Seems to be the case across the entire women’s football pyramid. And administrators afraid that with enhanced promotion there’s more chance of a “small” club getting promoted beyond their means?
The trouble is it's not just our division promoting into the one above. Promoting a second club from every division means relegating 4 of the 12 in the National League South East. I suppose you could relegate three and have a play-off between the two runners-up for the third place. I've never been a fan of play-offs to decide promotion, and guaranteeing dates for such fixtures becomes more of a problem when the teams concerned don't have first call on the pitches they use. Then clubs have the issue of key players being unavailable for crucial games scheduled at short notice, which again tends to be more of an issue at the end of the regular season the lower down the pyramid you go.
It’s a moot point as to how much is invested based on the position of the men’s team. My feeling with both Brentford and Fulham is that if they were to invest in the women’s set up this is something they would have done by now. There’s always a feeling at Fulham that the women’s team is “tolerated”, judging by the way fans and players are swept out of there so quickly. On one occasion there with Dulwich both sets of players were getting their post match food in the pub by the station after being allowed about half an hour to change & vacate the ground.
I've no idea what sort of internal politics are involved at these clubs. I'd initially assumed the Fulham team in our division was a development team, I only realised it was a 1st XI when someone mentioned them playing one match at Craven Cottage and getting an attendance of several thousand. Consigning all other matches to Motspur Park when there's so much latent interest seems stupid and ignorant to me. I've been put off visiting the venue by what I've heard from others. It sounds to be essentially a behind closed doors training facility where a limited number of spectators are reluctantly accommodated in a tiny portion of the ground.
Brentford reportedly had 1124 attending at Bedfont today thanks to free entry and publicity.
The best thing about that afternoon was that the only individuals to be caught drinking were the family of one of the Fulham players!!Indeed - not permitted behind the goal. We were asked to stop singing during the penalty shootout in last season's cup match as it was not fair on Fulham!
Yep, it’s the Combined Counties Midweek Women’s Floodlit Extravaganza!!
Nice one, thank you. Don’t suppose you know if the gyros will be there?
They will be indeed
A couple of months ago I noticed Manchester United are top of the Women's Premier League. I was surprised, as I'd never noticed them among the top women's teams before this season. I've just seen a BBC sports bulletin mention the team was only formed 5 years ago. Have they got to that level on merit, or were they fast tracked because of the name? Bearing in mind there was one year with no promotions due to the pandemic, then another with dodgy promotions decided by a committee of FA boffins.
In 2018 the pyramid was re-structured a bit, and clubs could bid for a license. United got a Championship license then won promotion that season.
