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Yeovil Town Ladies say they will not be able to remain in the top flight of English women’s football beyond the end of this season unless the club raises £350,000.

The Football Association has announced a restructure the FA Women’s Super League 1, requiring all clubs to be fully professional and able to provide up to 16 hours of daytime coaching a week from the start of the 2018-19 season.

It means that the top flight for next season will be determined by an application process, with up to 14 clubs in line to receive a licence to enable them to compete in a revamped WSL1.

Having worked their way from the South West Combination League to the top flight in just five seasons on merit, Yeovil face losing their place at the top table of the game regardless of how they perform this season.

A full statement from Yeovil Town Ladies Football Club

(Image: Terry Fisher)

Following the news to make the top tier of women’s football a full time professional club from the 2018/19 season, Yeovil Town Ladies FC would like to set out its position.

Winning the FA Women’s Super League Two division in the 2016 season meant we gained our place in the top tier on football merit.

Since we became a WSL2 side in 2014, our attendance has grown year on year and in three years, our club has been awarded the FA WSL Club of the Year award twice, which recognises both on pitch and off pitch success.

In the 2016 season, despite being a WSL2 team, our average attendance was higher than three WSL1 teams and in the 2017 Spring Series, the home game against Liverpool was the highest attendance in the whole of the league, with 1,897 fans attending.

In just a two-month period, we engaged with over 5,000 young children through our community programme and have increased participation levels locally through grass roots clubs.

On the pitch, our team has improved year on year, with league standings and results confirming this.

We have the structure, facilities and ambition to become a full-time professional club given time, but we currently do not have the financial support to do this. We do not have the budget to allow our players and coaches to become full-time athletes, unless further investment comes our way soon.

We have set out our plans to the FA, but it seems that there is a clear desire by them to impose off field financial criteria immediately as a condition of WSL membership.

The deadline to submit our application for a new WSL licence to The FA is November 10, with a decision to be made on December 13.

With the rapid growth of our club in such a short space a time, we urge all fans, businesses, media and the community, to continue to support us.

Our club has worked extremely hard over many years to get to the top flight and we wish that journey to continue.

Our players, staff and board are fully focused on achieving its aims for the current 2017/18 season and will continue to grow and develop day by day, whilst not changing our philosophy or mantra of Achieve by Unity.

In order to discuss all aspects of our club development, we are encouraging fans, businesses, media and the community to attend our forum meeting, on Monday, October 9 at 7pm at Huish Park.



Only those registered are permitted to attend, so to confirm your place, please visit www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/J8VV8 .

For more information, please email info@yeoviltownladies.com .