Wolves Women and the fallout from the club’s decision to prevent them from being promoted

Players from Wolves Women have been left “absolutely devastated” after learning the club never submitted their bid for promotion to the English second tier.

Wolves, who are affiliated with the Premier League men’s club, took their challenge to win their current league until the final game of the season before eventually finishing second behind Nottingham Forest.

But soon after the final whistle, the players were told that winning the league would not have delivered promotion to the Women’s Championship because club owner Fosun chose not to commit to the investment required.

The news has raised concerns that Wolves might now lose their best players and coaches this summer. Head of women’s football Jenna Burke-Martin recently handed in her resignation — she is leaving for a role elsewhere — and others might follow suit

What is the background to the story?

Wolves Women, who celebrated their 50th anniversary this year, play in the FA Women’s National League Northern Division, the third tier of women’s football, two levels below the Women’s Super League (WSL).

In recent years, Wolves have been challenging near the top of their division, even winning it in 2022, only to lose out in a play-off against Southern Division winners Southampton to earn a place in the Women’s Championship, when only one promotion spot was available across the two leagues.

This season, Wolves, who remain a part-time team, took the race for top spot to the final game before losing out to full-time rivals Nottingham Forest.

With two promotion places now available to the Championship, Wolves’ players thought they would have been promoted had they won the league, but after beating Liverpool Feds 6-0 in Telford but missing out on top spot to Forest, they were called into a meeting by bosses of the women’s side and informed they would not have been promoted regardless of their finishing position. Wolves chairman Jeff Shi had declined to sign off on their promotion application, which had to be submitted in February.

Shi had informed management of Wolves Women of his decision and the women’s hierarchy decided not to tell players until the end of the season.

What have those involved with the women’s team said about it?

The story came to light when midfielder Beth Merrick took to social media to air her disappointment at finding out about Wolves’ decision.

Merrick wrote on X: “Going into today’s final game still in contention of winning the league and having to write this is crazy…

“Imagine fighting for promotion all season to find out our Championship bid was never submitted.

“As a group, we are absolutely devastated to finish the season this way and believe it speaks volumes about the club’s ambitions for the women’s team. For our staff to have to deliver this news to us moments after is astonishing.

“Some of us have been a part of this club for many years with an endless amount of success, which has grown year on year through all of the highs and the lows.

“Our players, staff and fans deserve so much better. The staff have put in hours of dedication for a bid to never be submitted.”

Fellow midfielder Lily Simkin added on X: “We feel let down…

“As a group of staff and players who have been fighting all season and still achieved what some people at the club thought was impossible. We took it to the last day to find out it would have all been for nothing anyway. We deserve better.”

The Athletic has approached other players and coaches to ask for further comments.

What is Wolves’ stance?

Wolves sporting director Matt Hobbs and head of professional football development Matt Jackson will meet with Wolves Women players and staff on Thursday to explain the club’s position.

But owner Fosun has made no secret of how it views the women’s team as a vehicle for participation rather than a chance to reach elite, full-time football, according to recent conversations The Athletic has held with senior officials.

Fosun objects in principle to the idea of having to apply in advance to join a higher division and believes league places should be decided purely on on-field performance. The Athletic has been told by sources — who, like others in this piece, wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships — with knowledge of the situation that Fosun would have considered appealing against the process if Wolves Women had won the league.

No decisions have yet been made about next season’s budgets but it is not expected that there will be a major reduction and Fosun has committed to employing a full-time commercial officer for the women’s team in an effort to generate extra funds to make them more self-sustainable. The Championship has been taken over recently by a new governing body, which has slightly increased the financial commitment required.

But Fosun’s stance has never changed and the Chinese company is comfortable with the idea that women and girls from Wolverhampton can play competitively for Wolves Women, but that any players who show the ability to play at a full-time level can do so for another club.

Fosun does not believe there is commercial value in investing the money required to make Wolves Women full-time.

The Athletic has asked Wolves for an official comment.

How much do Wolves spend on their women’s team and what would promotion have meant financially?

Wolves’ expenditure on their women’s team has been consistent, if modest. In each of the past two seasons, Wolves Women cost the wider club £300,000 ($400,000), though the women’s team also benefited from merging their training facilities with the club’s academy.

If that sum sounds like a drop in the ocean for a Premier League club, that’s because it is — £300,000 was just 0.2 per cent of Wolves’ overall wage bill in 2023-24, and an even smaller proportion of the total cost of running the club.

