PARIS (Reuters) – France women’s coach Herve Renard got off to a dream start with Les Bleues, winning his first two games in charge, but complained about the scheduling of their encounter against Canada on Tuesday.
France beat Colombia 5-2 last week and Canada 2-1, but the latter was played on the same night as Manchester City’s clash against Bayern Munich in the men’s Champions League.
The Colombia game was played at the same time as a Ligue 1 clash between RC Lens and Racing Strasbourg.
“If we want women’s soccer to grow, which it deserves, I think we can do better in terms of programming,” Renard told reporters.
“I think we can do better on this side. We could have played last Thursday the match against Colombia in Clermont, and Monday night this match against Canada.
“That would have avoided being in competition with a Champions League match, especially a match like Manchester City v Bayern. We have to think about all this if the dynamics of women’s soccer wants to move ahead.”
Renard, who guided the Saudi Arabia men’s national team to a shock victory against eventual champions Argentina in their first group game at last year’s World Cup, was named as Corinne Diacre’s successor last month.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
