England’s head coach Lydia Bedford says she has been told by the Football Association to “just continue as usual” before next month’s Under-20 Women’s World Cup, despite Uefa threatening to boycott the tournament.
Bedford said she had not “thought too much about the bigger picture” as she prepares to name her Young Lionesses squad next week.
Football has been engulfed in a major dispute since it emerged that Fifa president Gianni Infantino was planning to sell off stakes in the World Cup and other competitions to private investors.
Uefa and its 55 members threatened to boycott Fifa competitions, and that still stands despite the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal having been abandoned earlier this month with the Under-20 Women’s World Cup the first tournament that could be impacted.
Speaking to BBC Sport in Portugal after England had won a warm-up game against Portugal, Bedford spoke for the first time about the potential boycott.
“I was actually at the theatre in London when my dad rang me out of the blue and I was like ‘what’s happening?’ From my perspective the message from leadership all along has been ‘just continue as usual’ so we have,” she said.
“It’s not something we’ve really even spoken to the players about because ultimately every opportunity we have to get on the grass and prepare this team we want to be in the best position possible.
“So all focus has been on that.”
