New teams, ours in the World Cup, disastrous start times: we have a lot to talk about. Let’s start with the good!
maximum of the year
Debut of new teams
This year the Super League has expanded to 12 teams. The season included Dynamo Moscow and Krylia Sovetov Samara. True, only the Muscovites had a truly successful debut: the blue and white reached the top 6. The Samara team finished the season in last place, adding only six points in the regular season and three in the final round.
José Diana Pamen Tchato (WFC Dynamo)
Photo: w.fcdm.ru
JFK “Spartak” promotion
At the end of the season, Spartak announced the creation of a women’s team and prepared a powerful promotion. At the Otkritie Arena, before the derby against CSKA in the RPL, a QR code was placed on the screens, leading to a mysterious Telegram channel with the date 10/14/2023 in the title. On October 14, the channel was renamed ZhFK Spartak. Now there are almost 15 thousand subscribers, more than other teams and the league’s own social networks. True, the official groups of the Russian Women’s Championship did not announce the release of Spartak; Not a single publication was published about it. Also left open is the question of how next season will be played if there are an odd number of teams in the league.
What is known about the Spartak sports complex:
“There will be big transfers. It’s a great story.” What is known about the new women’s Spartak
“Golden” match between title contenders
For the first time in the history of Russian women’s football, the champion was decided in the last round between teams that won gold medals. A great coincidence that caused unexpected twists in the final playoffs.
CSKA was in first place, Zenit was three points behind and Loko was third. The victory of Lokomotiv over the army restored the intrigue (2-1), and the defeat of the railway team against Zenit decided the fate of third place (1-3). Lokomotiv became the bronze medalist of the championship, the fight for the championship moved to the last round. Zenit defeated CSKA away thanks to goals from Ana Dias and Alena Andreeva (2-1)
As was:
“Zenit is a champion! We defeated CSKA in the “golden” match!
This season all the titles were shared between Zenit and CSKA. The Russian Cup for the Moscow team, the Super Cup and the Super League championship are carried out by the St. Petersburg team.
ZhFK Zenit is the champion of Russia
Photo: Dmitry Golubovich, “Championship”
Vera Opeikina
Russian referee Vera Opeykina combines work in the Russian Super League, in the Men’s Second League and as a VAR in the RPL, and this season she made the news. Vera twice worked in matches between RPL teams within the Russian Cup (Baltika – Krylya Sovetov and Lokomotiv – Rubin) as the main referee and received her first international assignment in a year and a half – a match in the Nations League between Armenia and Kazakhstan.
Interview with Vera Opeikina:
Exclusive
“It’s hard to break the fundamental stereotype about women.” Russian judges are back in Europe
Super League footballers in the World Cup
In the summer the World Cup ended in Australia and New Zealand. The Russian team did not have the opportunity to get there and the national referees were not called to the tournament either. However, two footballers from the Super League were able to compete in the World Cup: Kiki from Zenit debuted with the Haiti team and Francisca Ordega from CSKA reached the round of 16 with the Nigerian team, where the Africans lost to England only in the round. of penalties.
Kiki – with impressions from Australia:
Exclusive
“We had fun and danced a lot.” Zenit footballer Kiki talks about her World Cup debut
Olesya Kurochkina
The 40-year-old footballer from the Perm “Zvezda-2005”, author of the fastest goal in the history of women’s football, continues to shake up the Super League and has no plans to end her career. This season she scored seven goals and her team reached the top 6 and took fourth place until the end.
Vera remembered the UEFA Cup final and spoke about her motivation:
Exclusive
“We play in the European Cup playoffs every year.” Interview with a forward who looks 39 years old
CSKA youth
The military club’s footballers became the best in several categories. The CSKA youth team won in the UFL women’s category and the youth team won the gold medal in the youth championship. In the end, the base was left without a gold medal.
ZhFK CSKA – winner of the Russian Cup
Photo: yflrussia.ru
Beautiful goals
There were many of them. Here is a small (subjective) selection.
Video rights belong to National Sports Channel LLC. You can watch the video on the Match Premier Telegram channel.
Video rights belong to National Sports Channel LLC. You can watch the video on the Match Premier Telegram channel.
Video rights belong to National Sports Channel LLC. You can watch the video on the Match Premier Telegram channel.
Video rights belong to National Sports Channel LLC. You can watch the video on the Match Premier Telegram channel.
Video rights belong to National Sports Channel LLC. You can watch the video on the Match Premier Telegram channel.
Video rights belong to National Sports Channel LLC. You can watch the video on the Match Premier Telegram channel.
Video rights belong to National Sports Channel LLC. You can watch the video on the Match Premier Telegram channel.
Failures of the year
There are many problems in the Super League. Let’s start with the current ones.
Match schedule
This season, fans were outraged many times by the inconvenient start times of matches in the Russian championship.
The first problem: matches are periodically postponed and it is difficult to plan a trip in advance. Yes, Super League clubs have few fans, but they exist, and some of the loyal fans try not to miss their team’s matches.
