Lydia Bedford's unique role in Canada's new women's league 
2025-01-06
Category: sports

It is not often you get to move to another country, lead an entirely new football team and make history on your first day in the job. But that is what English coach Lydia Bedford has been given the opportunity to do after she was named Calgary Wild's first head coach on Friday.Calgary Wild are one of six teams in the newly formed Northern Super League (NSL) - the first professional women's football division in Canada. The NSL - owned and operated by Project 8, which was co-founded by former Canada international Diana Matheson - will kick off its inaugural season in April.Wild will join Halifax Tides, Montreal Roses, AFC Toronto, Ottawa Rapid and Vancouver Rise in the six-team division.For former Leicester City Women's manager Bedford, it is a unique role which takes her out of her comfort zone and away from the English game she has become accustomed to. "When the conversations started to happen I was really blown away by the women running this programme, how passionate they are about Calgary and bringing professional football to Canada. It was really infectious," she told BBC Sport. "I'm excited to work with them and develop this project from the start. It's not very often you get to work on something from the beginning."
'I jumped at the opportunity'
Bedford's task will not be an easy one. She must build a squad of up to 25 players from around the world who are ready to compete in four months' time. Only nine have been recruited so far.Local trio Sarah Keilty-Dilling, Grace Stordy, and Caleigh Boeckx have signed, alongside New Zealand's three-time Olympian Meikayla Moore - one of seven foreign players allowed on the team, as per league rules.Multi-year partnerships with broadcasters CBC and TSN to show live coverage of the NSL have already been agreed, and league sponsors and logos are in place.There is a salary cap of $1.6m (Â£1.29m) in the NSL, with a minimum salary of $50,000 (Â£40,247). That differs to the WSL in England, which has a soft salary cap, allowing clubs to spend up to 40% of their revenue on player wages."Everybody can be on the same page and have the same financial cap," said Bedford. "In the WSL, when I worked at Leicester the amount of money we budgeted off was different to the top of the league. Here, it will all be the same."It gives you a really good chance as a coach to actually develop players well - so I'm looking forward to that."Bedford was the final head coach to be named, leaving her role as Brentford men's under-18s manager. At the end of the season, Bedford hopes Calgary will be one of the top four clubs to qualify for the NSL play-offs, aiming to compete for the title. "I knew the league was starting here and I didn't necessarily think I would be involved in it but I jumped at the opportunity," said Bedford. "I thought, if I'm going to live somewhere else, it may as well be in an unbelievable country with nature and the outdoors. This place will be great."With all things, you get the initial excitement, then you think about the reality of needing to rent your house out, moving away from family and the time zones. "But it's mainly excitement. Life is too short to worry about what happens tomorrow. I see this as a great opportunity to develop myself as a coach."
'A style of football that excites Calgary'
Bedford's appointment was a coup for Calgary as she was the first woman to have coached at a Premier League club in her role at Brentford.She managed Leicester in the WSL for just under a year after being appointed in 2021, and helped them avoid relegation.Having also spent time as Arsenal Women's assistant manager, Bedford says she is a "completely different person" because of her experiences."I enjoyed it at Brentford but I'm ready to go back into women's football. That has always been where my heart is at," she said."I get feedback that people interacting with this version of Lydia - after all those experiences - can see a lot of development. I'm really proud of that."Bedford says the speed of men's football was something that challenged her, as well as the range of passing - with both helping her to develop as a coach.She hopes to bring a variety of styles to Calgary, saying they need to be able to adapt because of the unique situation of playing each opposition five times in the same season."The way we play at the start should not look the same as in game 25," said Bedford."We need time to work out what our strengths and weaknesses are. You can't have one way of playing so we need to be flexible. We have to evolve. "I've experienced all different types of formations. I want us to be scrappy out of possession. We will be hard to beat without the ball. "At Brentford my work was around being aggressive and high-pressing. That is something we will start with but maybe we have to evolve. "In possession we want to create a style of football that excites Calgary. We have a 30,000-seater stadium. The plan is to try to get 4,000 in at the start."