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Yeovil Town Ladies have launched a crowdfunding campaign in a bid to raise enough money to keep their top flight status.

The club needs to raise £350,000 in order to turn professional and successfully apply for a licence which could keep them in WSL1 for the 2018-19 season by November.

A decision to restructure the women’s football pyramid by the Football Association means that between eight to 14 teams will be admitted to a revamped Women’s Super League 1 next season.

Only teams who have turned professional and can offer at least 16 hours of daytime coaching each week will be allowed to remain in WSL1, meaning that Yeovil face relegation regardless of how they perform on the pitch this season.

Following this afternoon’s WSL1 fixture against Sunderland at Huish Park, the club hosted a fan forum in which it launched a crowdfunding campaign in a bid to raise the £350,000 necessary to be able to turn professional.

A number of business support packages have also been unveiled by the club, enabling supporters and businesses to offer various levels of financial assistance to the club.

Yeovil Town Ladies chairman Steve Allinson said: “What we’re offering is the opportunity to be a part of Yeovil Town Ladies in terms of sponsorship opportunities, names on shirts, tickets and a variation of all kinds of things through that.

“What we’re saying is help us on the crowdfunding and we will guarantee, if we get this money, that it will be put into the elite football, and if we don’t manage to get the elite football, then we will put it towards helping to get us there in the future.

“Today we proved that we are in WSL1 on merit, as we did last week and as we did against Man City. Football should be about more than money, it should be about passion, commitment and togetherness and nice guys and small guys can achieve.

“It sounds an awful amount of money, but if we had 400 business who wanted to put in £1,000, suddenly you’ve got that, and so I am confident that we are going to get, if not there, then significantly close enough to the FA to say, please do look at this.”

Yeovil were unable to pick up their first points as a top flight club this afternoon as they lost 1-0 to Sunderland following Keira Ramshaw’s first half goal.

After the match, manager Jamie Sherwood said: “We’re very brave at this football club. We had a brave ambition and we had a brave aspiration to make it to WSL1.

“That’s been led by our board and myself and every member of staff that we’ve had and our players.

“We’ll continue to be brave and this is a brave new way of trying to develop a club by the chairman, and they all work tirelessly behind the scenes.

“The fans dig deep every week. They never let us down. They’re always here, and they’ll always support us.”

To donate to Yeovil Town Ladies' crowdfunding campaign, visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/turning-professional-in-the-top-tier-of-the-fawsl.