Damallsvenskan Newsblog

Qbik's management announced at a press conference yesterday that the club is in a severe economic crisis. The deficit so far this year is SEK 750,000 and growing. They will have difficulties paying bills and wages the rest of the year. Chairman Lars-Inge Hallstenson says the club has already begun to take measures to avoid an even bigger loss by terminating the contract for their office manager and noticed their head coach that his contract will be terminated by the end of the season.

No one is disputing that Umeå is worthy winners. They can field a formidable eleven and still have world class players on the bench. Hanna Ljungberg's long injury absence the first months of the season was hardly noticeable. The depth of the squad has also been mentioned as the key factor in their success. But more important than the great players is the club itself. The club has over their 20 year history managed to build a financial strength, organization and training environment that is challenged by very few, if any, women's football clubs in the world. If they hadn't managed that, most of their players wouldn't be at the club. Umeå's finnish standout Anne Mäkinen simply claimed that it is the best club in the world: "Given the opportunity, everyone should take the chance to play here".

The Swedish championship should be won wearing long underwear and wollen caps, not shorts and sleeveless shirts. Umeå's record early championship victory with four rounds of matches left, makes the remaining month of Damallsvenskan matches less exciting and the big question is if Umeå's superiority has killed the league. Umeå's captain Malin Moström can't see her team's lossless streak as a problem: "We always try to win, we want to win every match." Outside watchers like national team coach Thomas Dennerby chose to point out that Umeå is less superior to their opposition this year. The 5, 6 or 7 goal victories have been sparse this year while the single goal wins have been much more common. Umeå will probably score about 20 goals less than last season, and it's not for lack of shooting power. The other teams are closing up, is Dennerby's interpretation.

Still, Umeå's championship victory gives new fuel to the debate on the league format. Umeå's suggestion to divide the league in half after the first 11 matches, letting the 6 top teams play each other home and away for the championship title and the 6 bottom teams do the same to avoid relegation, has found some support. Malmö's and Bälinge's coaches likes the idea of more matches between the best teams. Other club's, among them Mallbacken and Jitex, points out that the home games against the big teams is what draws attention to their teams. They are also worried about creating a more or less permanent divide in Damallsvenskan, where the lower half teams and players won't get the development that playing really good teams provide.

Umeå's long turf war seems to have reached a happy end, when FIFA on Wednesday approved Gammliavallen's artificial turf as "FIFA One Star", which makes it possible for Umeå to play their international fixtures at their home arena. "It's a great joy to be able to call Gammliavallen our home arena for all occasions", Umeå's happy manager Roland Arnqvist said. The certificate, that was confirmed by UEFA the same day, is valid for 3 years.

Umeå and plastic has been a long running story, ever since the first UEFA Women's Cup season 2001-2002. The local newspaper Västerbottenskuriren printed a long story about how Umeå managed to play 4 UEFA Women's Cup seasons without an approved field, a story about negotiations, threats and bribes, hope and despair.

The first seasons Umeå's Gammliavallen actually had grass, but that doesn't help when UEFA's schedule forces the team to play in March. The deep snow and frozen ground left no alternative but Umeå's artificial turf reserve field, Sandåkern, for the 2002 quarter-final against Ryazan. Initially Ryazan wasn't happy with the idea, but Umeå paid for a three day extension of their stay in Sweden to give them time to get used to the turf. In april 2003 Frankfurt refused to play on the artificial turf for the semifinal. Umeå offered to change dates with Frankfurt, playing the Umeå home game later and thus being able to use the grass on Gammliavallen. Frankfurt refused this too. There was no solution until the Swedish Football Association contacted their German counterparts. Frankfurt then agreed to play on Sandåkern's artificial turf in order to keep their home field advantage for the last semifinal leg.

In 2003 Umeå city renovated Gammliavallen and put artificial turf on the field. Umeå IK wasn't thrilled by the idea, but there were a process in UEFA towards recognizing field turf on certain conditions and the city promosed the turf would be state of the art. But the UEFA rules still stated that artificial turf could be used only if the guesting team agreed to it.

Negotiating the November 2003 quarterfinal with Russian Voronezh, the Russians, initially unwilling to play on Umeå's field turf, offered a deal including a change of dates with Umeå, since a late November match in Russia could be hard to carry out. Umeå agreed, and then Voronesh walked out of the agreement, again refusing to play on field turf. Umeå went to the Swedish FA, that got in touch with UEFA, that appearently used harsh words with Voronesh. The Russian club complied and played at Gammliavallen.

2004 Frankfurt was the opponent in the final. And no way Frankfurt was ready to concede to play on field turf again. Umeå, seeing no way to even finance a home leg away from home, threatened to leave with a walk-over. The Swedish FA called to negotiations in Stockholm. "There wasn't really any negotiations at all", Roland Arnqvist remembers, "The match should be played at Råsunda in Stockholm and the Swedish FA would take the costs. If we refused we would be fined 100,000 swiss francs and expelled from Damallsvenskan."

Qbik's German forward Anja Mittag had to leave the field in Germany's World Cup qulifier against Switzerland Wednesday night with a knee inury. In a medical examination it was found to be a ligament tear and Mittag will have to rest from football for at least 10 weeks. This will disappointingly end her Swedish season and her stay with Qbik.

Previously: Umeå needed a new field. They decided to go for plastic, making it possible to play for a longer period of the year than between July and September. Field turf wasn't approved for international matches (and seriously, they must have been aware of that, the Umeå people are by no means stupid). Umeå management complained and claimed it was a conspiracy by the southern countries against northern clubs. Some teams chose to play there anyway, others refused. Umeå had to play their UEFA Women's Cup final in Stockholm. Umeå management complained and claimed it was a trick to rob Umeå of their home crowd support.

Then UEFA decided to approve field turf, if it was tested and met a certain standard. Umeå management complained and claimed the field was state of the art and didn't need any testing. On location tests were performed. The turf failed the test. Umeå management complained and claimed it was a conspiracy by the southern countries against northern clubs. Renewed on location tests were performed. The field passed! Umeå not complaining!

UEFA complained and said the lab tests were too old and must be redone. And the rules actually states that a lab test must not be more than 6 months older than the field test, which Umeå should have known, but still... Umeå management complained and threatened to leave UEFA Women's Cup if they weren't allowed to play at home. But they still took a sample and sent in to a the dutch laboratory UEFA assigned.

In today's episode: The dutch laboratory has lost the sample and don't know where to find it! Yes, it's true! Umeå city's arena manager can't believe what he's hearing! Umeå's management is in despair! A test result may not be in time for Umeå to prepare for the home leg in the Women's Cup quarter finals. The tension is building up...