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January 10, 2002

WUSA and women's soccer has its day at the annual Football Expo 2002

At the Football Expo 2002 being held in Cannes, France this week, WUSA Chief Executive Lynn Morgan spoke about the continuing rapid growth of women’s soccer in the USA, pointing out that it was already the biggest college team sport and had grown by 35% in the last five years. She talked about the launching of the first truly professional womens soccer league in the world, WUSA. 87 games had been played in the first season in front of an average of 8, 300 fans, for a total of 722,000 spectators.

Kelly Simmons, the director of development for women’s football for the England F.A., said that there were now 1800 clubs in England, and that the F.A. was preparing for a women’s professional league.

Outi Saarinen at UEFA stressed that there were now three competitions for women players. The long running UEFA Championship, the UEFA Under-19 Championship, and the new last year UEFA Cup for women’s club teams.