The growth of women’s professional soccer is growing by leaps and bounds. It’s evident everywhere from TV deals to smaller victories like Coventry United Ladies Football Club. Coventry began the 2021/22 season as a newly crowned fully professional side. Today, Coventry United was punished. A punishment that will set the club back years. Here are the whirlwind two weeks in England, and how the English Football Association’s punishment of Coventry is tragically wrong.
It was quiet going into the winter break of the FA Women’s Championship; the second tier of professional women’s football in England. Liverpool sat atop the standings, striving for promotion after being sent down from the top tier, FA Women’s Super League, in spring of 2020. Coventry United sat in second-to-last place in their third season in the league, after gaining promotion from the FA Women’s National League.
Coventry was in a tough position, but not an unfamiliar place. In those three seasons, they’ve always finished near the bottom, but in the fall of 2021, they had a renewed sense of self. Team ownership made the jump to a fully professional team, abandoning amateur status.
With this new status, Coventry could pay more, bolster their lineup, and move towards promotion to the top tier of England. Then on December 21 it all appeared to go crumbling down.
Unemployment
Just four days before Christmas, Coventry United ownership announced voluntary bankruptcy of the women’s side, conveniently not including their ninth-tier men’s side. Coaches and players were notified that soon they’d become unemployed. In total, 30 people were losing their jobs.
The lone positive from the ownership side to this story was their attempt to save the club. In their filing, Coventry United had until January 4, 2022 to secure funding to keep the team going. For two weeks, players and coaches weren’t sure if they’d have a place to play or coach. This too for players that don’t make nearly enough to constitute professional football as a lone job.
Women’s soccer fans did what they always do, they jumped into support mode. As of publishing, a Crowdfunder page exceeded its £15,000 goal to support the players and employees of the team. Even other teams, like Stoke City FC Women, offered their training time to players that were now without a club.
Reprieve
Then, an after Christmas miracle. Coventry was saved by an angel. More specifically, Energy Angels. Lewis Taylor, owner of local energy company Energy Angels, invested £200,000 to £250,000 to allow Coventry to finish their season. It won’t stop there, as Taylor told Sky Sports News.
“We’re not doing this just to keep the team together this season,” said Taylor. “That’s the immediate concern, but I wouldn’t be here doing this if it was only for this season.”
Taylor’s investment followed the massive push to support women’s soccer in England. In March, Sky Sports obtained the rights to televise Super League matches, the top tier featuring clubs like Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea. To do it, they agreed to a deal in the millions, reaching the largest audience ever in England.
With all this investment, Coventry United, and new ownership, have more motivation than ever to reach to reach the top tier. Until Thursday when England’s governing body, the Football Association, laid down a harsh punishment.
Excessive Punishment
On the FA Women’s Championship Twitter page, they shared a surprising update.
Rule 19.2.2 triggered when past ownership informed the FA of the insolvency. So, because prior ownership’s financial issues and overextension, Taylor and the players and coaches of Coventry United are left in the dust.
The 10-point deduction has immediate ramifications. With only nine matches remaining, Coventry sits in 11th out of 12th place, with six points. The 12th place team sits with the same total but have two less goals in the goal differential tiebreaker. Here are two ways it stops.
First, and the least likely, is that Coventry United loses 10 points but still win enough matches to stay in the second tier. In 11 matches, Coventry has one win, three draws and seven losses. They’re on track to only get 10/11 points without the deduction. They would need to at earn at least 11 points in their last nine matches, without last place Watford gaining a single point. Again, not likely.
What more likely is a Coventry appeal. Within the rules of the of the FA, Coventry can protest the 10-point deduction, with the FA deciding if they’re reversed. The approved appeal reason is for a “Force Majeure Event.” If you don’t speak French, it’s ok. It basically means acts outside of their control or an Act of God. No floods caused the insolvency, but Coventry has a good argument for being outside of their control.
Taylor now owns the club. He didn’t have control of the club until after insolvency. Seems like an airtight argument.
The FA is within their power to reverse course. Reversing course on a punishment that should’ve never happened in the first place.
Follow Beyond Women’s Sports for more from the world of soccer. Thomas Costello is on Twitter too. Follow him @1ThomasCostello.
