Abu Dhabi: Two stars of buoyant Manchester City Women’s Football Club believe the “massive” support from the team’s Abu Dhabi owners can help them emulate their male counterparts’ success.
Defender and captain Steph Haughton and striker Toni Duggan are hugely grateful to the stellar treatment they enjoy at the state-of-the-art, £200 million (Dh1,065 billion) City Football Academy funded by the riches of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.
The pair are in Abu Dhabi for pre-season training and for the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Sports Academy Challenge match against City’s sister club Melbourne City on Wednesday at New York University’s Abu Dhabi Campus on Saadiyat Island.
The City women, who begin their Women’s Super League campaign next month, qualified for the Champions League for the first time last October after ending runners-up to WSL winners Chelsea.
Their success owes much to being afforded the same respect as the City men and having the luxury of the CFA’s peerless training provisions, which include 16-and-a-half pitches, Haughton and Duggan say.
“It’s massive for us,” Haughton, who captained the England team to a third-place finish at last summer’s World Cup in Canada, told Gulf News at NY University on Saturday. “We’re very lucky that we have a fantastic facility at the CFA and have our own mini stadium to play on every single week. It’s up to us now to build what we want to build and be successful hopefully.”
“It’s not about different teams,” the 27-year-old, who along with her teammates helped coach UAE women’s youth players on Saturday, continued. “If you look at the men’s, the women’s, the academy teams, we’ve all got the same facilities, we all get the same treatment in terms of how we work on a match-day prior to matches. That’s great for us to be a part of and that just shows what a professional club it is.
“We walk past the men’s team and always say ‘hello’ and they’re always asking how we’re doing and vice-versa.”
Twenty-four-year-old Duggan, also an England international, added: “It’s good to come out here in the sunshine and have some team bonding with the new players. It’s massive for the club getting the backing from the owners.
“They’re investing in the men’s team, but really look after the women’s team as well and give us opportunities to come out here. We know it costs a lot of money, but it’s fantastic and the girls really appreciate it.”
Manchester City Women’s FC were relaunched as their current incarnation in 2014, 26 years after they were founded as Manchester City Ladies, and went on to win their first major piece of silverware in the form of the FA WSL Continental Cup that year.
Last season, they broke the WSL attendance record twice on the back of England’s exploits at the World Cup and are hopeful of more trophies to satisfy their growing legions of fans.
Of her expectations, Haughton said: “I think a lot of people ask us that question and we say we want to win four trophies. But I think it for us it’s all about developing and progressing and not standing still and making sure we don’t get ahead of ourselves.”
Duggan claims women’s football is at its “highest point” in England, with WSL games broadcast on satellite channel BT Sport, and this is borne out by the fact that last November nearly 55,000 fans bought tickets to see England take on Germany. This was 14,000 more than paid to watch the men in their corresponding friendly.
