Arsenal Women head coach Jonas Eidevall defended the club's post-season exhibition match in Australia, despite adding to an already hectic workload.
The match - set to take place six days after the end of the Women's Super League and a week before the Women's Euro 2025 June qualifiers - is Eidevall says, evidence of the club's "investment" and "popularity".
The Gunners are set to embark on a 20,000-mile round trip to face an A-League All-Stars team on 24 May, less than a week after the culmination of the WSL and a week before the Lionesses' Euro qualifier against France at St. James' Park.
Exhibition matches played abroad in the summer have become a stable of the off-season in the football landscape, but Arsenal's decision to do so this summer has been a source of fierce consternation amid a concerningly congested fixture schedule for women's football and the impact on player welfare.
Research from FIFPro indicated that the ever-increasing demands on players in terms of travel, shortened recovery time and number of games has resulted in a conspicuous increase in knee, thigh, hamstring and ACL injuries among female professional footballers. Meanwhile, current and ex-players, including Arsenal duo Beth Mead and Leah Williamson who suffered ACL injuries last season, have called out the 'unsustainable' schedule.
But Eidevall defended the club's decision, pointing to the 'commercial viability' of the trip and the opportunity for academy players.
“For some players it will be the right thing to go and for some players it will not be the right thing to go. If we talk about it from a loading perspective and a welfare perspective, we need to take good decisions on that," Eidevall said.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity for us to see our first-year professionals get experience of travelling with us and playing with us – in combination with needing a strong team going out there and showcasing Arsenal to fans in another continent. So it’s about finding that balance to do that."
He added: “Let’s acknowledge the great thing where we’re at a point where it’s commercially viable for us to do a post-season trip like this. That shows the club’s investment but also the popularity that the team has across the globe.”
Eidevall said UEFA's decision to host European qualifiers during the months of June and July for women's team also impacted the club's decision. "If there hadn’t been international fixtures [in May-June] I think the decision would have been very different," he said.
“Then the national team players have another camp [in] July. At some point, we need to give the players some time off, but they need to be prepped for playing qualifiers again in July – that’s a very, very complicated situation. When are they going to have time off? I don’t think that [July international games] is right.”
Arsenal sit third in the WSL table and face Chelsea in the League Cup on 31 March.
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