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Special report: As men's sport clamours to restart, how women's sport is being abandoned

Wolfsburg's Pernille Harder (r) plays against Cologne's Rachel Rinast during the Flyeralarm Frauen Bundesliga match on Friday, May 29 - GETTY IMAGES
Wolfsburg's Pernille Harder (r) plays against Cologne's Rachel Rinast during the Flyeralarm Frauen Bundesliga match on Friday, May 29 - GETTY IMAGES

Across the sporting landscape, men's sport is gearing up to resume, headlined by the return of the Premier League on June 17. Meanwhile, women's competitions are being abandoned by governing bodies and sponsors alike. In this special report, our correspondents assess the damage being caused, and ask whether it is too late to turn the tide.

Rugby: Women's game could be used for law trial

by Fiona Tomas

2020 has been a barren year for domestic women’s rugby. With the Six Nations widely criticized – from cold showers for the Wales team, to no prize money or title sponsor for the women’s competition – the game was struggling even before the pandemic hit.

When coronavirus took hold, all Premier 15s activity - namely group training - was suspended. On March 20, the Rugby Football Union later voided all rugby in England with the exception of the men's Gallagher Premiership. There was no mention of any efforts being explored to restart the Premier 15s in its press release.

Some club players such as Kate Alder, the Wasps Ladies captain, have not played rugby since late January - before the league paused for the Women’s Six Nations. Five months later, and Alder does not know when she will be able to return to a team training environment.

“As the lockdown eases, we might be able to do small, skill based sessions, as and when we’re allowed to, with three or four people two metres [apart],” she says. “But because the whole point of our sport is contact-based, we haven’t got a clue.”

Leah Lyons of Harlequins Women scores a try during the Tyrells Premier 15s match between Harlequins Women and Richmond Women - GETTY IMAGES
Leah Lyons of Harlequins Women scores a try during the Tyrells Premier 15s match between Harlequins Women and Richmond Women - GETTY IMAGES

Reducing the amount of scrummaging during a game and limiting numbers in a maul were among 10 optional law trials approved by World Rugby this week to help reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission in sport.

Given its growing profile and meagre crowd numbers, elite women’s rugby is often lumped with the community game - where the trials are expected to be applied - and therefore the Premier 15s could be exposed to such changes on a greater level than top-flight men’s rugby.

But with the RFU now searching for a new title sponsor - after crisp company Tyrrells decided against renewing its contract later this year - introducing such measures could devalue elite women's rugby as a product.

“In terms of making all these changes to allow us to play, you wonder at what cost,” says Alder. “If you say, ‘Right we’re changing this because we want players to come back and play,’ is it necessarily the best way forward? To change the nature of the game, I don’t think it’s going to be very beneficial or realistic.”

That Premier 15s squads are being trimmed from 60 to 40 from next season is timely given the concentrated efforts to lower the transmission of the virus. For now, clubs are awaiting updates from the RFU on when group training can be resumed. “Like all organisations, we will be guided by government and medical advice and update on plans in due course,” an RFU spokesperson said.

Netball: Coronavirus has halted surging momentum

by Fiona Tomas 

If there is one sport set to lose the most momentum from having practically its entire season cancelled, it is netball. This time last year, the country was preparing to host a sell-out World Cup in Liverpool. In 2018, England claimed a historic Commonwealth title on Australia’s Gold Coast which sent grassroots participation levels soaring.

Record crowds attended the opening weekend of the Superleague, England’s domestic top-flight in February. After becoming the last competition to be wiped from the women’s sport scene on Wednesday, there is a genuine fear such progress could be reversed.

Plans are being drawn up to stage a shortened version of the competition in autumn - providing there is no second wave of the virus. But nearly three months on since a ball was last thrown on March 14, netball is now staring at a blank canvas. Franchises are missing out on an entire season’s worth of revenue streams. For a sport hardly awash with money, the season cancellation could decide the futures of some.

“This pandemic has highlighted more than ever how women’s sport is underfunded,” says Sam Bird, the head coach at Superleague franchise London Pulse. “We do not have the luxury of being able to provide tests for players, or control over our own premises to provide a safe working environment.”

Surrey Storm's Katy Hughes (left) and Manchester Thunder's Ashleigh Neal (left) during the Vitality Netball Super League match - pa
Surrey Storm's Katy Hughes (left) and Manchester Thunder's Ashleigh Neal (left) during the Vitality Netball Super League match - pa

Return to sport guidance laid out by the government has also inadvertently exacerbated the divisions between elite amateurism and professionalism. It defines an elite athlete as ‘an individual who derives a living from competing in a sport’ and this criteria was a key factor in deciding the fate of the semi-professional Superleague, where full-time athletes pit themselves against self employed players and even students.

