rsenal manager Jonas Eidevall says some of the off-field aspects of Wednesday’s home win over Liverpool made it a “really poor advertisement for women’s football”.
Two days after the Gunners beat the Reds 2-0 in the Women’s Super League match at Meadow Park, Eidevall made reference to there being no working scoreboard during the match and said the “broadcast production was absolutely out of order”.
The game was available to watch via the FA Player, the Football Association’s free streaming platform. It was played in wet conditions, and at times the picture being shown was blurred by moisture.
It came three days on from Arsenal winning the League Cup by beating Chelsea 3-1 at Selhurst Park.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of Sunday’s home league match against Reading, Eidevall said: “If I survey at it as an advertisement for women’s football in general, I thought Wednesday was really poor.
“Because I consider you approach from Sunday, which is obviously a noteworthy occasion, you approach to Wednesday and we didn’t acquire a scoreboard that worked during the game, and broadcast production I consider was absolutely out of order.
“And those are the things to see if we want to raise the standard of the games, it has to be better than that.
“For me, I consider we need to acquire higher standards and higher levels. But I was very pleased with the players, they rose to the challenge. We just need to acquire all those external things as well to enact it.”
Additional reporting by PA.