Forest Green Rovers dissolve successful Women’s team in pursuit of promotion
On the 30th of June 2026 ex EFL side Forest Green released a statement explaining that they will be scrapping the Women’s and Girls teams for the foreseeable future, due to the fact they are “committed to returning to the EFL as quickly as possible”. This is a disappointing move from a club that has made many positive actions in the footballing world.
The Forest Green women’s team played in the 5th tier of English football where they have played for multiple seasons. Most recently the team finished second being denied promotion into the Women’s National League by just 1 point. They also only suffered 1 defeat and ended the season with 60 goals scored. This was clearly a team deserving of full backing from their club as they would have been favourites for promotion going into the 2026/2027 season.
Captain Hattie Jones told the BBC that she feels the Women’s team “is not valued” ,and it is impossible to disagree considering the club abandoned their women’s team and academy for the gain of the men’s side. This is a disgraceful move by the club especially as Forest Green have already made leaps and bounds in improving football such as them becoming the first Carbon Neutral football club, making it very surprising that they took this aggressively sexist approach to their promotion goals.
The club have been receiving heavy criticism after this decision became public leading to the CEO, Dale Vince, making a statement on the 3rd of July. Here he claimed that the decision was due to the team no longer receiving parachute payments leading to a “1.5 million loss of income”. Whilst this is clearly a big hit for the club it feels untrue that this will be enough for the club to need to end their women’s teams. The club would have been receiving an estimated 327 thousand from the premier league as well as some more for their women’s side. The club also have many big brand deals with partners like Quorn, DPD and Reflo. There are many clubs who will not be receiving any of these payments who still have a successful women and men’s teams.
The best example of this is Lewes FC a small club with a women’s team in the 3rd tier and a men’s side in the 7th tier. They are a highly successful side who understand the importance of women’s football and can finance both squads comfortably regardless of their smaller income. This make Vince’s comment seem a bit dishonest considering the fact that they have significantly less financial backing than Forest Green but are still able to comfortably fund both teams. This is apparent for many other clubs at a similar level to Forest Green such as Worthing FC, Dorking Wanderers and AFC Fylde (just to name a few) all have National League men’s teams and strong women’s teams.
Vince also threw in the fact that the club had “ already had to cut the boys football program- but faced no criticism for that, worth noting”. Whilst this comment is true, he fails to mention that they only cut the under 9s and under 14s programs. This cut to help alleged financial strain cannot be compared to the eradication of all women’s football at the club. It is particularly devastating for the girls’ teams as it is a lot harder for them to find places to play compared to the boys who have many options that the girls simply don’t have. He goes on to mention this another few times in his statement and whilst it is a valid point to make it fails to address the misogyny within the decision that led to the outrage from the public.
Forest Green making the decision to cut the woman’s side is a massive step back and is a deeply sexist decision when you look at the history of woman’s football. Sadly, women’s football was banned for over 50 years in England and many teams invested in the development of the women’s game to get it to where it is now. There is sadly still a long way to go and the decision by Forest Green directly hinders the progress many women worked so hard for. In a time where equality is a basic moral it is a ridiculous decision to treat these talented women as second rate and should not be tolerated by fans of football.
It may all seem doom and gloom, but these talented athletes will be back and stronger than ever! National League news wants to wish good luck to all these incredible players-
· Evie Smith
· Flo Stiddard
· Jen Gray
· Martha Campbell
· Isabelle Martin
· Freya Cooke
· Sophia Mcgrath
· Lily Hewitt
· Hattie Jones
· Katie Jones
· Amelie Birchley
· Issabelle Owen
· Rhian Robins
· Leilani Ryder
· Lashai Macnama
· Isabella Williams
· Manager- Louise Fensome
