21 October 2023 , 12:59
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Chelsea manager Emma Hayes has branded suggestions the current Women's Champions League qualifying format does not yield the best teams reaching the group stage as "ignorant and arrogant".
Hayes added that non-English clubs "have the right to be in it as much as any English team does", with her comments arriving after Manchester United boss Marc Skinner apologised for "any offence caused" following his suggestion that the clubs who progressed into the Champions League group stages were not good enough to be playing at that level.
United fell to a 4-2 loss on aggregate to Paris Saint-Germain after the second-leg of their qualifying tie. In his post-match reflection, Skinner continued to rail against the competition's current qualifying routes, which is split into a league pathway (for teams who finished second and third in the leagues with the highest UEFA coefficients) and a champions pathway (for league winners from countries with a lower coefficient face off for a place in the group stage).
United, who finished second behind Chelsea in the Women's Super League last season, were thus drawn against two-time European runners-up PSG as part of the league pathway but were unable to get the better of the French giants across two legs.
"I think that’s ignorant and arrogant all at once for us to say that,” said Hayes, whose side were one of only four teams, with Barcelona, Lyon and Bayern Munich, not forced to go through qualifying.
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“Roma and Benfica are two teams who won their leagues – they deserve perhaps to go straight into a group competition. But this isn’t about my opinion, this is what the format is and we have to play that.”
Chelsea are the only remaining English team in the competition, but Hayes stressed that progression is not a divine right. The Blues failed to reach the group stages for two successive seasons after losing to Wolfsburg in the second and first rounds of qualifying in 2015-2016 and 2016-17 respectively, before progressing to the 2017-18 semi-final.
Man United's Hannah Blundell is distraught during the Champions League exit to PSG“That improved our coefficiency, it got us some points on the board, and guess what, we had to earn that, over three years,” Hayes said.
“Much like how Paris FC had to earn [their group stage entry this year], or whomever for that matter. So, I think we have to respect the format, it’s important to say that, we all knew what it was.”
Hayes, whose side were drawn into a difficult group with Real Madrid, Paris FC and Hacken, did concede that the competition's qualifying warranted scrutiny.
“Absolutely we need to look at that,” she said. “Do we need to look at that in line with the growth of the women’s game to say: ‘Well, actually, there’s a lot more investment across many leagues that perhaps we should consider a format that’s similar to that of the men’s competition, where it’s group stages from the off but maybe larger?’
“But also, we have to look at the smaller nations and the smaller countries: they deserve the opportunity and have the right to be in it as much as any English team does."
She added: "This is the Champions League, it’s tough against any team you play against to be honest with you.”