Jonas Eidevall: Arsenal boss criticises ‘amateurish behaviour’ over fixture schedule

Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall has criticised the “amateurish behaviour” in handling fixture scheduling after a Women’s Super League match was postponed at a week’s notice.

Chelsea’s WSL game against Manchester United has been called off because of a conflict with the Blues’ European schedule.

The new company which now runs the Women’s Super League, The Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL), said the cancellation was in order to prioritise player welfare.

The Women’s Champions League draw was made last Friday and Chelsea’s opening group game at home to Real Madrid was scheduled for just two days after the United game – on Tuesday, 8 October.

Before the Champions League draw was made, WPLL had asked Uefa not to schedule any of the three English teams to play on 8 October, but were unsuccessful.

Eidevall said the situation could have been avoided if Women’s Super League games involving teams in the Champions League were scheduled for Friday or Saturday to avoid a potential 48-hour turnaround, but all three English clubs involved are believed to have requested to play on the Sunday.

“Out of the 16 teams, 13 were scheduled to play on the Friday or Saturday and the three English teams were all scheduled to play on the Sunday,” he said.

“We have a league organisation that doesn’t act proactively on these matters. It is damaging for the fans. It is simply not good enough from the league.

“Do the league want English teams to be successful at European level? I would hope the answer to that would be yes, but the actions show differently. It shows that this is not one of their priorities.”