The emphasis on elitism means England internationals are likely to be the first to resume some form of team training this summer - but franchises such as London Pulse already have plans in motion. Staging small-sided netball in outdoor spaces and training at the Copper Box Arena are some of the scenarios the club is exploring.

“That might be a better short term solution, in terms of providing a safe, sanitised space for us,” says Bird. “But somebody’s got to open the place, turn the lights on, there are health and safety certificates. Everything that seems like a simple idea at the time, but you start drilling down into the detail and it becomes more of a challenge.”

International football: Germany, US surge ahead

by Katie Whyatt

While women’s football in England stalls, elsewhere other countries have charged ahead in recommencing the game. The Frauen Bundesliga will become the first major women’s league in the world to restart after a postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The German Football Association had first suspended play on March 13th, but, with the aid of a solidarity fund for testing funded by some of the country’s richest men’s clubs and a strict hygiene and testing protocol, it will resume with two games on Friday.

America’s NWSL will host the NWSL Challenge Cup in the Salt Lake City area beginning on June 27: a month-long tournament featuring all nine teams will mark the return of professional team sports – men or women’s - in the United States.

The league’s rulings have been subject to state and local health mandates - some states have had to adhere to stringent ‘stay at home’ orders - but where allowed, players returned for individual workouts at team facilities on May 6 and to small group training of up to eight players this week. If five days of small group training is completed, full-team training can begin May 30.

The NWSL’s player association was consulted heavily and has guaranteed accommodation for players with children during the tournament, including plans for both the parent and children’s health and safety. All nine teams will be housed at two area hotels, with 300 players and 500 administrative staff members on hand.

Cologne's Rachel Rinast (r) plays against Wolfsburg's Anna Blässe during the Flyeralarm Frauen Bundesliga match - GETTY IMAGES
Cologne's Rachel Rinast (r) plays against Wolfsburg's Anna Blässe during the Flyeralarm Frauen Bundesliga match - GETTY IMAGES

The tournament was planned with the unanimous support of the league owners and the players’ association, but there have been reports that several members of the USWNT will skip the tournament, not least because a month-long tournament featuring artificial pitches poses injury risks.

In Germany, too, there have been concerns about a risk of injury - many players will play eight games in five weeks after just a full week of training. Meanwhile the demand for teams to quarantine for seven days prior to the first game has meant that when third in the league Hoffenheim play second placed Bayern Munich, the Hoffenheim women’s coach - who is also a teacher - will miss the first game.

A survey of elite women’s football leagues across the world paints a more mixed picture. Across Europe, the top leagues have been cancelled, including France’s Division 1 Feminine and Spain’s Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino.

The French side Amiens reacted with fury when they were relegated by points per game, having only completed 75 per cent of their season, although the Spanish top league cancelled relegation. Italy's Women's Serie A is set to resume.

Domestic football: Triumphant WSL season has ended with a whimper

by Katie Whyatt

Elite women’s football has not been played in England for more than 90 days. That could be extended to six months if the game cannot return before September – pending a decision on whether this season's Women's Champions League and the FA Cup can be concluded. Neither were mentioned in Monday's announcement to cancel the Women's Super League and Championship.

The last Women’s Super League fixtures took place on February 23rd. The League Cup final followed on February 29th, and then England played their final game - in America for the SheBelieves Cup - on March 11th, while a smattering of Women’s National League matches took place at the beginning of that month.

What had started as a landmark, triumphant, season for the game – with record domestic crowds in the modern era and a major sponsorship deal with Barclays – is now threatening to end with a whimper.

The new WSL season is provisionally scheduled to begin in September, but the Football Association knows that this is subject to change. Telegraph Sport understands that the governing body began reviewing earlier this week the scope of and potential for delays to a provisional September start.

They plan to consult with clubs, then the FA board, next week to finalise a start date for the 2020/21 season, but it will depend on the Women’s Champions League. Uefa are understood to be considering an August and September tournament to finish this year’s competition. An announcement around the Women’s FA Cup will be included in that.

The original return date - September 27th - was set before the postponement of the Olympics, but other scenarios were repeatedly mooted during discussions around the WSL’s return.

Leah Galton of Manchester United scores her sides first goal during the Barclays FA Women's Super League - GETTY IMAGES
Leah Galton of Manchester United scores her sides first goal during the Barclays FA Women's Super League - GETTY IMAGES

Although the majority of WSL clubs have endorsed the FA’s decision to cancel the league, the feeling remains that the governing body and the Premier League could have done more to ensure the return of women’s football. It is understood that the cost of coronavirus testing was beyond the budgets of most clubs - with Championship Lewes estimating the cost of finishing the remaining games to be just £3 million for all clubs.

It is dispiriting that the FA, nor the Premier League’s richer clubs, were not able to organise a testing fund when no resources have been spared ensuring Project Restart goes without a hitch.

