The next two years, I believe, we will see women’s football transition into a third cycle of international development of the game.
Prior to the FIFA’s 1991 establishment of the Women’s World Cup, several unofficial world tournaments took place in the 1970s and 1980s, but it is 1991 that most fans of the game recognize as the beginning of the modern women’s game.
The growth of the game since 1991 is marked by three distinct cycles.
1991 – 2002 is marked by USA dominance and only minimal investment in women’s football by most national FAs.
2003 – 2013 is marked by increasing investment in the game, especially by UEFA member nations, narrowing the gap between the USA and other countries.
2014 – on, and specifically 2013 and 2014, I believe will be characterized by a growing competitiveness of the UEFA (aided by growth in the competitiveness, popularity and stature of UEFA WCL) and AFC member nations. These two years will bring the game closer to parity among the top tier nations.
There is a tremendous latent potential in South America, but it will require focused investment by CONMEBOL members to be unleashed.
The Caribbean and Central American regions have been very late in developing the game and are now playing catch up. Talent is there but the infrastructure required to move forward in big steps needs attention and focus.
Oceania is destined to be dominated by New Zealand for a long time.
The African women’s game finds itself where the men’s game was 20 years ago: an abundance of raw individual talent, still needing leadership and a better collective approach. However, as more and more Africans find their way to European leagues, their collective performances will improve.

There are clear challenges ahead when it comes to women’s football. Investment in women’s sport lags behind men’s and as little as two per cent of sports media coverage is devoted to the sport.
Attracting fans and media attention can only be achieved by having an exciting product with technically and tactically proficient players entertaining stadium goers and television audiences. To that end both UEFA and AFC member associations lead the way.

While I concede that financial resources and the game’s tradition in Europe have contributed to UEFA members’ success, I submit that the existence of the UEFA Women’s Champions League has aided it greatly.
Through the competition, top European teams and players gain valuable exposure to tactical developments, styles of play, and have an opportunity to test their progress against other top European teams.
Utilizing this experience, participating teams serve as catalysts for change and models in their own countries. That perpetuates progress.
The existence of competitive isolation in the CONCACAF region hampers development of the game. CONCACAF club teams and players have minimal exposure to tactical developments, competition vs. top players and teams in the region. This, and not the qualification process, stunts growth and development.
Few would argue that Mexico’s progress in great part is attributable to playing annually 4-6 matches vs. American college teams for the past 8 years. It gave Mexican players opportunity to frequently play against Americans and to test their physical, technical, tactical and psychological progress. Creating the CWCL will have a similar effect on development in member countries.
The CONCACAF does not need a change to the qualification process, it needs to establish and sponsor a CONCACAF Women’s Champions League to foster progress.

Lacking the financial resources to have residency programs or long training camps, national federations must compensate by employing experienced coaches capable of getting their teams organized and instilling professional attitude in a short time.
Belief, the professional attitude, is about determination and not giving up in the face of adversity. Inexperienced teams and players, if their team goes a goal or two down, or they aren’t seeing much of the ball, will switch off. They don’t press as hard as they should. They don’t track back. Their concentration level dips and results in giveaways, poor positioning and slow reactions. They will, essentially, bow out of the fight.
Committed teams and players thrive in the face of such adversity. Going a goal or two down and being dominated, will just spur them on to at least work harder defensively. They relish the challenge. They close down space quicker and tackle a bit harder. It brings out the best of them in terms of putting in a performance.
Teams don’t have to be at the level of the US or Germany to have the collective professional attitude required to be competitive against them.

Women’s football in the US could learn a lesson from my friend. You can either “rent” the “highest” possible club and players you can afford on a day-to-day basis, or you can organically operate way under income, increase revenues until you can grow your club and increase your spending.
It takes time, there is no such thing as instant success.
Sometimes, people forget the value of hard work, sweat, and planning long-term.
For all of us involved in women’s football we have simple tasks on our journey:  Collect as many good experiences (and memories) as possible, take a long term approach, develop sound strategy and be patient.
Getting trapped into the baseline spending is dangerous stuff and always ends badly.
We all know clubs spending $2,000,000 and struggling to survive, yet I occasionally run into women’s club owners operating successfully on $100,000 who really “get it” down at a core level. You can only spend it once.
Given a decade or two of hard work it’s absolutely amazing what skills/ experiences a person/club can accumulate. The secret is in doing it organically.

Oh! And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of the Big Dreams variety. 

Blatter’s reply came as a result of a recent claim by Anton Ferdinand that he was racially abused by John Terry.
Blatter’s answer has created a social media furor and accusations against Sepp Blatter.
To understand this anti-Blatter sentiment better I went to Wikipedia to consult as to what is the commonly accepted definition of racism.

“Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term “racism” is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet.
Racism is popularly associated with various activities that are illegal or commonly considered harmful, such as extremism, hatred, xenophobia, exploitation , separatism, racial supremacy, mass murder, genocide denial, vigilantism, terrorism, etc.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism

To say that either the FIFA or Blatter are involved in hatred, xenophobia, exploitation, separatism, supremacy, murder, terrorism is very difficult for me to comprehend.
Does racism exists in the world? Definitely.
But does the FIFA or Blatter practice or condone racism? Perhaps, but I can’t infer this from Blatter’s quote.
Most reasonable people will agree that the FIFA has done as much if not more to combat racism as any international organization. Players and coaches, regardless of race, religion, sexual preference, political views or ethnicity can receive very good money and fan adoration doing what they love.
While it is possible that it happens, I have never met an owner, a coach or a player who would not sign, coach or play with a player just because of their race. Never.
I have been passed over for jobs, which I believed I was qualified for, it never occurred to me that it was because of my race or ethnicity.
In football, winning and losing can make a huge difference in the bottom lines of federations and clubs. All sane individuals attempt daily to give themselves and their organizations the edge which will allow them to win and to make money.
In football racism will inevitably lead to sporting and commercial failure. Anyone practicing or condoning racism is insane and doomed to failure.
Are there individuals or groups of people in the terraces who use racial slurs? Yes. Those must be controlled by clubs and leagues and not by Sepp Blatter.

Greek philosopher Plato wrote “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”
All the statues, rules, codes, decrees, and financial resources spent by FIFA on the ‘Say No to Racism’ campaign could not stop John Terry from allegedly using racial slurs directed at a fellow professional.

Should Blatter be blamed for this? I submit that in this particular case John Terry, Chelsea, the Premier League, and the FA are far more guilty of racism than Sepp Blatter.

Today, most coaches have been exposed to players who have played on the so-called elite youth teams. Some of them have been playing (playing not training and there is a huge difference) football a long time and have developed poor techniques and habits, which prevent them from being effective players at the next level.
There exists debilitating trend in youth soccer to offer variety in training, to focus on fun.
Fun should not be the objective of training, correct execution of techniques should. Fun should be a byproduct of exercises well executed. Most kids instinctively enjoy completing tasks and derive pleasure from correctly executing techniques.
Remember when you learned to read and to count? It wasn’t much fun. Lots of memorization and repetition. But this process of memorization and repetition is what eventually allows people to become successful teachers, businesswomen, doctors and players. In football, technical repetition is essential to development of the muscle memory for a conditioned reaction.
Our job as coaches is to develop proficient players and give them an opportunity to excel, not to be entertainers of kids.

In sports as in real life, the difference between wins and losses comes from training not luck. Success and failure depends on how well trained and how deeply fixed in your player’ subconscious the conditioning is. That well trained players and teams are more successful, is a given.