Doncaster Belles

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Whatever you may think of women's football. the extent of crass unfairness and stupidity shown by the FA over Doncaster Belles is breathtaking :

http://popularstand.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/the-belles-toll-on-the-fas-relegation-of-the-doncaster-belles/

[Stuka]

Don’t mean to sound flippant but please could you summarise?

[dizzynewheights]

Don’t mean to sound flippant but please could you summarise?

Doncaster Belles kicked out of Womens PL - which they have pretty much dominated forever - to make way for more commercially attractive Man City.

To be honest though, I don't care.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Don’t mean to sound flippant but please could you summarise?

Doncaster Belles are the most famous and best-established women's team in England - and the only team that's been in the top flight for as long as it's existed. They've also produced far more England players than any other club - they are essentially right at the heart of women's football in England.
The FA have just announced a reorganisation of the women's leagues and added a second tier - effective the end of the season that has just started.
Of the 8 teams in the current Premier League, 7 will stay there.
Doncaster Belles won't - they are "relegated" to Tier 2, to be replaced by Manchester City, a brand new team.
No footballing reasons behind this whatsoever, and no reasons given by the FA - but obviously it's 100% money related and 0% football related.

[Stuka]

That is shameful yet quite revealing.

[soggy biscuit]

Any fitties playing for them?

[Fox Talbot]

a) it's a disgrace - just like what happened at Charlton, Lincoln etc

b) All of this wouldn't happen if women's football actually mattered as a spectator sport - which despite all the media tub-thumping it still doesn't

[6ft Kerplunk]

Any fitties playing for them?

I refer you to the Doncaster part of their name.

[Silver Fox]

Could this be the end for the Belles?

[TBM]

I thought Arsenal were the best?!

[bobbybottler]

Don’t mean to sound flippant but please could you summarise?

Doncaster Belles are the most famous and best-established women's team in England - and the only team that's been in the top flight for as long as it's existed. They've also produced far more England players than any other club - they are essentially right at the heart of women's football in England.
The FA have just announced a reorganisation of the women's leagues and added a second tier - effective the end of the season that has just started.
Of the 8 teams in the current Premier League, 7 will stay there.
Doncaster Belles won't - they are "relegated" to Tier 2, to be replaced by Manchester City, a brand new team.
No footballing reasons behind this whatsoever, and no reasons given by the FA - but obviously it's 100% money related and 0% football related.

Not quite correct Dirk, Notts County Ladies didn't exist per se prior to this exercise - the franchise has been lifted out of Lincoln and relocated to Meadow Lane, providing Nottingham with a Ladies PL team it didn't have and giving the thriving Lincoln-based supporters network which has kept the club going a nasty kick in the cunt on the way out.

[From Despair To Where?]

kind of makes a mockery of the FA's grass roots commitment when the two genuine grass roots teams are 1) erased from the league and 2) uprooted from their traditional base in what is a pretty shoddy and cynical attempt at rebranding the league with money as the main motivator

Doncaster Belles were the powerhouse team in women's football long before the game turned professional and continued to thrive against heavily bankrolled teams in the first wave of professionalism at the turn of the century.


An equivalent in the mens game would be like booting Everton out of the Premier League because they aren't glamorous enough.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Don’t mean to sound flippant but please could you summarise?

Doncaster Belles are the most famous and best-established women's team in England - and the only team that's been in the top flight for as long as it's existed. They've also produced far more England players than any other club - they are essentially right at the heart of women's football in England.
The FA have just announced a reorganisation of the women's leagues and added a second tier - effective the end of the season that has just started.
Of the 8 teams in the current Premier League, 7 will stay there.
Doncaster Belles won't - they are "relegated" to Tier 2, to be replaced by Manchester City, a brand new team.
No footballing reasons behind this whatsoever, and no reasons given by the FA - but obviously it's 100% money related and 0% football related.

Not quite correct Dirk, Notts County Ladies didn't exist per se prior to this exercise - the franchise has been lifted out of Lincoln and relocated to Meadow Lane, providing Nottingham with a Ladies PL team it didn't have and giving the thriving Lincoln-based supporters network which has kept the club going a nasty kick in the cunt on the way out.

Indeed - franchising, pure and simple. I was aware of that but over-simplified the post.

[Para Handy]

Could this be the end for the Belles?

Whilst I agree that this, on the face of it, appears a shambles of a decision by the FA (no big surprise there though), SF'ers did give me the laugh of the day with that one.

[SpaceCruiser]

Suspicious. Didn't Arse stay up and Tottenham get relegated in the very early stages of Football League. Are we seeing similar effects of that shit. I say.....RELEGATE ARSE and REINSTATE DONCASTER!!! Only fair...

[Barry the bird boggler]

Suspicious. Didn't Arse stay up and Tottenham get relegated in the very early stages of Football League. Are we seeing similar effects of that shit. I say.....RELEGATE ARSE and REINSTATE DONCASTER!!! Only fair...

Yes, believe in 1915 Arsenal finished FIFTH in division 2 but were promoted to the top division at the expense of SPURS when the league was restarted after the war

Also Arsenal were based out at Woolwich before the 1st world war only to see a shift to north London in one of the first ever franchise style moves

Wholly deplorable club and shows the FA and FL have always been lacking......

[From Despair To Where?]

Thought the Arse got voted up to the 1st Division in 1919 after finishing mid table in Division 2 repacing Leeds City who got liquidated for financial irregularities.

Something dodgy about the Secretary of the FA at the time being the Arsenal chairman or somesuch conflict of interest

[Royal With Cheese]

Thought the Arse got voted up to the 1st Division in 1919 after finishing mid table in Division 2 repacing Leeds City who got liquidated for financial irregularities.

Something dodgy about the Secretary of the FA at the time being the Arsenal chairman or somesuch conflict of interest

Was he French?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

It was when the Football League expanded the First Division from 20 to 22 teams. Chelsea, who had finished 19th the previous season, were saved, and the top two in Division two went up - but Spurs, who finished bottom were relegated and replaced by Arsenal.

Arsenal had only finished fifth in the Second Division, so how they got promoted ahead of Barnsley (3rd) & Wolves (4th) is another the big mystery.

But Arsenal chairman Sir Henry Norris was as corrupt at they come, so it's pretty universally acknowledged that bribery was involved somewhere along the line.

[Deadlock]

The Leeds City debacle came to a head eight games into the season, corrupt as the FA were at the time, they didn't piss around when they encountered a club even more corrupt then them: City were expelled from the Football League Division 2, and their fixtures were taken over by Port Vale.