Ultimately, the sport's return date depends on how successfully the UK can ease itself out of lockdown and the impact of any subsequent waves of coronavirus. That the only women's team to have been disbanded due to the virus - AFC Fylde - has since about-turned and committed to the following season demonstrates the impact of reputational risk but does not by any means show that women's football is out of the woods. The worst could still be yet to come when it comes to clubs' finances.

Cricket: Teams are playing a waiting game

by Molly McElwee

"The one thing you can say about us is we're good at waiting," Stephen Fry's familiar voice narrates, in the England and Wales Cricket Board's emotive lockdown video titled "Together Through This Test".

But as England's men's team returned to the nets this month and ECB women's cricket director Clare Connor conceded that the men's international game had to take priority with £280million on the line, the women seem to have a longer waiting game ahead of them.

"Anyone in the women’s game is pretty much very used to waiting," Yorkshire cricketer Katie Levick says. "Unfortunately that’s just the way it is."

On Friday the ECB confirmed that England's women's team will return to training on June 22, and are working with the India and South Africa cricket governing bodies to try to salvage the planned series for this summer. Best case scenario the South Africa series (of four ODIs and two T20s) which England were set to host starting September 1, could still go ahead as scheduled.

However, that is the only definitive date in the women's calendar at present, and if it does go ahead it will still be exactly a year on from the Kia Super League's conclusion in 2019, the last time women's cricket was played in England.

Domestic cricket has been pushed back for men and women until at least August 1, but the women's side is arguably in more dire straits. The Hundred's cancellation saw invaluable visibility on terrestrial television dissipate for another year and rare domestic earnings fall to the wayside.

Tammy Beaumont of England hits the ball towards the boundary - GETTY IMAGES
Tammy Beaumont of England hits the ball towards the boundary - GETTY IMAGES

The ECB's £20m planned investment in the women's game for the next two years cannot be ring-fenced in the current circumstances either. Forty full-time domestic contracts planned to launch this season have now instead morphed into 24 retainers at lower income for players until the more permanent system can be put in place, unlikely before October.

New regions in domestic women's cricket, teams made up from groupings of counties, were confirmed this month, but there remains little indication as to what the 50-over tournament they will compete in will look like, if it will go ahead in September as has been suggested or how player selection will work.

Telegraph Sport understands the ECB have encouraged players to direct questions to their new regional centres, but Levick says players are confused about the entire situation: "The domestic side of things has been thoroughly forgotten. The [ECB correspondence to players] has very much been “we haven’t forgotten about the domestic season but it’s very much TBC”.

"We didn’t even have that [confirmed] pre-pandemic. I had girls texting me saying what on earth is the regional thing? With or without pandemic we had no information I’d say. What are we playing? Who’s playing? How are squads getting picked? We just have no idea. All I’ve heard is rumour of an undercover tournament in September. I still think there’s so many questions around it all."

Hockey: Major events cancelled, and no headline sponsor

by Molly McElwee

Four years on from Olympic gold and glory at Rio, British women's hockey was looking to boost the sport again on the biggest stage at Tokyo. But with the Games delayed for another 12 months, a longer wait for visibility of that scale is bad news for a sport that lacks publicity at the best of times, and at the moment seems to be struggling.

Last month long-time partner, international bank Investec, declined to renew its deal with England and Great Britain Hockey, meaning that after August the national teams and the domestic league will have no title sponsor. England Hockey told Telegraph Sport it was confident of finding new sponsorship and that, from a financial point of view, it was not a big a blow in the short-term, but the message it sends is worrying.

It is not all bad news though. On some level, the fact the domestic leagues had already ended, apart from the play-offs, when lockdown measures began in March, puts hockey in a better position than other sports.

Domestic pre-season training usually begins in August, with the season set to start in September and both Great Britain and Surbiton players Emily Defroand and Hannah Martin told Telegraph Sport they were confident this would go ahead as scheduled.

Also, the fact women and men compete on the same international stages and their non-professional domestic leagues run in tandem means that there is widely parity in the lockdown circumstances.

However, major moments for visibility in the game have been sidelined. In international hockey competition the Pro League, Great Britain's women's team had not yet played at home this year and were looking forward to May and June home fixtures, including double headers at the Stoop with an aim to boost the sport's profile.

Martin says there are hopes these could be rescheduled for the autumn, and though there not yet finalised plans in place she and Defroand say England Hockey have been good at keeping in touch with players during this limbo period.

Definitive time frames seem to be lacking from England Hockey though, who have yet to outline how the elite contact sport will return in a socially-distanced new world order, and players have not yet heard on what kind of new protocols will be in place when they do train.

One-on-one coaching is now permitted, but last week England Hockey said that the national teams would not yet be returning to the Bisham Abbey training centre. Martin says she expects centrally contracted players may be back at training in the next month, "potentially in small groups".