Jonas Eidevall urges WSL to avoid ’emotional decisions’ on undersoil heating

Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall has said “emotional” decisions about investing in women’s football should be avoided amid growing calls for clubs to have underground heating.

Despite an earlier inspection, the pitch looked dangerous after kick-off.

“The easiest thing is to try to fix the topic of the day,” Eidevall said.

“I completely agree with [Chelsea manager] Emma Hayes than trying to play that game and what happened was really bad for the league.

“But when we look at it from a bigger perspective, we really have to see what the investment priorities should be and we can’t make it emotional and because it was an issue yesterday, that all the money should go there.

“We need to make good decisions about where the investment goes to grow the game long-term and I highly doubt it should be invested in underfloor heating at this time.”

On Monday, Hayes said the WSL needed to find a solution to prevent matches from being canceled.

When asked if clubs should invest in underfloor heating, she added: “Generally if it’s the top division of women’s football then we should have exactly the same opportunity.”

Arsenal are set to face Aston Villa in the Continental Cup quarter-final at Meadow Park on Thursday (19:45 GMT) but a pitch inspection is due to take place at midday.

In a reportArsenal said the club had “investigated the possibility of playing at the Emirates Stadium but this was not possible due to essential ground maintenance”.

Aston Villa manager Carla Ward said she had “every confidence the game will go ahead” when asked on Wednesday morning.

Ward also said that questions about underfloor heating investment should not be the priority.

“There’s only one question that wasn’t asked and it shouldn’t have been about underfloor heating, but who put these players at risk?” she added.

“Who decided to put these players at risk? That is the biggest question for me.”

Arsenal boss Eidevall has urged clubs to explore “short-term solutions” to prevent postponements until long-term solutions are decided, stressing that communication is a necessity.

“Early communication saves fans money and time from not getting to the pitch. I also think from a league perspective it saves us from not seeing the footage we have. views of Chelsea against Liverpool,” he said.

“It was really bad publicity for women’s football and the WSL in particular. In the long term, how do you solve this?

“I think you have to look at all the investments you need to make in the game and you have to prioritize. There’s so much you would like to invest in the women’s game right now.”