Pros And Cons

Changes to the women’s game are intended to make it more competitive but instead increase its reliance on rich men’s clubs.

- Glen Wilson

In late November, on a bright and freezing afternoon in the north London commuter belt, I stood watching Doncaster Rovers Belles deliver a scintillating attacking performance as they swept aside Tottenham Hotspur. A fully deserved 4-1 away win from a young squad with bags of potential to go top of women’s football’s second tier. It was a display which should’ve given great hope for the future, but in actuality this is probably as good as it can get for one of the sport’s most iconic names.

That’s because in late September the Football Association announced yet another restructure at the top levels of women’s football in England, a fourth amendment in less than a decade hinting that the governing body’s plans for the women’s game exist less as a blueprint, more as an Etch A Sketch. The headline of this latest missive was a new 14-team top flight (expanded from the current ten) but one which comes, quite literally, at a price.

The FA want this revamped Super League 1 to be fully professional. As such any team wishing to be involved needed to apply for a licence, crucial to which was outlining how they would stump up the projected six-figure sums required. And, with the application deadline in November, clubs had just six weeks to work out exactly how they could do it.