THE fate of the 2019-20 women’s Champions League should become clearer on Wednesday when Uefa’s executive committee holds its online June meeting. The governing body is due to decide when and how the tournament can resume.

The only quarter-finalists playing football at the moment are Glasgow City’s opponents Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich. The former beat Essen 3-0 yesterday to all but clinch the Bundesliga title. In England and Spain, decisions were taken to complete the men’s 2019-20 seasons, but not the women’s.

For France, both the men’s and women’s seasons were terminated at the same time. That leaves Arsenal likely to return to training by August at the latest, as could be the case for Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and holders Lyon.

One scenario Uefa are believed to be considering is bringing the tournament to a speedy conclusion by playing the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final back-to-back in one country.

The end of August has been mooted as a possibility. The main obstacle (among many other logistical ones) to such an outcome is Glasgow City. The most optimistic return date for competitive football in Scotland is late October. In these circumstances, could Uefa consider completing the tournament without the Scottish champions?

“It’s definitely approaching that time when there has got to be one decision or the other,” City head coach Scott Booth admitted of whether Uefa can complete the tournament or decide the problems may be insurmountable.

“The biggest problem for the quarter-finals is probably going to be us. If it did come down to it they probably would give Wolfsburg a bye into the semi-finals if we weren’t back training or playing.

“It might have been different if it was Lyon who couldn’t get back – but they might take into consideration there was a very high chance of Wolfsburg beating Glasgow City anyway.

“I don’t think too many of the clubs involved would argue about Wolfsburg getting a bye if it meant finishing the competition. But it would be really disappointing for us to go out that way – I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’s not going to happen and we’ll manage to get through this.”

Also on Uefa’s agenda on Wednesday is the calendar for the 2020-21 Champions League. Arsenal won’t be in it – unless the current competition is completed and they won it to qualify as defending champions. Each of the quarter-finalists will be due £72,000 from Uefa on completion of the round. Glasgow City, like the other clubs, had budgeted for receiving this at the beginning of April.

 

Back in February Hibs announced that club captain Joelle Murray had become the first player to sign a part-time professional contract. The team’s name was also changed from Hibernian Ladies to Hibernian Women.

Also very briefly mentioned in the statement was a new dedicated board and management structure to give the players an environment to “continue to succeed” – including enhanced support from the main club.

Previously the team had been run by its community foundation. According to Companies House there are eight directors of Hibernian Women’s Football Club Limited. The five men and three women include MSP and former Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray and Professor Grant Jarvie, who has had an impressive career in sport.

It sounds very positive, which makes it all the more frustrating that various approaches this week and last to speak to someone on the board were rebuffed. No reason was given for the unwillingness to communicate.

 

THE generous £3m given to the SPFL Trust by Edinburgh financier and philanthropist James Anderson has not gone unnoticed in women’s football circles. Anderson, who has provided financial support to Hearts over the last six years, has also backed admirable projects such as Sistema Scotland, which is committed to transforming young lives through music.

There are hopes that the fund manager and partner at Baillie Gifford will recognise the significant opportunities women’s clubs have offered girls and young women in their communities.

 

ON this date last year Scotland lost 2-1 to Japan in Rennes – but still had the opportunity to become the first-ever national team to qualify for the knockout stages of a World Cup by beating Argentina five evenings later.

These are difficult enough times so there is nothing to be gained from dwelling on what happened at the Parc des Princes. Suffice to say it was an all too familiar Scottish footballing outcome and one which those in the stadium and watching on television will never forget.