Progress is not linear, particularly in women’s soccer.
Just consider Italy, a country that has a glorious tradition in the sport on the men’s side, but only did away with government regulations preventing Serie A Femminile from becoming fully professional in 2020.
Just days after Megan Rapinoe, one of the pioneers of the equal pay movement, played her final international match, and with the players of current World Cup champions Spain having to battle their own federation over a litany of issues, Italy hosted Sweden on Tuesday in UEFA Nations League play.
The problem? The Italian federation (FIGC) decided to schedule the match in a small town’s equally small stadium.
Following a 1-0 win to the visitors, Sweden star Kosovare Asllani — who currently plays in Italy for AC Milan — ripped into the FIGC over its venue choice.
“It is under all criticism of the Italian federation to put the match here out in the forest,” Asllani told Swedish outlet SVT Sport. “I have seen more animals than people here.”
Reports held that just 2,500 people showed up for the match, which was played at the humble Stadio Teofilo Patini, a 7,200-seat venue that just so happens to be located in FIGC president Gabriele Gravina’s hometown. Castel di Sangro isn’t near any major population center, with the nearest city of note (Pescara) a 90-minute drive to the north.
“You have to pay tribute to your women’s national team and put it in a bigger arena and see how much you can pull,” said Asllani. “You can’t put the match out in the woods. It is under all criticism.”
Sweden’s previous match in the Nations League, a gripping 3-2 defeat against Spain, was played at Gamla Ullevi, a modern venue with a capacity of 18,416 that serves as home to men’s top-flight club IFK Göteborg. It had all the trappings of high-level international soccer.
Four days later, the Swedes stepped out onto the pitch at the Patini, nestled in a town with a population of 6,461. The normal home team, Castel di Sangro Cep 1953, currently sits in third place in the Eccellenza Molise, one of 29 regional divisions making up the fifth tier of Italian men’s soccer.
The Patini is a fine venue for fifth-division soccer played by a club that has never been to Serie A, and hasn’t been to Serie B since one eventful two-year stint from 1996-98 that was immortalized in Joe McGinniss’ book “The Miracle of Castel di Sangro.”
Readers of that book may be forgiven for seeing Gravina — whose exploits in that book included signing an actor and pretending he was actually a big addition from Leicester City — and being puzzled as to how he became the president of one of world soccer’s most successful federations.
In any case, the rolling green hills of the Abruzzo are visible from the stands at the Patini. It seems nice!
“Nice” does not, however, mean “venue suitable for the top level of European women’s soccer,” which is the entire thing Italy and Sweden were meeting up to do on the day.
It’s not that the FIGC always sends its women’s national team as far away from population centers as it possibly can. Next month, Italy will host Spain at Stadio Arechi in Salerno. Which is to say, at a 37,800-seat venue in a city of 133,000 that happens to be just south of Naples.
“Women’s football is on such a sharp upward curve,” Sweden’s Magdalena Eriksson told TV4 on Monday. “We are coming from a World Cup with such fantastic attendance numbers… It’s an important match and obviously we would have liked to see and test the limits of how many people would have come if we had played in a bigger arena, but also in a bigger city.”
If only the Italian federation saw it that way.
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