Reading Women to go part-time following WSL relegation amid financial pressures

06 June 2023 , 13:15

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Kelly Chambers, Manager of Reading, speaks in a huddle after the team's defeat to Chelsea (Image: Photo by Eddie Keogh - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

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.

“Alongside the growth of the women’s game, the financial commitment to meet FA requirements has also grown exponentially in recent years,” a club statement read.

“Costs across the club have been cut considerably in recent years – the men’s first team wage bill has been halved since 2019 for example – while the funding required to run a women’s team playing at the highest level of the game has, by contrast, grown.

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“And with more top-flight clubs choosing to spend heavily on their women’s team, that level of financial backing is continuing to escalate.”

According to the statement, funding Reading FC Women cost the club “just over £100k per year” a decade ago. Owner Mr Dai Yongge invested approximately £6m across a five-year period to keep the women’s team operating at the very highest level, with just under £1m invested across the 2022/23 season.

Reading Women to go part-time following WSL relegation amid financial pressures

Sam Kerr celebrates scoring Chelsea's first goal against Reading (Photo by Eddie Keogh - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

Training at Bearwood alongside the men’s team, Reading were the first club in the country to play all of their home matches at the same ground and cut themselves impressive overachievers over the course of their eight-year tenure in the top-flight, even registering a top four finish in the 2017/18 season.

However, following their relegation, head coach Chambers underlined the exacerbating tribulations facing clubs like Reading whose financial disparity risks making top-flight safety an impossibility without significant financial backing.

While then employed full-time for staff and players, Chambers revealed that staff within the women’s department were forced to moonlight across multiple jobs to keep the program running, with Chambers personally taking on the role of director of football and first-team manager.

The Royals fell to a disillusioning 4-1 defeat to relegation-threatened Tottenham in their penultimate game of the season, all but confirming their demotion. Former Chelsea star Bethany England inspired Spurs’ victory and the record £250,000 price tag around the striker’s neck was a difficult pill for Reading to swallow as their respective relegation scraps ended in stark contrast.

Club CEO, Dayong Pang, said in the statement: "Difficult but necessary financial decisions are being made across the business following the club’s relegation to League One last season and, after discussions with the FA, the decision to operate Reading FC Women on a part-time basis represents the most viable solution at the present time.

He added: “Our owner, Mr Dai Yongge, has his full focus concentrated on our club’s rebuild. He is fully committed to consolidating our efforts into a sensible and sustainable reset, designed to bring success back to RG2.”

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