Reading Women will operate at a semi-professional basis following their relegation to the Championship after eight seasons competing in the English top-flight.
The Royals’ suffered heartbreak on the final day of the WSL season as a 3-0 loss to eventual champions Chelsea consigned Kelly Chambers' side to the second-tier of women’s football. Reading, the only top-flight women’s team not bankrolled by a corresponding Premier League side, struggled to compete in a division driven ever-more fiercely by financial pressures, with departing players citing a lack of investment as a root cause for a torrid season.
And with Reading’s men’s team suffering relegation to League One and a significant drop-off in broadcast revenue and “central funding from the FA” set for the women’s team, the club have announced the women’s set-up will become a part-time operation, citing the exponential growth of required investment as an insurmountable obstacle.
