Reading have announced that the club’s women’s team will switch to operating on a part-time basis only following relegation from the WSL.
The WSL became a fully professional league in 2018, meaning full-time contracts for all players, which made it the first of its kind for women’s football in Europe.
Reading had been an established part of the top flight since their 2015 promotion and finished fourth, only five points behind Arsenal, in the 2017/18 season.
But the Royals will play the 2023/24 campaign in the Women’s Championship and have communicated that they will no longer be a fully professional team as a consequence.
In a lengthy statement, the club explains that owner Dai Yongge has personally funded Reading Women since his 2018 takeover, investing £6m over that five-year period.
Even with the ‘considerable spike’ in interest in women’s football after Euro 2022 last summer, which saw increased attendances for Reading, as well as a boost to sponsorship and broadcast revenue, the owner still covered the almost £1m shortfall during the recently concluded season.
Broadcast income and central FA funding will both fall now that Reading are a second tier club.
Similarly, the men’s team suffered relegation from the Championship to League One, which means cost-cutting and careful financial management at all levels of the Madejski Stadium.
“Costs across the club have been cut considerably in recent years – the men’s first-team wage bill has been halved since 2019 for example – while the funding required to run a women’s team playing at the highest level of the game has, by contrast, grown,” a statement read.
“With more top-flight clubs choosing to spend heavily on their women’s team, that level of financial backing is continuing to escalate.
“Now we focus on establishing a more sustainable model for Reading FC Women which can ensure that pathway for young female footballers can extend into competitive women’s football played in the blue and white hoops of Reading Football Club.”
Chief executive Dayong Pang described the process as ‘difficult but necessary financial decisions’.
