The Football Association will “100 per cent” reject any offers for Sarina Wiegman, its Chief Executive, Mark Bullingham, has said in the build-up to the Lionesses’ first World Cup final, against Spain on Sunday.
After the USA were eliminated at the last-16 stage of the World Cup, American fans and journalists have argued that US Soccer should go all out to recruit the back-to-back Euros winning manager,Wiegman, to replace Vlatko Andonovski, who resigned this week.
Conversations over Wiegman’s contract will take place after the World Cup. “We’ve always said we’d get to it after a tournament,” said Bullingham. “We’ve had good conversations after the Euros and there will be an appropriate time to do it.
Bullingham said it was “disrespectful” to imply that eventually replacing Gareth Southgate would be any kind of step up for Wiegman, but added that they would always consider the best “person” for the job.
“Firstly, I think it’s a bit disrespectful of the Lionesses to project it as a step up. People always say ‘it is the best man for the job’ or ‘the best Englishman’. Why does it have to be a man? I think our answer is always: it’s the best person for the job. We think Sarina is doing a great job and hope she continues doing it for a long time. I think Sarina could do anything she wants in football.
“Do I think football is behind other sports in terms of lack of female coaches at the top level? I do. I think that has to change and also, do I think Sarina could do any job in football? Yes, I do. I’m really happy with the job she’s doing, and I hope she stays doing
that job for a long time. If at some point in the future she decides she wants to move into the men’s game, that would be a really interesting discussion but that’s for her, right?”
“I think over time that’s where you’ve got to get too,” said Bullingham. “If you look at the disparity in the market and the income coming in, that’s why you’ve got a difference. We don’t talk about people’s remuneration. I would say that Sarina is within the market she operates, well-paid. And if you look at the comparison in the men’s game, it’s a different market. I really want those markets to merge, over time, and I think that’s where you’ve got to go, but we’re not there yet.”
Bullingham also said that there is no change in the discussions on bonuses, which were paused at the start of the tournament, because of the Lionesses reaching a World Cup final.
The FA CEO added that it has permission from Brent council to install a statue to honour the recent successes of the women’s team outside Wembley. “It’s something we are looking at post Euros, we’ve made progress on that, and it would be right to have something to commemorate that success outside Wembley,” he said.-theguardian
