Liverpool Football Club have just built a £50m training facility which is now open to the elite men, boys and... well, just men and boys.

Its ironic that this opening of new facilities almost coincides with the 100 year anniversary of the banning of women playing football in England. For 50 years The FA outlawed the women’s game and as we enter 2021 the women’s game is gaining momentum to become a profitable business with millions of participants all over The UK. That growth has happened with very little help from those that banned us or those men’s clubs that simultaneously flourished over the last 100 years (like LFC) whilst the women’s game stagnated. 

There’s one massive issue with this brand new, state of the art facility... they forgot to make room for their women’s team or elite girls academies! The Liverpool women’s team that was getting relegated from the top tier of women’s football whilst the club spent £1m on a fireworks display to celebrate their men. Their women’s team that came out in the press to talk about the awful treatment of women within Liverpool Football Club. Their women’s team that played at a stadium which cancelled a number of games in their WSL 2019/20 season due to unsuitable facilities. 

I believe Liverpool Football Club should be answerable to this. They should make space for their women’s team to train alongside other elite footballers and make every effort to gain promotion to the top tier of women’s football. They should apologise to the community for shutting women out exactly 100 years after women were shut out by The FA and they should present their plans to help women’s football become profitable and undo the wrongs of the last century.

As members of the women’s football community we expect Liverpool Football Club to be a beacon for little girls who dream of playing the beautiful game. At the moment this situation is an illegal discrimination against a protected characteristic and a stain on the club.