Women’s reprieve?

[jaguar5661]

Will the ladies team get a reprieve from relegation if Reading fail?

[Jane R]

How would they afford it?

[lewesrook]

From The Guardian:
“The Women’s Championship will operate with 11 teams rather than 12 next season after the Football Association confirmed Reading’s withdrawal from the second tier.

[It] leaves the ­Championship one team short for the upcoming campaign, due to start on 7 ­September. It is understood league officials did consider adding a 12th club but ultimately it was deemed to be simply too late in the summer for any new team to meet the required licence commitments and therefore a different team joining the second tier was not deemed viable, with fixture lists needing to be drawn up as a matter of urgency and teams already on the verge of starting pre-season.”

Lewes would have been the obvious choice for a reprieve. There are 2 months to go before the start of the season so I’d have thought plenty of time to sort something out. Did the club do all they could to achieve this? Wonder why we couldn’t go back to the Championship?

[hunnsmererook]

Lewes would have been the obvious choice for a reprieve. There are 2 months to go before the start of the season so I’d have thought plenty of time to sort something out. Did the club do all they could to achieve this? Wonder why we couldn’t go back to the Championship?

I would think that the harsh reality of constrained finances would have precluded any considerations for their re-instatement.

[hoopsboy1]

Think Charlie's Dream is over

[Jane R]

Not just the obvious financial constraints but the team had a shocking season results wise in 23/24 and I'm not sure it would be any difference for 24/25 with the players in the squad.
Right now some decent foundations need to be laid before the team can think about promotion,so going back to basics will ultimately be the best plan in my opinion.

[pj]

This might be too simplistic and I don’t know the playing budgets for teams in the Championship, but how can Lewes hope to compete with clubs who are now probably putting seven digit figures of finance into their teams?

[dicksmith]

Jul 1, 2024 19:36:28 GMT pj said:

This might be too simplistic and I don’t know the playing budgets for teams in the Championship, but how can Lewes hope to compete with clubs who are now probably putting seven digit figures of finance into their teams?

That is not simplistic.  Unless Lewes could somehow come up with income to support a women's budget of this size, the writing was on the wall 3 years ago.

[stuartnoel]

Jul 1, 2024 19:46:39 GMT dicksmith said:

Jul 1, 2024 19:36:28 GMT pj said:

This might be too simplistic and I don’t know the playing budgets for teams in the Championship, but how can Lewes hope to compete with clubs who are now probably putting seven digit figures of finance into their teams?

That is not simplistic.  Unless Lewes could somehow come up with income to support a women's budget of this size, the writing was on the wall 3 years ago.

Three years ago the budget were competitive.

[clive]

whilst its true you dont look a gift horse in the mouth if theyd beem given a reprieve it would have been a tainted reprieve as far as i understand reading have done nothing wrong and yet theyve been penalised

[dicksmith]

Jul 1, 2024 20:52:17 GMT stuartnoel said:

Jul 1, 2024 19:46:39 GMT dicksmith said:

That is not simplistic.  Unless Lewes could somehow come up with income to support a women's budget of this size, the writing was on the wall 3 years ago.

Three years ago the budget were competitive.

Perhaps so at the time.  But any reasonable projection for the coming years would show the rapid anticipated rise in the "cost" of women's football. 

This projected rise was the driver for the strategic moves by Lewes for the women's team.  And it paid off -- but not to the extent hoped for.  Lewes basically got into a financial race with clubs with over 10X-100X the financial clout.  Also, the rate of rise exceeded any expectations.  The "winners" were clubs that could absorb the rapidly increasing cost.  The recent Deloittte points it out.