Brighton will join the top tier of English women's football in '18-19 and become a full-time professional club after a successful license application. Yeovil Town retained top-flight status, along with the eight other Women's Super League 1 clubs that applied. That ensures 10 clubs of a place in WSL 1 as part of the league's restructure, but that number "may rise to up to 14" (BBC, 12/13).
Four out of five British football fans would have "no problem" if an int'l player from one of the home nations came out as gay or bisexual, a poll revealed. Conducted by fan-opinion platform Forza Football and LGBT charity Stonewall, the poll asked 50,000 supporters in 38 countries about their "attitudes to inclusion and homophobic abuse." Overall, three in four fans said that they would be "comfortable with a player from their national team coming out." The figure for Russia, where next year's World Cup will be held, is "nearly one in two," but "only one in seven fans" in '22 host Qatar said that they would be "happy with an LGBT player in the national side" (London TELEGRAPH, 12/13).
Only two import players per club will be allowed and the Singapore League Cup will be put on hold as part of "sweeping changes for the S.League" in '18. The six local clubs will be required to have "at least six players under the age of 23 in their squad, with at least three included in the starting eleven for every game" (ESPN.com, 12/13).
Three Spanish footballers who play for third division side Arandina were reportedly detained on "suspicion of sexual assault." The incident may have been recorded and "then shared by the suspects," according to sources. Spanish police detained Carlos Cuadrado Santos and Víctor Rodríguez Ramos. The other suspect, Raúl Calvo Hernández, handed himself in to police voluntarily (AS, 12/12).
