sport news Farcical Chelsea vs Liverpool postponement shows women's football still has a ... trends now
For all the progress women's football has made in the last year, the farcical scenes at Kingsmeadow on Sunday demonstrated how far the game still has to go.
The Women's Super League match between Chelsea and Liverpool was allowed to kick-off despite it being clear the pitch was unsafe and dangerous. After six minutes, referee Neil Hair abandoned the game - but that decision came far too late.
Player safety should always be the priority but the 22 professionals who stepped on the pitch were put at risk.
The farcical Chelsea vs Liverpool postponement in the WSL on Sunday after just six minutes shows that despite all of its recent progress, women's football still has a long way to go
The conditions of the pitch were deemed unsafe despite an inspection earlier in the day
Hair had deemed the pitch unplayable upon first inspection at 9.30am but there was optimism that the heat blowers and covers Chelsea had installed would make enough of a difference for the game to go ahead at 12.30pm.
Hair later decided the pitch was playable, despite there being ice on the touchline and in front of the dugouts. The inspection and removal of the covers delayed the warm-ups of both teams but kick-off was not put back to compensate.
There was understandably a desire on Chelsea's part for the game to go ahead given they have a more hectic schedule caused by Champions League football. But the decision is not up to clubs or managers, it is the responsibility of the referee. On this occasion, he made the wrong choice.
Referee Neil Hair (centre) deemed the pitch playable before quickly calling off the WSL clash
Chelsea's Erin Cuthbert grazed her leg on the frozen pitch while putting in a tackle earlier on in the game
It was clear from the first whistle that the conditions were not acceptable. Players were slipping and sliding all over the place. Chelsea's Niamh Charles fell over, tried to get up, then fell over again. There were seven instances of players falling before Hair stopped the game. The final action saw Erin Cuthbert take a heavy fall, at which point both captains raised concerns to the referee. Luckily, no players were seriously injured.
Officially, the pitch was deemed playable after the warm-ups but deteriorated once all of the covers and heaters had been removed and after six minutes, it was decided the surface was unsafe.
Hair is not an inexperienced official. He has taken charge of over 200 matches including 53 in League One and 54 in League Two. He surely knows when a pitch is playable and when it is not. But the idea that the surface deteriorated so dramatically in the six minutes between kick-off and the abandonment of the match is hard to believe and contradicts the assertion from Liverpool
