Abstract
Despite the historically turbulent relationship between women’s football and the FA, culminating with a takeover in 1993 (20 years after FIFA recommended member states take responsibility for women’s football), in 2011 the FA funded, implemented and promoted the first semi-professional football league for women. This chapter looks at the context within which the FA Women’s Super League was developed, promoted and launched, and the way it was organised. The WSL represents an ambiguous concept in women’s football — the move to professionalisation, whilst offering potential benefit to players and clubs, represents an engagement with the very structure of football that has traditionally rejected and suppressed the involvement of women at all levels. The unique structural aspects of the FAWSL are given particular consideration.
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© 2015 Carrie Dunn and Joanna Welford
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Dunn, C., Welford, J. (2015). The Launch of the FAWSL. In: Football and the FA Women’s Super League: Structure, Governance and Impact. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137480323_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137480323_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-50265-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-48032-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)