Pitea Womens Swedish Football Moving The Goalposts

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Piteå IF are entering their 17th season as a top-division side in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan, but the challenge for them is getting tougher and tougher every year.

And it is not a small budget compared to clubs such as Hammarby and Häcken who have, in recent years, been able to rely on the support of major men’s club, or the rejuvenated Malmö FF side, but geographical issues which have put a strain on club finances.

“We are prioritising costs over performance, which is the saddest part,” says Emelie Lövgren, the managing director of Piteå and a former player for the club.

The reality is that Piteå are now an outlier in the league. Thirteen of the 14 sides are based in the south, with four of those in the Stockholm municipality and three more on the outskirts, plus two in Malmö on the very southern tip of the country. Piteå’s closest away trip is a mere 487 miles by road to Uppsala, while a trip to Malmö stretches to 908 miles, one-way.

The 2018 league champions, who went on to take part in the Women’s Champions League, are now feeling the pinch of rising travel costs, and at the beginning of last month they were one of six elite clubs across different sports in northern Sweden to issue a joint appeal regarding the rise in costs.

“What is changing now, especially since Covid-19, is prices are going up,” continues Lövgren. “It’s increasing every season, getting harder and harder. Teams are developing, it’s been fast-tracked, and that makes it even tougher for us. But if we don’t increase salaries and expand the organisation we won’t keep up, it’s an impossible puzzle …”

James Burgin, the club’s sporting director, and an Englishman who ended up spending many years at the club as a player for the men’s team, adds: “It’s a complete catch-22. Inflation … wages are going up 15-20% a year. From a sporting perspective, from where we are it’s an added challenge to bring players here and have players in our squad from the south.”

Lövgren chimes back in: “I spoke to the Swedish FA, and they asked me, ‘how long can we keep going?’ I said three years, we can’t keep going beyond that at the moment.”

They lay bare some of the realities. An average trip to Stockholm, of which there are half a dozen per season, costs roughly £8,000 (95,000KR), while one cup game in recent seasons cost £14,000. Costs are even increasing at home games because match officials are largely based further south, with some travel costs for a set of officials now as high as £700 per match.

Burgin believes the club are spending roughly £200,000 on travel right now and have sold several of their best players to balance the books, including goalkeeper Lauren Brzykcy to Bristol City in January. “To get a player here for more than a year is really hard,” he adds. “This is seen as a stopgap to go to Stockholm.”

The club have at times been forced to travel with fewer players to save on costs, while they have had travel disasters over the years, including a coach trip to Karlstad to take on Mallbackens IF in the cup: they were only a few miles away when they found out the match had been postponed.

It begs the question, what’s the solution?

“We’re not the only elite sport in the north,” says Lövgren. “There is handball, ice hockey, basketball, they are all in the same boat as us, but without the support from their FAs. We’re planning to team up with an initiative to increase awareness of the struggles for not just us, but all the other sports too.

“It’s not something that we can just change, it has to come centrally. We have the Athletics Association who lead all the sports and we have sat down with their chairman, so we are raising awareness together because this is going to bring the northern teams down, which will be devastating.”

She adds: “It’s not for me, it’s for the players running around on the pitch, the hundreds of thousands of kids in this part of Sweden dreaming of becoming an elite footballer. If we’re not going to be here there won’t be a team for them, that would be devastating for the region.”

Burgin is hoping that more attention on the issue will force change. “Main TV channels have picked up on it too, so it’s gaining traction here.”

On potential solutions, he adds: “We have to look at possibilities such as external investment. FC Rosengård, who have a long history, have been taken over by the Crux Group, but it needs someone to understand the issues we have and the effects of it, it could be fatal for us. Every club has their own intentions, most clubs would happily get rid of us. The fans care, the Hammarby fans are great, but we need wider support.”

Lövgren concludes: “What we struggle with compared to England is we are owned by members, so a Michele Kang cannot just come in without agreement with those members. There is the 51% rule [a rule designed to ensure club members retain overall control of club shares], so you’d have to change laws etc. I’d gladly be bought by an investor, but it’s not possible right now.”

Talking points

Lionesses tame Spain: Despite their undoubted quality and dominance of the ball, world champions Spain were once again undone by European champions England in a marquee clash at Wembley on Tuesday night. Lauren Hemp’s early goal, the Lionesses’ earliest at the new Wembley, put them into a lead which never vanished, but required some top defending by new centre-back pairing Esme Morgan and Lotte Wubben-Moy, as well as an excellent save from Hannah Hampton, while England could easily have added to their lead too.

Halliday bonus for new coach: Michael McArdle got off to a winning start as head coach of Northern Ireland with a convincing 4-0 win against Malta at home. The former Scotland youth team coach became the permanent replacement for the new Newcastle United manager, Tanya Oxtoby, last month and got off to the perfect start in Lurgan as goals from Joely Andrews, Danielle Maxwell, and a brace from Keri Halliday sealed three points.

Quote of the day

We have to keep handling the hard better, no matter who is on the field …” – Emma Hayes’ post-match comments after the USA fell to a rare defeat on Tuesday night focused on growth before a charge for the World Cup next summer. The Olympic gold medal winners lost 1-0 to Japan as Hayes made 11 changes to her squad, admitting she wanted to expose her players to the challenge of a top nation.

Recommended listening

England beat Spain again and Marie-Louise Eta blazes a trail. Listen here as Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzanne Wrack, Sophie Downey and Ayisha Gulati to discuss the Lionesses’ Wembley win and an historic appointment.

Recommended viewing

On a night of big games and big goals few would have matched the strike by Katie McCabe which put Carla Ward’s Republic of Ireland 2-0 up in an important encounter in Poland. The Arsenal defender sent a dipping volley into the back of the net and left Poland goalkeeper Kinga Szemik motionless as her superb strike doubled Ireland’s lead in Gdansk.