The international players' union, Fifpro, has earlier in the spring expressed concern that the existence of women's football is almost threatened by the corona crisis. According to Fifpro, several risks have arisen during the pandemic - one is that the ladies are completely in the cloud.
In parallel with Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohamed Salah and Lionel Messi resuming the hunt for a new league title with their clubs, stars such as Linda Sembrant, Sofia Jakobsson and Magdalena Eriksson found themselves in the season over.
- It is terrible that you cannot play women's and men's soccer in the same country. That is inexplicable, I think. This is true in Sweden as well. The Damall Swede started a little later and the Swedish Cup was completely removed. It reflects what the hierarchy looks like and that is a bit of the problem, says Caroline Jönsson, former national team goalkeeper and now Fifpro board member.
"The right sides arrive in tough situations"For several years, women's soccer has expanded significantly and during the 2019 World Cup, audience and viewer records were broken. National team captain Caroline Seger is frustrated at how football's decision makers treated women's football during the pandemic.
- When things are going well for women's soccer you want to be involved, and you push a lot for it. But when it gets a little brave and tough, it's easy to sweep away and focus somewhere on what you've always done, and it's been men's football. The right sides arrive in tough situations, says Seger.
Don't you get abandoned?
- You do the job all the time. You understand that you take two steps forward and then one back, and then you continue that way. The job takes a long time, but it goes forward and sometimes you may think "why doesn't it go faster?". But I also don't want to get stuck in the bitterness or that I'm frustrated, angry and sad. Without wanting to focus on "where are we from, where have we been and where are we today?" It is important to try to see the positive in everything so that you do not forget it.