Omdal predicts bright future

Per Ravn Omdal, a UEFA vice-president and the honorary president of the Norwegian Football Association, was among the dignitaries to take to the stand as the 5th UEFA Women's Football Conference got under way in the Norwegian capital Oslo on Monday.

Emphasis on grassroots
Omdal, in tandem with UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh and UEFA professional football director Giorgio Marchetti, highlighted the European body's role in developing the female game on this continent. Hailed as "a champion of the women's and grassroots sectors" by Roxburgh, Omdal said: "To develop the game even further we need to shift the focus from refining top competitions to dedicating time to grassroots. The potential of women's football is huge and our competitions have a brilliant future."

Records broken
Marchetti spoke in glowing terms about the success of UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2005™ in England - a tournament which broke numerous attendance and TV records - while also looking ahead to the next edition in four years' time. He said: "We are about to open the bid to host 2009 - the tender will be launched later this year and we expect a decision to be made by the Executive Committee in 2006." The UEFA director was also keen to emphasise how the final round not only acted "as a platform for the promotion of women's football" but "a region as a whole".

'Excellent partner'
The Norwegian Football Association had been praised by UEFA President Lennart Johansson and CEO Lars-Christer Olsson in their conference notes "for acting as the host and for being an excellent partner of UEFA in the preparation and organisation of this major event", so it was fitting that a number of the association's representatives got proceedings under way at the Radisson SAS hotel. Karen Espelund urged a crowd including delegates from 51 of UEFA's 52 member associations, and representatives from FIFA and its continental bodies, to continue to drive the game forward.

'Driving force'
"A lot has happened in the five years since the last conference and women's football is now the fastest growing sport in the world," said Espelund, NFF general secretary and chairwoman of the UEFA Women's Football Committee. "Europe is the driving force behind this but now we have to work on raising the number of participants. We cannot rest: our task is to make sure that every girl who wants to play football can. We have different starting points as we are at different stages of development but we must use this conference actively."

European champions
The NFF could have been staging this conference as European champions had Bjarne Berntsen's side not fallen to a 3-1 final defeat by Germany in England in June: the world champions' fourth successive triumph in the competition. The victory provided a fitting finale for Tina Theune-Meyer's trophy-laden tenure in charge, although the coach was back among her peers today to explain a new role within the German Football Association which will see her studying "the scientific side of training and coach development".

Looking ahead
Stopping Germany's relentless domination will no doubt be a talking point among attending coaches until the event concludes on Wednesday, although the primary focus of forthcoming discussion groups is, in the words of Per Ravn Omdal, "to bring into focus the current situation and future developments".