Tears, anger and the fall of Blackburn Rovers Women: ‘No one will trust this club again'

New York Times

4 days ago

The post-match huddle was stained with tears. On the final day of the season, Blackburn Rovers' Women's Under-16s had beaten Manchester City 2-1, but there was little to celebrate.
Through these tears, the young girls sang the same refrain: this was to be their last game together. The coaching staff attempted to placate them, insisting the future was still bright and that they would all be together next year.
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But three days later, the women's setup was uprooted, plunged into an uncertain future.
'They knew… There was a sense, more than there were facts,' said a source, who, like all mentioned in this article, wanted to remain anonymous to protect relationships. 'No one will trust this club again.'
On Tuesday, May 20, Blackburn Rovers announced their senior women's team were to be demoted from Women's Super League 2 — they had finished 10th in English football's second tier — after the club decided against meeting the required licensing criteria to retain their tier-two status.
The Lancashire club had been issued a seven-day deadline by WSL Football — the legal entity in charge of running English football's top two women's tiers — to state its intentions to meet increased standards, which require all first- and second-tier teams to be full-time operations as of the 2025-26 season. The deadline passed with no word from the club's ownership, the V H Group, which took over the club in November 2010.
That Tuesday morning, a 9:30am women's coaching staff meeting was abruptly cancelled. Coaching staff were then summoned onto a video call at 3:30pm later that afternoon, where a club human resources representative, along with the club's chief financial officer, Matt Wright, stated the team was being relegated.
'Every question that anyone asked on the call was met with 'We can't speak about that yet',' a source said. 'They were unapologetic. They said not to speak to anybody, we were still under contract. It was like speaking into a vacuum.'
Blackburn responded to The Athletic's request for comment, saying that players were informed the previous week that the club was unable to offer the players a contract due to the uncertainty surrounding which division the team would play in next year.
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In a statement last week, the club said the decision was made after a 'comprehensive review' of the demands on second-tier clubs, which had 'become unsustainable under our current model.' The 'growing financial and operational constraints' tied to staying in the division, the club added, could no longer be 'sustained under the club's current financial framework'.
'Due to the division's increasingly demanding criteria, our continuing participation in WSL2 was left unachievable,' Blackburn told The Athletic in a statement on Tuesday.
No clarity has since been provided on the future of the women's setup, including what tier the senior team will operate at, employment status for staff members or the consequences for the club's Professional Game Academy (PGA) licence for talented players aged from 14 to 20, and the young players in their care. PGA status is awarded to WSL and WSL2 clubs, while third-tier clubs are permitted to pay for a one-year licence.
Regulations for the women's pyramid state that any club that withdraws from a league can only re‑enter at least two tiers lower, where teams operate on a volunteer basis with no elite pathways. Rovers could follow the precedent set last season by Reading, who dropped into the fifth tier after electing not to fulfil tier-two licensing requirements.
According to sources, the club initially planned on announcing the news via a statement on social media at 4pm on Tuesday, almost immediately after senior management were told of the decision, but agreed to first-team coach Simon Parker's request for a delay in making the decision public so that players could be informed personally and not find out about it on social media.
Players and staff were asked not to speak to the media. The club told The Athletic that as their league status remains to be confirmed, speculation in the public domain would be unhelpful. Players continued to attend matches and training. Meanwhile, parents privately discussed where to go next, hoping their children might not pick up on their panic.
'What was really sad was on the last training session on Monday, the coaches, the physios, everyone put on such a brave face,' said one parent of an academy player. 'But you could just tell what was going to happen. It's completely irresponsible.'
As the season drew to a close, rumours about the future circled with growing force.
The angst led to emails, seen by The Athletic, to the club's HR requesting clarity for the future of the academy and what staff members should tell concerned parents. Staff received emails stating updates would be 'provided as available'. Links to an Employee Assistance Programme were attached. The club told The Athletic that the head of women's football, Nick Birchall, was 'always open to discussion with the staff'.
'(The club) were cancelling meetings with us,' said a source. 'That's when I knew something was not right.'
According to the club's statement last week, part of the decision to withdraw the women's team was based on the full-time move to the club's main stadium, the 31,367-capacity Ewood Park, and the 'resulting absence of the substantial matchday commercial revenue and sponsorships required to support continued investment at Tier 2'.
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Rovers Women previously played home fixtures at the County Ground in Leyland, a 2,300-capacity ground owned and operated by the Lancashire County Football Association. Women's games played at a club's main stadium usually result in losses because of the relatively low attendance compared to senior men's games and the operational costs involved. Everton confirmed earlier this month that their decision to move their women's team to Goodison Park full-time would result in losses that the ownership was prepared to underwrite.
Separately, according to multiple sources, Rovers' ownership were not open to exploring a proposed potential investment into the women's team last season.
The interested potential investor, according to sources, spoke to women's team staff and former CEO Steve Waggott — who left his post two days after the announcement, ending a seven-year stay at the club — about partnerships and stakes in the team, as well as a role as a director of the women's team.
When the discussions were presented to the ownership, they dismissed the idea.
'It was not even entertained,' says one source.
Sources speculate that perhaps the ownership were fearful that external investment in the women's team could further galvanise fan movement against the ownership.
When asked about this by The Athletic, the club would only say they had 'never received any offer of investment from an external company or individual regarding the funding of the Women's game'.
For the 2023-24 season, Rovers Women played seven matches at Ewood Park before a full-time move ahead of last season.
According to Rory Larmer, a member of the Blackburn Rovers Trust and Supporters' Coalition — which was formed in January of this year in response to fan concerns about the future funding of the club, given the non-footballing issues the owners face overseas — the Blackburn's decision to relegate their women's team is not an isolated event but rather a sign of the uncertain future facing the club.
