Women's Football
The first recorded women's football match in England was more than 100 years ago. Women's football was very popular for many years but it was stopped by a ban made by the Football Association from 1921-1962. It is only in recent years that women's football has begun to recover and receive some serious attention with televised matches (such as the FA Women's Cup final and matches of the national team), international games being held at larger stadia and, to a lesser extent, the comedy film Bend It Like Beckham.
As with the men's game, the league is organised into a pyramid system. It has nine levels, with the semi-professional FA WSL, launched in 2011, at the top. Unlike the men's pyramid and the lower levels of the women's pyramid, there will be no promotion from or relegation to the former top level, the FA Women's Premier League National Division, until at least the end of the 2012 WSL season. Doncaster Rovers Belles LFC (previously Doncaster Belles LFC) were founded in 1969 and are one of the most successful clubs in England. They are one of only two clubs outside London to have won the FA Women's Premier League National, the other team being Everton LFC. The Belles have also won the FA Women's Cup six times and been runners-up seven times. Fulham LFC were for a number of years the top club in England and were the first club in Europe to turn professional in 2000 before reverting to semi-professional in 2003. Doncaster Rovers Belles and Everton have since become charter members of the WSL.
Arsenal LFC, who turned fully professional not long after Fulham, have dominated the game in England in the 2000s with Everton LFC also successful. Arsenal have won the FA Women's Cup nine times, and also won the FA Women's Premier League National Division ten times and the FA Women's Premier League Cup nine times before the launch of the WSL. They also won the UEFA Women's Cup in the 2006-07 season. In the 2011 season, the first for both the WSL and its cup competition, the FA WSL Continental Cup, Arsenal claimed the league-cup double. Before the launch of the WSL, Everton won the league title once and were runners-up twice. They have also won the FA Women's Cup once and the FA Women's Premier League Cup once.
Burton Brewers 57-0 loss against Willenhall Town on 4 March 2001 in the West Midland Regional Women's Football League, Division One North may be a British record for the biggest defeat in a football match.
Read more about this topic: Seasons In English Football
Famous quotes containing the words women and/or football:
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