Euro 2022 hero and BBC Sports Personality of the Year Beth Mead says that women's football still has 'a long way to go', after Sunday's Women's Super League clash between leaders Chelsea (opens in new tab) and Liverpool (opens in new tab) was abandoned within six minutes of kick-off.
Following a morning pitch inspection at a chilly Kingsmeadow, the game went ahead – but the action had barely got going when referee Paul Howard deemed the pitch unplayable, prompting uproar throughout the women's game.
Reacting to a spoof petition calling for undersoil heating in women's football, Arsenal (opens in new tab) striker Mead – who was named Player of the Tournament as England won last summer's Euros on home soil – expressed her despair at the situation. "Not good enough," she wrote.
😂😂 on a serious note, one of the top leagues in Europe and we are cancelling games cause of frozen pitches. Not good enough, the women’s game is heading in the right direction but still a long way to go. https://t.co/I7Da1PqMl7January 22, 2023
Chelsea boss Emma Hayes was equally unimpressed with the state of affairs, questioning whether the match should have gone ahead in the first place. She told the Blues' official website (opens in new tab):
"You could see from the opening minutes it was like an ice rink down the sides.
"It’s not for managers to decide that; it’s for the officials to decide if a game is on. It’s minus one degrees; it’s the right decision; it probably shouldn’t have been on to start with.
"[The pitch] was ok earlier, but as soon as we took the covers off it started to freeze again and the temperature hasn’t improved since the first check with the officials at 9:30am."
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