teams, countries, clubs, anything really.

[Former Champ]

There is a small amount of English league coverage on the BBC site.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...en/default.stm

[beachesl]

The best way to check the women's leagues in countries that have them is to check under each country ( ie: "France (women)") in the domestic history indes of the rsssf site, generally the most complete soccer data site:

http://www.rsssf.com/country.html#misc

It is not complete, but there is no comprehensive site setting out the world's women's leagues.

The only international competition for the best domestic women's clubs is the UEFA Club Champoionship (Women's)

http://www.rsssf.com/ec/ec-wom.html

There are probably women's leagues in about a 100 countries but only a handful a truly professional. Some of the higher and best leagues are partly professional. For instance , some of the best Canadian women's players play in the Norwegian League, where most of the domestic players are amateurs, but the few foriegn women get paid small salaries

Probably the best forum for international women's matters is the International Women's threads in bigsoccerboards:

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=152

Dandal, who posts regularly here about Canadian men in Scandinavia, and who we all respect, says that with the demise of the WUSA (and with the best women's players in North America now spread out amongst the 50 odd teams in the W-League and the WPSL), the Swedish Premier Women's League is probably the best, and I think he is probably right, followed closely by the German League.

[Jeffery S.]

Go to uefa.com, look for competitions, and you can find the section on women's club cup or their Champions. This gives a decent idea of the top clubs.

They also have info on national teams, ie. u-19 qualifying for the World's on now.

I think the three best paying leagues for women are Germany, Norway and Sweden, though England could pay something, not sure. Spain is amateur and occasionally, depending on the club, semi-pro.

[marcl_19]

my friend said today that the WUSA is gonna start back up....anyone read n e thing about this anywhere to confirm it??

[numberten]

Thanks, I got some good info.

[Former Champ]

we're such nice guys. potb

[TorontoInferno]

WUSA is putting on camps or something this summer to keep their players in the public eye...i wouldn't count on it being back operating in 04-05...i'd expect it to be back the season after that...

The W-League is all for now...Its pretty much an unofficial pro league right now anyway, there is no way the players who came from wusa to the league are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, they are getting something out of the deal...

and it isn't tracksuits and long bus rides...