Former players and a coach from Wakefield AFC’s women’s team have voiced their frustrations after the club abruptly cut their training facilities and disbanded the team without prior notice.
Despite the surge in popularity of women’s football, especially following England’s Lionesses’ victory in the Euros 2022, many women’s teams still face challenges due to insufficient investment and institutional support compared to their male counterparts.
Former players of Wakefield AFC revealed that they discovered the team’s disbandment only when another club approached one of their members.
In an open letter, the team expressed their disappointment: “It is evident that during the last two seasons in particular that Wakefield AFC have had little to no intentions of supporting, growing, and developing the women’s side.”
Wakefield AFC, a non-league club founded in 2019, has its men’s team playing in the Northern Counties East League Division One, the 10th level of the English football pyramid. The women’s team played at level five, just one tier below Leeds United Women. Several players are now playing at lower levels, or have left without a club entirely.
Former female players told the Guardian about the poor treatment they faced: exclusion from the team’s new kit launch, limited training space with only one floodlight, and lack of training gear, unlike the junior boys’ team. They also banned the use of the Belle Vue stadium pitch, home to Wakefield AFC men’s team and Wakefield Trinity rugby league club, to “protect it.”
“We knew for a fact that that wouldn’t happen with the rugby team, or the men’s football,” one former player said. She added that from January to May, the women’s team was essentially “homeless,” playing games at various local schools because they were not allowed on the main pitch.
Another former player expressed her disappointment: “We don’t get paid to play, we play to represent the club and the badge, and we give up a lot of time to go and do it. “We don’t ask for a lot in return either… what we expected was the bare minimum, and we just didn’t get it.”
A former coach echoed these concerns, highlighting the lack of a home pitch and the frequent departures of players, which often left the team short-handed. “He said, “A tier five team is not a poor standard; it’s a good standard of football.” He criticized the club’s prioritization of the men’s section, adding, “I’ve never worked with a group of players, or a team, or a club where it’s been that bad, to be honest.”
Emma Ayrton, Wakefield AFC’s chief operating officer and club secretary, responded to the criticisms: “We face significant challenges as a new non-league club aiming to make Wakefield AFC a sustainable project. Our primary issue is the lack of our own facilities for playing and training. We had planned and had an agreement for the women’s team to play at the same stadium as our men’s team, owned by Wakefield Trinity. Unfortunately, after a change in ownership in Wakefield Trinity, their new management did not allow our women’s team to play there.”
She added: “At the same time, we have been trying to work with the local council for years to source a suitable location where we can host women’s, men’s, and junior football as one club playing out of Wakefield, with no success so far. This is the only way we can have a sustainable project going forward.”
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