Gillingham Ladies have announced that they plan to bid for Women’s Super League status and want local fans to support the bid.

The Gills Ladies currently ply their trade in the Southern Premiership, and in the past two seasons have played both Chelsea and the all conquering Arsenal Ladies in entertaining games with over 300 spectators attending the games at Chatham Town Football Club.

With the side having been transformed in recent seasons and the level of interest in women’s football growing, Gills Ladies are now asking local businesses and fans to support them in their bid to make it to the next level.

They need local businesses to get on board with sponsorship, no matter how big or small. The FA will support the clubs with £30,000 funding per season. However, the club must find the finances to either to match or better the FA contribution it is estimated the average cost of a team competing in WSL League 2 will be around £75,000 per season.

Gills Ladies are asking football fans to come along to their remaining home games to show that Kent and Medway in particular deserves a team in the WSL.

It is expected that in year 1 the club must have an average gate of around 250 per game; therefore the more they can get in towards the end of the season the stronger it will make their application.

For more details of Gillingham Ladies FC and the bid please email [email protected]

Here’s the background info on how Gills Ladies will achieve WSL status:

After the success of the London Olympics, and the Women’s Super League, The Football Association has launched a five year commitment to Women’s Football.

The recently launched Women’s Super League has just successfully completed its second season, and The FA have now introduced an initiative to increase the WSL from 8 clubs to 20 clubs, and from one league to two leagues.

The FA are seeking applications from clubs for entry to the WSL.

To gain a license the clubs must put together a package which must meet strict requirements as listed below:

Adequate standards of financial and business management;

High standards of commercial, marketing and community programmes;

Adequate levels of management and organisation;

High-quality infrastructure to provide players, staff, spectators and media with well appointed,

Well-equipped and safe working environments.

Club applications should be in the form of a Club Development Plan for 2014-2016.

There are four main sections in the Club Development Plan:
1. Financial and business management;
2. Commercial sustainability and marketing;
3. Facilities;
4. Players, support staff and youth development.

Where there is more than one applicant club from any given region, the club will be marked first on merit against the minimum criteria.

The FA will then assess the capacity of that region to commercially sustain more than one WSL team, taking into account in particular the commercial sustainability of the relevant clubs.

Picture supplied by Julian Hart Photography