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'At a time when you're supposed to take down barriers, the owners have just put one up. It's never been about promotions or big money for Blackburn Rovers,' Larmer told The Athletic.
'It's just about the community, the town and the football club. And from a very basic perspective of treating the town, the teams with an ounce of respect. That's not there.'
Larmer was saddened that there was no longer an elite pathway for younger players at the club.
'The fundamental point in 2025 is that that little girl in Blackburn has been told they don't want to fund them anymore (at an elite level) because they're expendable.'
For many staff, players and parents at the club, the deficient communication throughout the season produced a weary sense of deja vu.
Last summer, staff in the women's setup waited until the start of July, nearly two months after the end of the previous season, to hear what budget would be provided to them by the ownership. Clubs generally approve budgets shortly after the end of a season. In the 2023-24 season, Rovers Women finished a club-record high of sixth in the Championship, boasting club records in points total (36), goals scored (25) and attendance (1,591 versus Southampton in 2024).
Despite increasing training from three evenings a week to four days, success on the pitch and a rebrand, players and staff remained on low wages, according to sources. Average player salaries remained at £9,000 ($12,152) — the highest was £15,000.
Blackburn Rovers Women, which is owned by the football club, reported a £343,000 loss for the 2023-24 financial year — the highest under the V H Group ownership and up £141,000 from the previous year and £257,000 from the 2019-20 season. It was put down to increased standards from WSL Football, along with travel expenses.
According to sources, the ownership did not wish to commit more than £100,000 into their women's team's playing budget for the 2025-26 season, which would not meet the minimum threshold introduced by WSL Football.
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The club did not comment on the figure to The Athletic other than to say it spent around £500,000 on the women's team for the 2024-25 season.
The club confirmed further cost-cutting was made in the women's academy last season, as the under-21s were first removed from the Pro Games Academy's Games Programme (a system that provides competitive matches against other academies) before being scrapped altogether, with the under-21s players moved into the first team to make up squad numbers.
Integration proved difficult, with many players not ready for the step up to senior football and the first team having to adjust to the different needs of the younger, less experienced players.
Many players were sent out on dual registration to lower national leagues for development, yet were still required to train with the first team to hit requisite contact days.
'That was a sign that the owners didn't have a lot of money,' Rachel Dugdale, the defender who joined the club last summer from Reading, told The Athletic.
The stark reality at Reading made Blackburn's decision to meet minimum requirements for the 2024-25 season look positive, even hopeful, for Dugdale, who said she was left with no other club to turn to given Reading's late relegation on June 30, 2024.
According to Dugdale, there was no communication about the potential relegation of the team at any point in the season, nor any contact from a member of the ownership or board.
'Even the last week of training, the manager was like, 'Oh, I have a meeting with the board on Friday. I think it's gonna be all fine. We're just waiting for the budgets to be approved. Everybody within the club is happy with it. It's all been signed off by the CEO, Steve Waggott.'
'We were getting positive reinforcement throughout the season,' the defender said. 'We didn't think the owners would follow Reading's suit and just completely collapse.'
First-team players like Dugdale, along with academy players from under-14s level upwards, are uncertain of their future at Blackburn.
Academy trials at other clubs with elite pathways have already taken place, meaning players, some of whom have been invited into England's talent development pathways, who chose to remain with Blackburn, are now potentially without an academy pathway for the impending season at a crucial juncture in their careers. Senior players are also limited in which teams they can join, with most WSL and WSL2 squads having already started making plans for the next season.
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'It's irresponsible from the club. These players are going to have to grab whatever comes their way, even if it isn't the right thing for them, because that's the desperation of the timeline,' said a source.
According to one mum of an academy player, the love her daughter had for playing for Rovers kept her faith that the club would make the right decision.
'All of the girls loved Rovers,' she said. 'They didn't want to go anywhere else. Even last week, when I told my daughter I needed to contact Liverpool, Manchester United, City, Everton, she just burst into tears… It's been absolutely heartbreaking. The girls have all been crying. They feel betrayed.'
Rovers' under-14s were the only team outside London to win a PGA trophy this season, and Rovers were the only women's club to have two teams (the under-14s and under-16s) reach a final, the under-16s ultimately losing to Tottenham Hotspur. 'These kids are punching above their weight,' said a source.
The club has a strong legacy and commitment to player production (including England's Euro 2022 champions Keira Walsh, Ella Toone and Georgia Stanway, despite operating in the third tier of English football at the time). In December 2024, the club celebrated 700 consecutive men's league games featuring at least one academy player.
Yet, academy players were not provided with winter coats, raincoats or tracksuit bottoms, while the senior women's players were given kits made for men.
'The top of the women's game is flying,' said a source. 'They're doing everything that they can to really invest and do a great job. At the other end of the women's professional tier, they're sinking quickly.'
For Dugdale, she is back to where she started, the familiar forced purgatory, first experienced with Doncaster Belle Rovers (the storied club opted against applying for the restructured top two tiers due to financial reasons), then Reading last summer and now Blackburn.
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Blackburn's crisis is the latest in a string of cautionary tales for English women's football's continued dependence on men's football, she said. Historically, when clubs begin to struggle financially, women's teams — often a loss-making asset — are one of the first areas where cuts or limits.
'Women's teams are just bolted onto the men's right now,' said Dugdale. 'Who's holding those people accountable?
'I'm frustrated that this happens, and the next day you go on the news and there's literally nothing on it. People don't understand the impact that it has on players, the girls in the academy, the perception of women's football as a whole.'
(Illustration: Eamon Dalton/ The Athletic; top photos: Matt McNulty/ Getty Images)