By Mark Baber
June 3 – Leading English women’s team Doncaster Belles are appealing the decision to place them in FA Women’s Super League 2 (FA WSL 2) from next season, amidst a growing storm of protest over the allocation of licences in the FA Women’s Super League.
The Doncaster Belles have a remarkable record in women’s football, including losing just one League match between 1978 and 1993, winning the Women’s FA Cup six times and becoming founder members of the Women’s Premier League in 1991, since when they have been ever-present in the top flight.
Their demotion to FA WSL 2 was at the expense of awarding Manchester City Ladies a free ride into the top tier. The Belles had not even been in the relegation positions of the re-organised Premier League
The FA announced the selection of 18 clubs for licenses on April 26 with nine clubs selected for FA WSL1 including Arsenal Ladies FC, Birmingham City Ladies FC, Bristol Academy Women’s FC, Chelsea Ladies FC, Everton Ladies FC, Notts County Ladies FC (formerly known as Lincoln Ladies FC), Liverpool Ladies FC and Manchester City Ladies FC .
Doncaster Rovers Belles Ladies FC were amongst the clubs selected for FA WSL2 along with Aston Villa Ladies FC, Durham Women’s FC, London Bees Women’s FC (Barnet FC), Millwall Lionesses FC, Oxford United Women’s FC, Reading Women’s FC, Sunderland Women’s FC, Watford Ladies FC and Yeovil Town Ladies FC.
The clubs were apparently selected, not on the basis of their current league position or playing record, but on four main sections:
1. Financial and business management; 2. Commercial sustainability and marketing; 3. Facilities; 4. Players, support staff and youth development.
The selection of Manchester City Ladies FC at the expense of the Belles, has even generated comment in the New Statesman magazine by Martin Cloake as a scandal, indictive of modern football’s “abandonment of the basic principle of sporting success.” Manchester City Ladies have never, prior to this season, fielded a team in a national women’s competition, and are currently set to finish mid-table in the second tier.
Cloake’s opinion is shared by many, including, as he points out Vic Akers, the manager of the Arsenal women’s team who calls the FA’s decision to relegate the Belles “morally scandalous” and “unjust”.
A club statement said: “The club are disappointed with the initial announcement and are appealing the decision.”
Belles Vice Chairman, Alan Smart, said: “We’ve had support from all over the world and people are angry and bemused at the decision. But we are built on a wider fabric then one big benefactor. Doncaster Rovers Belles are a massive community club. We are made of strong stuff and we will fight on.”
The statement goes on to say that the FA’s final decision regarding the new league structure and teams involved is being reported to be in mid-June and due to the fact that the club are in the process of an appeal, they “will be making no further comment until the process has been completed by the FA.”
In the meantime a petition protesting the FA’s unfair relegation of the Belles [http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/doncasterbelles ] has nearly reached its target of 7,500 signatures.
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