Marc Skinner, the Manchester United manager, wants changes to the Women’s Champions League qualifying format in future, as his side prepare to face Paris St-Germain for a place in the group stage.
Skinner feels the existing format discriminates against English teams, with the draw split into two separate pathways: the ‘champions’ path for domestic league champions and a ‘league’ path for sides who did not win their divisions.
United, debutants in Europe this term after finishing as runners-up in the Women’s Super League last season, were unseeded in the draw for the league path and will take on French runners-up PSG.
“Personally I think teams in England have a much harder qualification route than other teams,” Skinner said, ahead of the first leg at Leigh Sports Village (8pm BST, Tuesday).
“I’m sure PSG wouldn’t want to be playing us right now. But when I look at some of the teams that are going to make it [to the group stage] from the other section [of the draw], it just doesn’t seem right.
“There are some teams playing each other where I’m thinking, ‘That’s almost a free-hit’. So from our perspective it’s tough. But we’re here to give it our very best and I think we can win the game.”
The WSL is Europe’s only completely full-time, fully professional women’s football league, and only the top three teams in the WSL make it into Europe each season. Arsenal, who finished third in the WSL last term, entered one round earlier than United in the qualification process and were knocked out in a surprise defeat by Paris FC, who finished third in the French league last term.
For October’s final stage of qualifying, the ‘champions’ path includes fixtures, which Skinner appears to be alluding to, that seem very one-sided on paper, such as Italian champions Roma taking on FC Vorskla of Ukraine, while in the ‘league’ path, Paris FC’s reward for knocking out Arsenal is a tie against Wolfsburg, last season’s European finalists.
“We could have got Wolfsburg as well, an equally tough team, or Real Madrid of course,” Skinner said. “Look, they are all tough teams in this side [of the draw]. This side has really tough teams. Sometimes, teams that finish third and fourth in this league are way better than some champions in other leagues. Unfortunately that’s just the way it sits, right?
“PSG have the capability to beat any team on their day. They’re a top team. I watched both of the games they played against Lyon earlier in the season and they could have beaten Lyon. I’m under no illusion as to how difficult this is, but there’s something about Manchester United on European nights and I want to make sure that we give everything to try and be in there [the group stage].
“I believe in us. I want us to go and progress. We feel we deserve to be there and we want to be there going forward.”
WSL champions Chelsea received an automatic spot in the group stage, which consists of 16 teams in four groups of four.
Fixtures:
Champions path
Apollon Ladies v Benfica
FC Zurich v Ajax
Roma v FC Vorskla
Valur v St Polten
Slavia Praha v Olimpia Cluj
Glasgow City v SK Brann
Spartak Subotica v FC Rosengard
League path
BK Hacken v FC Twente
Real Madrid v Valerenga
Eintracht Frankfurt v Sparta Praha
Paris FC v Wolfsburg
Manchester United v Paris St-Germain
