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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Tom Garry

Hera we go: the Dutch club hoping to change women’s football landscape

Ajax Women celebrate defeating Fortuna Sittard 3-1 in the 2023-24 KNVB Beker Vrouwen (Dutch Women’s Cup) final.
Ajax Women celebrate defeating Fortuna Sittard in the 2023-24 KNVB Beker Vrouwen (Dutch Women’s Cup) final. Photograph: Soccrates Images/Getty

A historic moment awaits for football in the Netherlands on Monday, as the country’s national governing body, the KNVB, puts a highly consequential vote to its members on whether to grant an independent women’s club a licence to compete in the Eredivisie for the first time.

For the three women who have co-founded the new club hoping to “change the system”, the irony is not lost on them that everyone voting in this crucial ballot is a man. Yet they have high hopes that their dream is going to become a reality. If they get the yes vote they crave, their new club Hera United, based in Amsterdam, will play in the country’s top division next season and stage matches in the city’s historic Olympic Stadium.

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