The Women’s Championship is a division split into three camps.
There are those who have ambitions of getting into the Women’s Super League and are willing to spend significant amounts of money to try to achieve that aim.
Birmingham City and London City Lionesses, who are first and second in the table respectively, fall into this category. Newcastle United could also sit in this camp to a certain extent but their budget is not quite on the same level.
The second camp is made up of clubs who share the goal of promotion to the top flight, or at least finishing as high up the table as possible, but cannot commit to the same eye-watering budgets Birmingham and London City are reported to be operating on.
The majority of clubs in the division could be placed in this category, evidenced by the three-point gap between third and seventh. Southampton, who sit in eighth place, nine points behind third-placed Durham, clearly want better after they decided to sack manager Remi Allen on Friday.
Then there are the clubs who are happy to stay where they are, who view the cost of promotion as too high, given the promoted team usually find themselves back in the Championship within a year, and may even be questioning how much longer they can meet the budget demands of remaining in the second tier. The position of Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield United and Portsmouth in the bottom three would suggest they sit in this camp.
£2m vs £100k budgets
Birmingham’s 2-0 win at Blackburn yesterday, which saw them move three points clear at the top of the table, was the perfect example of a battle between the haves and the have-nots of the division. Blackburn did well to stay in the game but could not find a way back after a Lucy Quinn double put the visitors ahead in the first half.
Telegraph Sport understands Birmingham are working with a total budget of more than £2 million. The club signed Lee Geum-Min for an undisclosed fee from Brighton last summer while Australian international Emily Van Egmond joined in January. It is thought Birmingham and London City have committed more money to this season than some WSL clubs.
Blackburn, meanwhile, are understood to have started pre-season with a player budget of just £100,000. Birmingham are a full-time, professional outfit, whereas Blackburn’s players are part-time.
Last year it was reported that Blackburn would be paying their women’s team players minimum wage for the upcoming season. It is understood players were told they would be operating on 16-hour contracts worth around £9,000 a year. As many as 10 players left in the summer following the expiration of their contracts.
Blackburn are owned by Venky’s, which has been under investigation in India since 2023 over a tax dispute with the Government. It has had financial difficulties in the past and in 2023 had to petition Delhi’s high court to allow it to send £26 million to Venky’s London Limited, Blackburn’s parent company, in order for the club to pay their tax bill and other payments in the UK. Last month, John Eustace left his role as manager of the men’s side, despite the club being in the play-off places at the time, to join relegation-threatened Derby County.
Blackburn have a rich history in the women’s game, with England players Keira Walsh and Georgia Stanway having come through the academy. Ella Toone also spent time on loan there in the early part of her career.
Stanway and the former Liberal Democrats leader Tim Farron were among those who criticised the club’s move to pay their players the minimum wage.
“Myself and so many others are indebted to the opportunities Blackburn gave us when we were younger,” Stanway said at the time. “Very sad to see the club choosing not to back their women’s team. Football and people in the North-West need Blackburn to continue to properly support the game!”
Farron, a Blackburn fan, said the club should “hang their heads in shame”.
Blackburn manager Simon Parker has done a commendable job in spite of the club’s off-the-pitch difficulties, but Portsmouth’s victory over fellow strugglers Sheffield United means they are now only two points clear of bottom place, though they do have three games in hand.
Regulations shake-up
The Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL) has visited clubs in recent weeks and in February sent out new licensing requirements for next season. There are a number of proposed changes.
There are plans to introduce a salary floor as well as minimum contract hours. Telegraph Sport understands that, under the new licensing criteria, clubs will have to have at least 20 contract hours a week between 9am and 6pm. This would also mean clubs will be prevented from training later in the evening.
For Blackburn, and potentially others, to meet the new requirements they would have to make changes to their current set-up.
There is a desire at the WPLL to avoid having a repeat of what happened with Reading, who withdrew their women’s team from the Championship in the summer because of financial pressures across the club.
Future plans for the leagues are an ongoing process but the WPLL discussed the possibility of removing relegation from the WSL and Championship at a shareholder meeting last Friday. Any changes will be done in collaboration with clubs and will take into consideration the recommendations from Karen Carney’s review of women’s football.
It is clear the proposed shake-up could have significant consequences for Championship clubs who are struggling to compete.