Start times depend on the broadcaster and the Super League is never a priority. The women’s championship matches will be separated from the RPL in order to broadcast some of them on Match TV channels. In addition, all broadcasts are available for free on social networks.
Playing against ZhFK CSKA and ZhFK “Zenit”
Photo: vk.com/wfccska
But even if we leave aside the match between CSKA and Zenit, the schedule of the last round does not seem logical. All games except one are played on Friday. The match between Zvezda and Ryazan-VDV is scheduled for Saturday at 11:00. The Permians have one more point than the Dynamo; Consequently, after the defeat of the blue and white in the last round, Zvezda automatically became fourth, and the match with Ryazan does not affect anything. The champion will be awarded on Friday. Why then do we need a Saturday game?
And the meeting between Lokomotiv and CSKA at 11:30 is already a meme. At 11:30 the two regular season games and the Russian Cup semifinal between these teams were played.
ZhFK Lokomotiv and ZhFK CSKA play
Photo: fclm.ru
The Super League regulations for 2023 stipulate that championship matches must not start before 1:00 p.m. or after 8:00 p.m. on weekends and holidays, or before 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. However, in exceptional cases, the league has the right to reschedule the match. During the regular season, 12 special matches of this type were played (Lokomotiv was especially unlucky: six matches before 12:00). And the Krasnoyarsk matches could be seen at eight or nine in the morning Moscow time.
Rubin’s Seven-Man Match
On matchday 19 of the Super League regular season, a scandal occurred: Rubin went out to play against Lokomotiv with seven players. In addition, a field football player played in goal. That match featured defenders Ksenia Kulinich and Alexandra Kosorukova, midfielders Arina Tsyplova, Valeria Khokhlova, Taisiya Nesterenko and Yana Sholgina, and forward Maria Proshina. The match ended with a score of 6:0 in favor of Loko.
ZhFK “Rubin” against ZhFK “Lokomotiv”
Photo: fclm.ru
No one spoke about the reasons, although a week earlier the team’s coach, Dmitry Nechaev, hinted that there were communication problems with the management. But the official version: injuries and illnesses of the main squad players.
According to the regulations, seven players can play. What the Super League did: it canceled the broadcast a few minutes before the start, it did not publish the lineups and after the match the following explanation appeared on the official Super League account: “The broadcast of a match like this is contrary to the spirit of the game” .
Subsequently, Irina Posirenina, deputy general secretary of the RFU and director of the Competition Organization Department, explained why the league made this decision:
“This is a difficult situation, but the regulations do not prohibit playing a match if at least seven players are registered. The regulations were not violated, we held meetings, both teams agreed to play, we have no right to cancel the match. But we decided not to broadcast it. This is a product. I think showing a seven-on-11 game is wrong. If he is removed or injured, it could end at any time. Of course, if we had been warned in advance, we would have explained it to the fans, but we were presented with a fait accompli an hour before the game.”
The positive: Lokomotiv fans were so impressed by the dedication of the Rubin players that they came to support the Kazan athletes in the next round match against Dynamo. His accusation: “Rubin girls, everything will be fine.”
More details on the 7-man match:
A unique scandal in Russian women’s football. “Rubin” came to the game with seven of them!
Lack of intrigue in the bottom six
The Women’s Super League is played according to a special system: two rounds of the regular season and a playoff, divided into six. The motivation of the teams in the top 6 is clear: they continue to fight for prizes, but it is a question why the teams below are playing. After all, no one leaves the Super League flying. The same question applies to the participants of the First League: their winners are not promoted to the first division.
ZhFK “Rostov”
Photo: vk.com/fc_rostov_women
Marketing Championship
The Marketing Championship is a competition between Super League teams in terms of media activity. Every month, the Super League, or more precisely, the representatives of the collaborating companies, evaluate the marketing of each champion team and publish the results. For the victory, the club receives financial support from the RFU. What is evaluated: match day activities, fan relations, club media, promotional events and social activities. Points are awarded for each activity and then a tournament table is formed. Fans have noticed that the Super League does not explain why each initiative receives a certain number of points and, in this case, it is difficult to calculate the fairness of the assessment.
But communication problems arise here too. In the tables published in the Super League resources, Zenit occupies the last place with zero points. This is logical if you know that the St. Petersburg team refused to participate at the beginning of the season, but official sources did not report this. The reasons why Zenit decided to refuse to participate in the Super League initiative are unknown.
The representative of one of the Super League clubs claims that activity on social networks is evaluated solely by postings in groups on VKontakte, and one of the most important indicators in the marketing competition is attendance at home matches. Currently, the leaders in the marketing championship are Krasnodar, Ryazan-VDV and Krylya Sovetov.
Table
The 2023 season is over. Russian women’s football will return in March next year. And now the objective results.
Top scorer – Ana Días, Zenit. 18 goals in 25 games.
Best assistant – Nadezhda Smirnova, CSKA. 13 assists in 27 games.
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