The Football Association’s Kay Cossington says while she understands players go to the US for educational and financial reasons, she believes the Women’s Super League is the ‘best in the world’.

The head of women’s technical development says she has been looking at a way the FA can compete with the US college system that allows players to get an education as well as supplying them with pre-professional game time.

She said: “There’s certain things that we can’t compete with. We can’t compete with Title IX, which gives equal opportunity and access and facilitation in colleges to boys and girls. What we have to do is create something that’s right for England and fits our country and our culture.

“We understand that there’s a challenge with players going to America. We’ve had this for a number of years and we want to offer an alternative. We want the players to stay at home, but we acknowledge that the offer that they get from an educational and a scholarship financial point of view is hard to turn down. 

"We’ve got, in my opinion, the best league in the world now and we want to offer the best educational option in the world for these players to flourish.”

And despite these changes that need to be implemented to improve English women’s football, Cossington has said she is ‘enthused’ about the future.

She added: “We’ve come a long way from the dark days of coaching on a pitch where the lights go out at nine and everyone’s running around after keys. 

"I never would have dreamed we’d have a football facility like this, that we would have full-time coaches, professional players, a professional league, a coach development system. It’s happened so quickly. It feels like we’re on the motorway going at 70 miles an hour, but now have a clear destination. I’m really enthused.”