Wythenshawe FC are set to drop their amateur status and will look to invest more into their women's team in a huge move forward for the club.
Following the promotion of Wythenshawe FC's men's team into the North West Counties Premier League, the club are set to make a raft of changes, starting with the name of the club and its investment in the women’s game.
Formerly Wythenshawe Amateurs FC, the club are dropping their amateur name and status, with both their male and female sides going semi-professional, despite the women continuing to compete in the North West Regional Football League - the sixth tier of the football pyramid.
Some sides higher up the pyramid are yet to make the move to become semi-professional, though Stoke City Women recently became the latest to make the move ahead of the upcoming season. The announcement could well prove to be a landmark moment in Wythenshawe FC's history.
Wythenshawe were formed in 2008 and now, ready for the 2023/24 season, they will have two women’s teams - a development team and a first team.
Sophie Whitby, captain of the Women and Girls team, said: “This is great news for women and girls throughout our club - showing how much we value them and how ambitious we are for them. I think it will send a really strong signal in the footballing world but also in our local community: that equality matters.
“We’ve created a really strong pathway for boys and men to semi-professional football, retaining players within the club. I firmly believe we can do this for women and girls too. I’m so proud to be a part of it.”
Under new chairman Sacha Lord – Greater Manchester’s Night Time Economy Adviser – there are also ambitious plans to recruit a Women’s Director of Football and create career pathways to enable women to remain in the team and progress.
Lord said his ambition is to run the club based on equal pay, budgets and resources for its male and female players, as found in other clubs across the country: “Football still has a long way to go in catching up with the rest of the world on equal pay and I’d like to change that at Wythenshawe.
“I have long admired Lewes FC which eliminated the gender pay gap years ago and who are very clear that the men’s and the women’s teams and players are valued equally.”
Back in 2017, while in the FA Women's National League Premier South (the third tier), Lewes FC enforced equal pay, facilities and access for all of their sides. Now they compete in the second tier, gaining promotion in 2019, so it pays dividends to invest in the women's game.
