-
Gabriele Marcotti, Senior Writer, ESPN FCDec 5, 2024, 02:37 PM ET
The Orlando Pride were superb in 2024, winning the NWSL regular season and capping it with a successful run to a first-ever title. But are they the best in the world? Why don’t we have a means of putting that claim to the test? Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Just over a week ago, Marta — perhaps the most famous name in the women’s game, and a forward for the newly crowned NWSL champion Orlando Pride — said hers is the “best league in the world.” Given Orlando won the Supporters’ Shield for having the best regular-season record as well as all three playoff games in 90 minutes, yeah, they can probably safely say they’re the best team in the National Women’s Soccer League.
But are they the best team in the world? And if they’re not, does that undermine her claim about the NWSL being the best league in the world?
Is Barcelona actually the best women’s team in the world? I mean, they’re stacked with World Cup winners, and last season, they won the treble (Liga F, Copa de la Reina, Women’s Champions League). They won 43 of 46 games in 2023-24, suffering just one defeat. Or maybe it’s Chelsea, who won the hugely competitive Women’s Super League in England and were the only side to beat Barcelona last season?
I don’t know, but I’m sure I’m not alone in that I’d love to find out. As in, on the pitch, not by listening to a bunch of talking heads having a theoretical debate. And it’s frankly grotesque that in late 2024, we just don’t know because these teams hardly ever freaking play each other. How about we change that? Like, now?
Editor’s Picks
2 Related
Get the guys who own the Orlando Pride (brothers Zygi and Mark Wilf) to get on the phone with Joan Laporta at Barcelona, or the Clearlake Crew at Chelsea, and get them to make it happen. One game, neutral venue, for the right to call yourself the best in the world.
Would the economics of it work? I’m pretty sure they would, and I can bore you with that later, but folks, that shouldn’t be the primary driver. It should be something much more primordial: bragging rights. That’s what it was in 1960, when the first European-South American Cup (later to be known as the Intercontinental Cup) was played.
In terms of talent distribution, the women’s game today is not dissimilar to what the men’s game was then. Then, as now, it was a legitimate bone of contention. FIFA wouldn’t sanction it as an official game, so UEFA and CONMEBOL went ahead and did it themselves, putting the European Cup winners (Real Madrid) against the Copa Libertadores winners (Penarol). UEFA has a Womens’ Champions League, but Concacaf in North and Central America has only just created one (the Concacaf World Cup Champions Cup), so we won’t have a Concacaf women’s champion until late May.
So we’ll have to wait on that, just like we’re waiting on the 16-team FIFA Women’s Club World Cup to be played in January and February 2026. That’ll be nice, but let’s face it, right now it’s: Location TBC, Participants TBC, Admissions Criteria TBC, Prize Money TBC.
(At the moment, it’s all about the Men’s Club World Cup, which takes place in June in the United States. The draw is Thursday in Miami and it’s fair to say enthusiasm has been muted. Clubs are squabbling over prize money allocation, player unions are suing over fixture congestion, commercial partners are slow to sign up (they only signed their second sponsor last week), they didn’t seemingly sell TV rights — announcing Wednesday that it would be on DAZN in a “landmark free-to-air deal” around the world — and folks don’t seem to understand how Inter Miami managed to qualify (other than the fact that you-know-who plays for them).
Barcelona’s women’s team completed a treble this season, giving them a strong claim to being the best in the world, too. Alex Caparros – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
FIFA has enough on its plate trying to organise the men’s version and ensure it’s not just a glorified summer tour, at least for the European heavyweights. Yes, we should hold their feet to the fire and demand women get equal treatment, but in the meantime … why wait? Especially when it feels like you’re waiting for Godot. Why don’t the leading women’s clubs help themselves?
First off, money shouldn’t be an issue here. You’re not looking to necessarily build a business straight away, you’re just doing what’s right: getting the best in the world to face off. And yeah, there’s the economics angle. You’d need to market it properly to sponsors and broadcasters, greasing the commercial wheels a little, but both the Women’s Champions League final (attendance: 50,000) and the NWSL final (attendance: 11,500) sold out. You should be able to cover your costs with box office receipts alone, with the rest being gravy. And if you can’t, hey, Orlando are literally owned by billionaires. You think they wouldn’t be happy to spend a couple hundred grand for the chance to call themselves the best team on Earth?
Can you fit it into the football calendar? Yes, if you really want to, because the fixture list is nowhere near as congested as the men’s game. You’d want to do this after the start of the 2025 NWSL season (mid-March) and the end of the European season, before the Euros (June). It’s suboptimal because one team will just be getting started on their season while the other will be in full flow, but you’ll always have that problem because they’re on different seasons, just like the men’s game was in the old days of the Intercontinental Cup. Besides, women’s football is already expected to be unreasonably flexible: witness the fact that the dates for the latter rounds of the Copa de La Reina are all TBD, while those of the men’s version, the Copa del Rey, are fixed in stone, as if someone had retrieved them from Mount Olympus.
Why isn’t it happening? I’d hate to think that it’s because nobody thought of it. I’d hate it even more if it’s because one (or both) clubs are afraid of getting spanked by the other and perhaps being exposed as not being quite as good as advertised. Maybe it hurts their business model a tiny bit.
So come on guys, Wilf brothers and Laporta (or if he’s too busy with other stuff, Clearlake). Don’t wait on FIFA or the confederations. Just make it happen.
