In the aftermath of Arsenal’s crushing 5-4 aggregate defeat by Wolfsburg to exit the Women’s Champions League at the semi-final stage, Jonas Eidevall was asked about his team’s chances in the tournament next season.
“I think first we need to try to qualify for the competition next season,” he said. “It is a tough WSL and we are in a tough situation, we have to get our heads back after this because we are hurting tonight. But on Friday we have a really important game against a Leicester team who have really picked up.”
He is right. It would be presumptuous to assume Arsenal will be in the Champions League next season. In the Women’s Super League, five points separate the Gunners, who sit outside the three European spots in fourth, and Chelsea in third. Both London teams have two games in hand over leaders Manchester United and second-placed Manchester City. They are nine and six points ahead of Arsenal.
Meanwhile, Arsenal’s injury crisis continues. Thursday’s news about Laura Wienroither’s ACL rupture takes the team’s tally to four destabilising injuries in less than six months.
How bad, then, would missing out on Champions League football be for the Gunners?
The value of participating in Europe is clear. Since the introduction of the 16-team group stage for the 2021-22 season it has been ramped up with each of the 16 teams receiving €400,000 (£350,000) and the winner of the tournament earning up to €1.4m. While that’s a small sum for a club of Arsenal’s size, it is significant compared with the budgets for women’s football teams.
Of even greater significance is the non-financial value of taking part. Arsenal have used the Champions League to help build the fanbase of the women’s team, offering the three home group stage matches as part of a six-game package to be offered to men’s team season ticket holders as an add-on.
Crowds started off small for the midweek fixtures, dwarfed by the WSL games at the Emirates Stadium, but the momentum of the team in the latter stages of the tournament meant a record crowd of 60,063 for a women’s club game in England watched the sold-out second leg against Wolfsburg.
Without Champions League football, the momentum Arsenal have managed to build off the pitch will take a hit, that’s for sure.
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There will be an impact on the squad as well. Wienroither joined Leah Williamson as the latest player in the treatment room with an ACL rupture, following Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead, who suffered the same injury towards the end of 2022. Caitlin Foord remains absent with a hamstring problem and Kim Little has a knee injury that will keep her out for the remainder of the season.
Despite having coped remarkably well with an ever-growing injury list, Arsenal will have to be active in the transfer window to remain competitive. Without Champions League football that becomes harder. The best players want to play in the tournament and a season outside it will give others an edge in the transfer market. If they do miss out, there could be a small silver lining in that it would be a chance to strengthen and get players back from injury without a fixture pile-up. Yet even finishing third and having to qualify for the Champions League would not be ideal, with those games played 16 days after the Women’s World Cup final. City suffered the consequences of a short turnaround after last summer’s Euro when their squad, laden with England stars, failed to reach the group stage, losing 1-0 to Real Madrid.
“That shows how bad the calendar is,” said Eidevall. “We want to finish as high as possible, we want to try to go into the Champions League and we need to do whatever necessary to get there. But it highlights a very important issue. You want to protect players and you want to have [the] importance of the World Cup and the Champions League, but it is impossible for clubs who are going to play in that playoff round.”
