Man Utd women v Utd women - 23 Sept 26

[Greystones Blade]

WSL Players Cup - lost 5-0

 

[Balham]

WSL Players Cup - lost 5-0

*losing 5-0 at half time.

In their defence it’s pretty much a full strength Newton Heath side

 

[Bath Blade]

9-0 now. Really not good for the women’s game that the gap is so big.

 

[brownblade]

9-0 now. Really not good for the women’s game that the gap is so big.

We, like the men's team, are not good, mind you.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

Part timers who can't even get time off work midweek in some cases vs internationals. Ludicrous.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

Very unlucky tonight for United.
Unlucky that they didn't score twenty.

 

[Greystones Blade]

FT lost 10-1

 

[Champagneblade]

If this was Wednesday some of the local media would have it down as “Owls in 11 goal thriller!”

 

[SB_90]

i was saying on shoutbox seemingly we have learnt nothing from the last few years, from avoiding relegation on technicality 2 years ago & surviving on last day last season. we are effectively a 3rd tier side in WSL2.

its sad because id because id say the ladies side is heading the same way as the doncaster belles, because 2019 - 2021. we were 2nd & 4th. its like womens football has moved on & we've stood still. appartantly we might be playing teams in championship. on 4-5 times our budget

 

[Berkshire Blade]

i was saying on shoutbox seemingly we have learnt nothing from the last few years, from avoiding relegation on technicality 2 years ago & surviving on last day last season. we are effectively a 3rd tier side in WSL2.

its sad because id because id say the ladies side is heading the same way as the doncaster belles, because 2019 - 2021. we were 2nd & 4th. its like womens football has moved on & we've stood still. appartantly we might be playing teams in championship. on 4-5 times our budget

Clubs losing millions a year. Why lose more on a womans team where crowds are a fraction of the men's game?

 

[SB_90]

Clubs losing millions a year. Why lose more on a womans team where crowds are a fraction of the men's game?

on that just give us honesty then, they make a fuss over the womans team, but they dont care. i think its good PR to have a successful team. how can you get fans to care. if they people in charge dont

 

[Davalon]

I'm all for having a women's team and I'm a big advocate of young women having the opportunity to play football. Just feels for a while now we're simply going through the motions for the sake of it.

We all get the financial issue and when I went to a few games a few years back, we had some good players that we simply couldn't hold on to. Since then though it feels like we're just treading water waiting for the inevitable relegation.

No idea what the answer is as I don't know enough about the cost of running our team and what the realistic options are.

From the little I've seen though more recently, we had some better players years ago further down the pyramid when my son's old football coach played for us.

 

[The Fox]

No idea what the answer is as I don't know enough about the cost of running our team and what the realistic options are.

According to the Bettis interview its £1m a year .

Not much in the grand scheme of things .

Arsenal for example spend around £22m by comparison so I guess a competitive team is around £5m to £10m which i cant see happening .

I suppose its a community thing which engages more people in the club and thats about it.

 

[Torrix1889]

Can't say I take much, (or any) interest in our Ladies team.

Do they play their games at BDTBL and how many fans do they average?

 

[Torrix1889]

According to the Bettis interview its £1m a year .

Not much in the grand scheme of things .

Arsenal for example spend around £22m by comparison so I guess a competitive team is around £5m to £10m which i cant see happening .

I suppose its a community thing which engages more people in the club and thats about it.

Arsenal averaged 34K at the Emirates so a budget of £22m is peanuts...

edit - looks like we average around 1500 so budgets are quite relative in respect of attendances

 

[The Fox]

Arsenal averaged 34K at the Emirates so a budget of £22m is peanuts...

edit - looks like we average around 1500 so budgets are quite relative in respect of attendances

Apologies, for clarification ( The Gaurdian)

-Matchday revenue: £5.90 million (up 35% from £4.4m)
-Commercial revenue: £1.78 million (up from £649,000)
-Broadcasting revenue: £2.02 million (including £1.4m from the Champions League run)
-Parent club/group input: £11.9 million (shared commercial/group allocations)

Despite the revenue generation, the Parent club input is still circa £12m

 

[Sheffsteel]

The issue with women’s football is that it’s not been allowed to organically grow.
The business model has been pumped with steroids, heavily promoted and heavily subsidised creating a false artificial demand.
The womens top flight has been professional for years and I remember a few year back the womens 2nd tier were transitioning to go professional.
Not sure if SUFC ladies are currently full time or part time. Also does it come to a point where it’s no longer viable to be professional.
If the SU women’s team was closed down, would there be a big outrage with 1000’s making substantial donations to keep the team afloat? Suspect not.

Arsenal are easily the best supported women’s team in world football but suspect a big reason is due to Arsenal men’s team having a season ticket waiting list of 110K. Basically if you want to visit the Emirates stadium to watch football, your only option is to watch the Arsenal women’s team.

Arsenal played in the Champions league this week at the 4,500 capacity Boreham Wood stadium, which isn’t that far away from the Emirates.
Official attendance was 1,910…..so where were the Arsenal women’s team fans. Suspect the hardcore fanbase is only 2K for the best supported UK ladies team.

Other champions league attendances this week
4,291 at Bayern Munich v Man City
943 at Inter Milan v Hacken
3,144 at Juventus v Benfica
1,228 at Real Madrid v PSG
846 at Chelsea v Austria Vienna (where was the Chelsea hardcore women’s team supporters?)
2,574 Barcelona v Paris

These are some of the best club sides in the world and the interest is sometimes lower than non league level.
Not sure what the answer is but it’s starting to look like a vanity project where only wealthy clubs can run a women’s team that is competitive.
Agree with some of the comments…the SUFC has been a very low priority for a while now and it’s showing….there needs to be a proper strategy.

 

[Yellarbellyblade]

Part of the problem is that the FA ban on women’s football has effectively delayed the development by best part of a hundred years. It’s all well and good trying to build it at pace to catch up but the infrastructure and fanbase underneath it is less well established than the men’s game. I don’t attend the women’s games but that’s mainly because I live a distance away. If I lived closer I’d probably give it a go.
I think some people expect it to be the same as the men’s game which it isn’t, you should look at it as a similar but different product in much the same way that the youth development teams are similar but not the same as the full men’s team.

 

[UddersBlade]

I suspect that if the ladies team are relegated at the end of this season out of the WSL structure…… that will be the end of it as it will be another part of our ongoing budget cuts. It would be a shame in some ways but inevitable if it’s not sustainable.

 

[Greystones Blade]

Report here

https://www.sufc.co.uk/news/2026/september/23/manutd-10-1-women-report/