Summary
15 April 2011
A new Super League is being launched for some of the top English ladies' teams including Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. England's Football Association is hoping the league will attract more supporters to the sport.
Reporter
Maddy Savage
Women's football is growing in popularity
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Report
Women's football - or soccer as it's known in many countries - has been played in England for more than a hundred years. But, unlike men's football, it's always been an amateur game. The new Super League will be the first semi-professional competition for women, with eight teams from across the country competing for the title.
The players will get paid for their efforts, although their salaries will be nothing like those given to top male football stars. The Football Association says it hopes to avoid uneven competition, where a country's richest clubs get access to all the best players.
Each club in the women's Super League will have a maximum annual budget of around $400,000. Some clubs, like Arsenal and Everton, will be helped by their respective male clubs, but others are trying to match their incomes by coaching school pupils or raising money through social events.
Organisers are hoping the league will eventually attract the world's best female players and stop England's top stars heading to Germany and the United States, where there are already major professional competitions.
Maddy Savage, ´óÏó´«Ã½ News
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Vocabulary
- unlike
not similar to
- amateur
not professional, not done for money
- efforts
attempts to do something
- avoid
stay away from, prevent meeting
- uneven
unbalanced, unequal
- budget
amount of money available
- to match
to equal
- incomes
monies or amounts regularly earned
- eventually
some time in the future, probably after delays or problems
- heading to
going to, leaving for
