A brand new era for Worcester women’s football begins after it was announced that former Tottenham Hotspur Women’s General Manager Nicole Allison and business partner Mark Howard will take over the helm of Worcester City Women FC Ltd.
The women’s side of town is now becoming, for the first time, a stand-alone entity to promote, develop and promote women’s football in Worcester.
The team is currently playing in step five of the women’s soccer pyramid, similar to their male colleagues, who were previously integrated into the development of men and did not exist on their own.
Allison and Howard will form a four-person committee with Worcester City Chairman Steve Goode and Worcester City Chairman Luke Cox to help build something special.
“We want a really great women’s football club that the community can be proud of,” said Allison.
“I’m a girl from Worcester so I grew up here and didn’t have much of a chance to play myself when I was younger because Worcester didn’t have football for girls so I had to play with wolves in Wolverhampton. where I’ve spent most of my career as a player.
“I have lived in London for the past 10/12 years and spent some time in the US and Germany, where I did a fair amount of work on the business side of the game. This was a great opportunity for me to return to Worcester after moving last summer and put my skills, expertise and investments into creating a separate entity that is now Worcester City Women’s FC Limited. ”
Alisson stated that there is a joint push to start the women’s game at the club, with the men’s board very much on the side and they all share the great ambitions of Allison.
“We are very closely connected (women’s and men’s team). I think the Worcester City Men’s board was fantastic. The moment I came to them with my plan, they made it clear how ready they were to support us.
“But they realized they didn’t have that expertise, so they wanted me to lead it, but of course they’re all very supportive so it’s a one-club approach.
“We know we’re tier five, but we have a long-term vision to get the club into the Women’s Super League (WSL). Since I’m in the women’s game at Tottenham, I have that experience and a network within these elite levels of women’s football. I know what it takes to become a WSL club. This is our focus, but we still have a long way to go before we do all of this, of course ”.
Long dated Howard, Goode and Cox, Allison eventually wants to reach the bright lights of the Super League for women, but is realistic in her approach and has a long-term and short- to medium-term plan in place to guide them.
“Being realistic is absolutely important to us as this is a very long-term plan,” said Allison.
“Football has a tendency to be pretty short-term and think right, let’s go through a lot of money and we can do what we want very quickly and we just don’t. We’re very focused on this long-term approach. ”
“We have a short to medium term plan and a long term plan. This short to medium term plan is supposed to be promoted from the fifth stage in the next two to three years and be in the fourth stage to be promoted to the third stage. ” Well.
“What is important to us is that the focus is not just on winning, but that it is about creating an environment in which players and coaches can win. I firmly believe that winning will be if you create the winning environment. ” A by-product of that, so we have to create some kind of environment.
“That includes facilities, resources and partnerships that work within the environment. That will be my main focus. And that will allow the players and coaches to do what they do best, which is to play and train and people develop.”
“If we can do that, I firmly believe that success on the pitch will be shown by being promoted from level five to level four and making sure we are a competitive team within level four for the next two years and then be able to look at it. ” how we can evolve. ”