The meeting last week of Brighton and Hove city council was a varied affair: topics ranged from education to the ways net zero can be honoured locally while one member of the public caused a stir by claiming there was an “infiltration” of so-called “extreme gender ideology”. But it was unusually significant, too. Brighton received the go-ahead in principal to find a site for a stadium purpose-built for women’s football.
It is an important moment not just for the club but the women’s game, with Brighton on course to build the first ground in England specifically for a professional women’s team. Since 2018, Brighton have shared Crawley’s Broadfield Stadium, more than 20 miles from the city centre. They have been playing in the Women’s Super League for six seasons, having been a founding member of England’s restructured top tier in 2018-19.
