Steve Allinson’s experiences with Yeovil Town Women, who volunteered to be relegated, gave him an insight into the financial pressures facing the FA Women’s Super League

For the past few months, Steve Allinson’s concerns have been mostly hypothetical. He worried about the financial stability of women’s football in this country, about the sustainability of the new league system and the reliance on men’s clubs to prop up women’s equivalents. He didn’t think his fears would be realised so soon.

Allinson has been involved in women’s football for a decade, sitting as a representative on the management committee of the FA Women’s Super League for three years and chairman and owner of Yeovil Town Women’s F.C. for six. Recently, he has grown uneasy with the state of the game in this country.

We first meet in autumn, at a local pub near Yeovil. As a former director of the Yeovil Town men’s