While promotion would have brought more income, it likely would have increased losses too. Membership of the Women’s Championship doesn’t come with a specified minimum spend, but does mean clubs have to meet certain requirements — and hire certain staff — that naturally bump up how much a team costs to run.

Revenue figures can be hard to come by, but of the seven Championship clubs to disclose 2023-24 income, only two turned over more than £1million. Birmingham City’s £3.6m revenue was impressive and owed to £3m in sponsorship income; just £336,000 arrived in the form of TV money, so it’s clear how clubs run at a loss if reliant on that particular revenue stream. One source estimates Wolves would have needed to spend £1m-£1.5m annually if the women’s team were in the second tier. Income is unlikely to have offset the expenditure.

The worth of that investment is dependent on your viewpoint. On one hand, handing over £1m a year to stand still in the Championship does not make great business sense. Yet by that logic, hardly any football club in England — male or female — makes good business sense. There is also the point that several other clubs are investing with a view to promotion to the WSL; without a greater commitment, Wolves would not have been among the favourites to continue up the pyramid.

Wolves Women, like any developing business, are likely to be loss-making for the near future. But with more eyes on the women’s game, alongside the WSL’s TV deal and, at the top end, heightened interest from would-be club buyers, the sport is firmly in a growth stage and could prove a valuable long-term investment.

Wolves finished second in the Women’s National League (Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images)

Is it true that most professional women’s teams make a loss?

The majority do, and certainly in the Women’s Championship. Using the most recent figures for 2023-24’s second-tier clubs and stripping out any loan write-offs that distort results, the division lost £8.5m — £709,000 per club — on average.

Further up the chain, Chelsea and Manchester City lost £8.4m and £3.2m. City spent more than 100 per cent of their income on wages in each of the past two seasons.

On the flip side, Liverpool booked a pre-tax profit of £645,000, while in 2021-22 Manchester United posted a £1.2m profit (£900,000 after tax). Both clubs finished fourth in the WSL in the relevant seasons, though neither was close to winning the league.

Just as in the WSL, losses are not distributed evenly in the second tier. In the Championship, London City Lionesses’ £2.5m deficit was the largest loss; at the other end of the scale, Durham turned a profit, albeit only £38,000. Nine clubs lost less than £1m in 2023-24, including Crystal Palace (loss: £704,000), who nabbed the one promotion spot last season.

Spending smart, as ever, is better than spending lots, though making a loss is largely a fact of life at any level, or gender, of English football.

Is the Wolves situation unusual in the women’s game? 

Yes and no. Conversations over affording licensing fees occur regularly among clubs in the lower tiers and even as high as the second tier.

Some clubs that struggle to run their women’s team sustainably do not see the benefit of paying the licensing fee to be promoted if the costs to be in that environment outweigh the benefits.

The most recent high-profile case of a club failing to meet licensing criteria was Reading last summer. The women’s team were demoted to the fifth tier of English football before the start of the current season amid the wider club’s financial difficulties and protracted takeover saga. The club specifically cited the inability to afford the licence and other criteria required to remain in the Championship for the decision to drop down. Demotion came a year after the club were relegated from the top flight and the women’s team was reduced to a part-time operation.

A women’s football team finding itself without appropriate backing due to the financial circumstances of the men’s team is, though, sadly familiar, despite the perceived evolution of women’s football in England.

Last season, Blackburn Rovers, who play in the second tier of women’s football in England, were criticised after the club declared a playing budget of just £100,000 for their women’s team for the 2024-25 season, reducing their players to salaries of £9,000 on 16-hour-a-week contracts.

The season before, Stoke City — who play in the FA Women’s National League Northern Premier Division alongside Wolves — made headlines after a series of images displayed the state of playing facilities afforded to the women’s team, likened to a “landfill”. Months later, the club were in the headlines again after refusing to help pay the cost of an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained by one of their players, Kayleigh McDonald, during a defeat by Burnley. Stoke later agreed to contribute towards the costs of her recovery.

What are the implications for the future of Wolves’ women’s team? 

Time will tell but sources who spoke to The Athletic fear that players and coaching staff will be tempted to leave Wolves.

They believe the budget will be cut further this summer, meaning Wolves will struggle to maintain their recent position near the top of their division, let alone push for promotion again, even if the owner was willing to back them.

That means players might look elsewhere for teams either already in the Championship or clubs willing to make clear their desire to earn promotion.

(Top photo: Jack Thomas/Wolves via Getty Images)

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