While there is plenty of excitement around the FIFA Women’s World Cup right now, with the tournament in its final stages, FIFA recently took two very important steps to ensure continuous development of women’s football in various parts of the world, beyond the flagship event. The FIFA Professional Women’s Football Task Force’s inaugural meeting was the first step in this direction, with all the involved people meeting up in Lyon ahead of the first semi-final of the World Cup.
The ongoing women’s World Cup has reached its final stages, with the Dutch recently beating Swedes and reaching the finals. By the time this piece gets published, they would have already played the finals against US.
A great multitude of money was riding on both the teams in the football betting market. More and more punters have been using something known as enhanced odds offers, available only upon signup with reputed online bookmakers. These enhanced odds work as an excellent means of boosting the price pot, and essentially deliver a boost in the odds or price offered for a specific betting market.
Bigger pots, however, do mean a great risk of losing big so it’s crucial that you really know what you’re doing before you put a penny down on your favourite team. In particular, while much of sports betting is about knowing the ins and outs of the sport itself, you really do need to know how sports betting works in order not to lose for reasons that have nothing to do with the game itself. One of the most important aspects of this is knowing both the odds going in to each and every game and what those odds actually mean. Fortunately, you can get constantly updated on enhanced odds offers from all sorts of major bookies by taking some time to do a bit of research. Also be on the lookout for joining-bonuses that give you some low-risk or even free plays to get your feet wet before jumping headfirst into the world of sports betting.
FIFA Professional Women’s Football Task Force’s Inaugural Meeting
The recent meeting of the task force was meant to bring together all the primary stakeholders of women’s football on one platform, to acquaint them with FIFA’s decision making processes, and identifying key measures in areas which can accelerate the growth of women’s football in the future.
This meeting was chaired by Lydia Nsekera, FIFA council member and involved representatives and participants from all member player associations, clubs, leagues, confederations and associations. This task force is expected to evolve in the future depending upon the expertise needed per its work plan.
To begin, all the members were requested to ponder and identify specific priority areas that can contribute to the growth of women’s football in their respective countries. While events like the World Cup have given a real boost to the women’s football, much more needs to be done at the grassroots level.
FIFA Women’s Football Survey 2019
FIFA also conducted a survey amongst its 211 member associations (with 198 participating) to gain some insight into the present condition of women’s football in various countries. This football survey offered a detailed picture of the present landscape of the women’s football all over the world. It is expected to work as a benchmarking tool for all the stakeholders, as well as FIFA to measure the future progress.
Some of the key findings of the survey are:
76% of member associations have successfully devised a strategy for women’s football.
73% of member associations currently have a women’s national team (which is actively playing)
While majority of associations have no more than a few thousand women football players, there are close to 9.5 million in the United States.
As many as 13.3 million women and girls are engaged in organised football play throughout the world.