While many have concerns about the Football Association’s restructure of women’s football and this blog has highlighted many of them, others, such as Derby County Ladies, who have had long-held WSL ambitions, have thrown their support behind the plans.

The amateur club Ewe Rams, who currently play in the third tier, have made clear their intention to bid for a place in the new semi-professional second tier of the Women’s Super League when applications are opened to non-WSL clubs in March.

As an aspect of the applications for the revamped WSL2, clubs must meet a set of strict criteria detailed by the FA. One of those is that a club must provide evidence of having “a written agreement in place with its Club Community Organisation in its catchment area which records how the Club and Club Community Organisation will work in partnership to develop and promote the women’s game (at both junior and senior level) in its local community.” It must also have “an agreement in place with at least one further education and at least one higher education establishment.”

On Tuesday Derby County, in partnership with the University of Derby, announced the opening of applications for three full scholarships on the university’s football journalism course for women football players. While this latest scheme has been in the pipeline since last year, the partnership with the university will strengthen Derby’s bid and, they hope, will attract WSL level players to their team.

The University of Derby’s journalism department is no stranger to being experimental: two years ago it launched the first ever football journalism degree. It has become a hugely popular course, getting more than 200 applicants for the 25 places, but that has not meant the ambitions for the course have been satisfied.

The scholarships are the brainchild of the senior lecturer and freelance journalist Peter Lansley, who, having been challenged by his superiors to increase the numbers of women signing up, and having connections with the director and chairman of football at Derby County Ladies, saw an opportunity to bring things together for the benefit of the university, the club and most importantly for women footballers and women in journalism.

“I do actually think it’s a big deal. We’re unique in a way, because we’re the only football journalism undergraduate course and then, coupled with that, we are interested in trying to promote women in football both in terms of playing and in terms of journalism. So that’s why we’re launching this scholarship,” he says while shepherding a group of students at England Women’s sold-out World Cup qualifier against Bosnia & Herzegovina at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium.

The three who end up on the course next September will be relieved of the crippling £27,750 fees over the course of the degree. They will have to meet three criteria in order to be successful in their application; to be considered good enough by Derby County to play in WSL2, to be academically good enough to get on the course and to commit to playing for the university team.

“They will get all their strength and conditioning, all the sports science, through the university; they will basically be semi-professional but on my course,” says Lansley. “So it will boost women in sports journalism [helping change the rubbish figure of 1.8% of national newspaper sports bylines being from women], it will boost the profile of women’s football, it will boost standards at Derby and we can start helping the FA’s participation figures in our own little way.”

Having taken a group of students to the Netherlands for three weeks in the summer, to cover the Women’s Euros for a variety of national outlets, the course’s interest and commitment to boosting women’s football, and using it to boost the skills of its aspiring journalists, is more than evident.

Applications open on Tuesday and, with the deadline for Ucas applications on 15 January, the search for the three scholarship recipients begins in earnest. Lansley hopes it will have a knock-on effect of the courses intake: “What I’m hoping is it will have a cascade effect. Derby are out scouting and have their eyes open for players who would suit the programme. If, say, 12 apply for it, three get the scholarship and the others just miss out, well I might still get eight women on the course instead of four.”

And while he may have had the initial idea, he places a huge amount of credit at the feet of the head of journalism, Keith Perch, who set up the course, and who has the ambition of a 50:50 male to female intake and is a big advocate of women’s football. “I think it’s quite visionary because the numbers that are applying are going through the roof. But the traditional obstacles in front of women mean that it is going to be a slow burn,” says Lansley.

The course costs are met once Lansley hits the 25 student mark; any above that up to 28 and it does not cost much extra, bar some additional marking and tutorials, so the course essentially self-funds the scholarships.

Holly Percival, who scored the first goal in the university’s 2-1 win over Nottingham University Women’s 2nd XI last week, plays for a local side and, as a student on Lansley’s course, has produced a film for the launch of the scholarship programme and is excited about what initiatives such as this mean for the future of the industry.

“I think it’s going to be really good. You’ve already got players like Kelly Smith and Alex Scott making the breakthrough into sports journalism and this will increase that. It’s really going to help players improve their ability to analyse the game,” she says.

And the support from the university for the players balancing the course with studying will be key to its success: “The university are really accommodating, I play for the uni and a local team and the university is very understanding if I have to travel for an away game. They are happy to negotiate over coursework and assist where possible.”

Derby County Ladies, meanwhile, see this as a part of a wider plan of working towards the top sustainably. Their chief executive, Duncan Gibb, says: “When I joined the club back in 2013, we set out a five-year plan aimed at getting ourselves to the stage where we could not only progress to the next level but, equally importantly, retain that status once achieved.

“This project is one of several partnerships integral to our bid to stabilise at the top end of women’s football. It should provide us with three high-standard players on an annual basis that will allow them to not only slot seamlessly into the first team squad immediately, but enhance it,” he continues.

Being a women footballer is not easy. It is not a career showered in cash. Players below the very top – and even some in the top sides that are able to offer a more professional income – often work in other jobs and study alongside their football. They recognise that football will not set them up for life. Derby County and the university’s scholarships will give three players annually the chance to develop a career in football beyond playing and, it is hoped, keep more women in the game on and off the pitch.

For more information on the course go to www.derby.ac.uk/footballjournalism.

Interested applicants can send their educational and footballing CVs to: derbycountylfc@gmail.com

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