A REPORT published by Bournemouth University (BU) has revealed the harmful legacies of the Football Association’s (FA) 1993 takeover of women’s football.

Up until 1993 women’s football was governed by its own association called the Women's Football Association (WFA), which was formed in 1969 as a result of the growing popularity of women’s football.

BU's report concluded that the FA’s decision to abolish the separate WFA in 1993 has directly contributed to the decreased voice of women in football’s governance.

The report was authored by BU’s Senior Lecturer in Sports Journalism Dr Rafaelle Nicholson and funded by a FIFA Research Scholarship.

Dr Nicholson said in the report: “Far from using its own professional clout and experience to assist the WFA in its administration efforts, the FA instead appear to have chosen to place pressure on an already overstretched team of volunteers to simply give up and accept that the WFA could not afford to continue overseeing women’s football."

She added: “Many interviewees still feel hurt by what happened, some of them actually compared it to experiencing a death. The FA should publicly acknowledge their grief."

In questioning whether the alignment of men's and women's football in 1993 was the right course to take to grow the women's game, Dr Nicholson said: “The research suggests that the FA are now promoting a one-size-fits-all club model in which women feel they have to join up with the men in order to gain access to resources.

"But joining up with a men’s club is usually a trade-off.

“Women get a pitch to play on but often have very little say in how the club runs.”

Sue Foulkes, who was part of the Midlands WFA Committee, said: “All the doors were slammed in our faces basically.

“Unless someone opened some doors and let us get into clubs and get grounds, there just wasn’t enough future to grow your clubs really. You can’t forever change in a car, or in the car park.”

June Jaycocks, the WFA’s International Officer, said: “But merger, no, we couldn’t. A merger would mean that they welcomed us with open arms, wouldn’t it? I felt that it was more like a business venture. Because we needed help, they were taking us over.” 

The report proposes eight key recommendations for the FA. 

This includes dedicated committees for women's football, a grant scheme to help women take control of their own facilities and an independent clubs group to support clubs across the country.