IT was a busy week on the international stage. The 2023 World Cup qualifying draw placed Scotland in the same group as Spain, while a four-fold increase in Champions League money was also announced.
I spoke to national team captain Rachel Corsie on Friday, and the Kansas City central defender said she was happy with the draw. Scotland are second seeds, with the other nations in Group B being Ukraine, Hungary and the Faroe Islands.
It should, all going well, be a straight contest between Spain and Scotland for the one automatic qualifying place. Two of the nine group runners-up will also reach the finals in Australia and New Zealand, while a third can do so via confederation play-offs.
Corsie has won 122 caps with seven of them being against Scotland’s Group B opponents. Three of her four games against Spain have been momentous, traumatic even, as they included the Euro 2013 play-off matches.
Scotland infamously had a first major championship appearance wrested from them when Vero Boquete scored with the last kick of the ball in the second game, but on a personal basis Corsie suffered an anterior cruciate ligament rupture. It followed a foul on Boquete, who later became a team-mate at Utah Royals.
On a happier note the Aberdonian was in the side when Caroline Weir’s goal against Spain gave Scotland a first – and so far only – major championship win at Euro 2017.
Two months later her first match as permanent captain was a 3-0 friendly win against Hungary, while she scored three goals in the double dismantling of the Faroe Islands during 2015 World Cup qualifying.
Spain have won their last eight matches, including 1-0 victories over England and 2019 World Cup runners-up Netherlands. Nevertheless, Corsie is upbeat.
“It’s a really good draw,” she said. “Spain have developed a lot and it’s going to be two really tough games – but ones we can relish and enjoy.
“We didn’t do ourselves justice in the last campaign and we want to prove that this time. There were no teams we didn’t want in the draw.”
There is still no head coach to plot the qualifiers and Corsie repeated a now familiar mantra.
“The most important thing is we get the right person,” she said. “As players we want to have someone who can get the most out of the squad. Hopefully we will have somebody in place soon so we can start to progress, especially now we know the teams we are going to face. We have to start using every day as an opportunity to prepare and use to our advantage.”
GLASGOW CITY chief executive Laura Montgomery has welcomed UEFA’s hugely enhanced €24 million financial distribution model for the revamped Champions League – even although, like the men’s tournament, it will benefit the biggest clubs most.
Sides reaching the new last- 16 group stage are guaranteed a minimum of €400,00, while the winners can expect up to €1.4m.
“Further investment is fantastic, but for us in Scotland we need to be realistic – probably very little of it will filter down to us,” Montgomery warned. “This will make the gap between the big clubs and the rest even bigger.”
The new format ensures it will be difficult for sides from the smaller nations to reach the group stage where the big money starts. Nevertheless, all the Scottish Building Society SWPL1 clubs will benefit from new Champions League solidarity payments next season, while the two competing teams will dream of reaching the group stage.
Erin Cuthbert’s Chelsea, meanwhile, will attempt to reach this season’s final when they host Bayern Munich today. The Germans lead 2-1 from the semi-final first leg.
CONFIRMATION that SWPL1 will be completed as scheduled was welcome in midweek – as was the announcement that SWPL2 clubs will play the further eight games required to determine the two promotion places.
Disappointingly they still have to wait until May 17 for contact training to resume because of Scottish government regulations, but Aberdeen co-manager Emma Hunter said: “It’s a relief we finally have a date to work towards and focus on. The biggest anxiety was that the season might be declared null and void. Like other clubs in SWPL2 we have a lot to play for, and were concerned we might not get the chance to be promoted.”
Hunter’s side lead the table by seven points from Dundee United, with Hamilton and Partick Thistle one further behind.
The news was not good for the Championship clubs, however, as their barely started season has been written off.
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