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Manchester United apply to have professional women's team

By Simon StoneBBC Sport

Last updated on .From the section Women's Footballcomments451

Manchester United
Successful applicants for next season's competitions will not be named by the FA until the end of May

Manchester United have applied to have a professional women's team.

The club have been heavily criticised for not having an adult women's side, with England coach Phil Neville saying in January he would discuss the matter with his former club.

Should their application be successful, United would be based at the Cliff training ground in Salford.

It is anticipated they would play as a full-time team in the second tier during the 2018-19 season.

United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said the women's side "must be built in the same image and with the same principles as the men's first team".

The leagues will be rebranded and restructured from next season, with WSL1 becoming the Women's Super League, while WSL2 will be called the Women's Championship.

The club have resisted calls to reinstate the women's team that they scrapped in 2005, despite Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all having thriving teams within the WSL system.

However, they have continued to run a women's section at junior age groups, where they have worked with local schools and community groups through the Manchester United Foundation.

After partnering with the South Manchester Girls' Football League in 2016, United say they have already seen a 41% rise in participation levels.

In 2016, United's Under-16 team reached the FA Youth Cup final for the first time and say they have 15 players involved in the international set-up - 12 from England and three with Scotland.

It is anticipated trials for the new team will be held in June.

Woodward added: "The FA has provided excellent support and we believe that launching a team would give many more of our graduates from the Regional Talent Club the chance to establish themselves as first team players."

Due to next season's restructure, existing tier one and tier-two clubs had to re-apply for their 2018-19 licences earlier this term.

Then affiliated girls and women's clubs from outside the existing WSL system were then invited to apply for the remaining spaces.

The Football Association - which runs the women's leagues in England - received 15 applications to join either of the top two tiers by 9 March's deadline.

Up to four teams could now join the top division, the WSL, and up to five may enter tier two, the new Women's Championship.

Crystal Palace and Sheffield United were among the teams to bid to join the Women's Championship.

The successful applicants will not be named by the FA until the end of May.

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451 comments

  • Comment posted by SeasickJustice, at 06:57 22 Mar 2018

    I wonder what the gender pay gap will be?

  • Comment posted by heteronomous, at 07:13 22 Mar 2018

    It must really irk the BBC and the psychopathic feminists who govern it that no matter how much they shove women's football down our necks it neither improves the quality of the sport nor makes anybody actually want to watch it. The people joking about women on here aren't 'uneducated'. They're exasperated. They're sick of having politically driven content beaten in to them.

  • Comment posted by Steve, at 06:44 22 Mar 2018

    Many male non league teams get bigger crowds than WSL, but no BBC coverage, BBC is sexist and not pc

  • Comment posted by blagshaw, at 06:55 22 Mar 2018

    The BBC will be delighted with this. They have been promoting women’s football obsessively for 15 years now with no discernible upturn in popularity.

    Live televised games. Wall to wall coverage. Interviews. Reports. Awards.

    Even with season tickets costing pennies the attendances still hover around a couple of hundred. This is not professional sport based on demand.

  • Comment posted by User0703134865, at 07:27 22 Mar 2018

    “Manchester United apply to have professional women's team”

    All of the BBC’s dreams come true in one sentence!

  • Comment posted by DurhamBonno, at 06:50 22 Mar 2018

    A win all round. United stave off criticism. The relentless promoters of women's football - like the BBC - get a small victory. The other clubs get the joy of actually being ahead of United's record for years in one ('minor') form of the game. And the moaners get to complain about (a) United; (b) women's football: (c) Salford; (d) life; or (e) all of the above.

  • Comment posted by Oll, at 06:58 22 Mar 2018

    I do wonder about the principle that all big male teams must have a female team, even if that team is so far removed from the male team it plays in a separate venue and only shares branding and the person making money at the top.

    Don't women find it a bit patronising? It's like they're being used as an accessory and can only exist if a man's team is there.

  • Comment posted by User0487850496, at 07:29 22 Mar 2018

    Just looking at the top rated comments, I did a quick search and found some interesting info:

    Womens Champions League:
    Man City Women 2 - 0 Linkopings Attendance: 879

    Conference North:
    Barrow 1 - 0 Hartlepool United Attendance: 1,018

    Says it all really!

  • Comment posted by User0031256002, at 06:44 22 Mar 2018

    Judged on revenues raised, attendances and percentage of players women's Football gets a hugely disproportionate amount of coverage by the BBC. Why are the BBC obsessed with raising the profile of a sport which is equal to professional tiddlywinks at best. The standard of women's football is hilarious, business are not interested in sponsoring it and I don't see Sky offering any money.

  • Comment posted by Bill Walker, at 06:42 22 Mar 2018

    Manchester United have had a women's team for years. They're called Manchester United.

  • Comment posted by Stand Well Back This Thing Could Get Quite Big, at 07:08 22 Mar 2018

    Imagine the faux outrage at the Gender Pay Gap this will cause when someone works the figures out?

    Male player gets £300k a week whilst female player gets £50 a week.

    The cries of Sexism and discrimination will be off the scale!

  • Comment posted by User0126244157, at 07:34 22 Mar 2018

    Ryan Giggs is already kicking himself for leaving!

  • Comment posted by Desiderius Erasmus, at 07:01 22 Mar 2018

    Joke sport. I played in a Sunday league where the worst team would beat any woman's side. BBC is obsessed with treating this like people care. PC nonsense at its finest. UTD should have resisted the pressure.

  • Comment posted by User0736991778, at 07:16 22 Mar 2018

    Fergies hairdryer may now become a product.

  • Comment posted by offside_ruel_fox, at 06:56 22 Mar 2018

    The following season they are applying for a men’s team

  • Comment posted by Lee, at 07:54 22 Mar 2018

    Imagine the gender pay gap story agenda here.. .a BBC news wet dream in the making.

  • Comment posted by Duddingston, at 07:14 22 Mar 2018

    What a waste of time, effort and money.

  • Comment posted by John Prescott , at 07:13 22 Mar 2018

    45 Frenchie.

    What an assinine thing to say. We are not talking about misogyny here. We are talking business, and the fact is womans teams dont produce the revenues like male teams.

  • Comment posted by TaGueule, at 07:29 22 Mar 2018

    How about we add a 12th player to the men's football teams. It has to be a women, and they can play anywhere on the field and don't have to follow any of the rules like offside.

    Actually feels like that's the way the world is heading in general these days... just saying.

  • Comment posted by Peter North, at 06:40 22 Mar 2018

    Getting tired of the feminists..

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