United women to play 7-a-side global football tournament in the World Sevens Football as one of the sides.
United women will compete in the inaugural edition of a lucrative, new women’s seven-a-side series from 21-23 May.
Bayern Munich, Ajax and Benfica are te others, with the remaining four of the eight competing teams still to be confirmed.
In the lead-up to this season’s Women’s Champions League final, a new competition called World Sevens Football is being held in Estoril, Portugal. It has a $5 million (£3.75 million) prize pool per event, with half of that amount presumably going to the winners. Later this year, an additional eight-team competition will take place in North America, featuring a different set of clubs from around the world.
In subsequent years, the organisers hope to travel to additional continents and potentially host up to five competitions annually. Although the final four participants for the May tournament have not yet been decided, it is understood that the English quartet of Manchester City, Chelsea, and Arsenal have all discussed the possibility of participating.
“Innovation is a priority within our club,” said Ajax’s technical director, Alex Kroes, on their inclusion. “World Sevens Football provides an exciting opportunity for our players to demonstrate their creativity and skill in a fast-paced format. We have a young and talented team with a lot of players from our own academy and we’re ready to ompete fiercely.”
Marc Skinner, Manchester United’s head coach, added: “This is a really exciting opportunity to be part of something new for the women’s game. Our only focus right now is on finishing the domestic season as strongly as possible in the WSL and the FA Cup; then we can travel to Portugal to enjoy what promises to be an entertaining three days of fast, fun, seven-a-side football.”