Forest Green Rovers’ decision to close their women’s side suggests that female football is “not valued”, according the team’s former captain Hattie Jones.
The Gloucestershire club finished second in the South West Regional Women’s Premier Division last campaign, narrowly missing out on promotion to the fourth tier by just one point.
Yet the team will not return next season as the club’s ownership looks to “concentrate resources” towards getting the men’s side back into the English Football League, after relegation to the National League in 2024.
“It sends [the message] is women’s and girls’ football valued?” Jones told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
“We were getting to the point where maybe we thought that it was – the Lionesses [England’s women’s team], they’ve had a massive influence on that.
“Forest Green over the last few years have done a lot to get the women’s team to where we are and so connected to the men’s team.
“But if you think about how this is then going to impact many, many young girls that are playing, I think the message is we’re not valued, ‘we don’t really care, we do it because we have to’.”
Forest Green said they hoped they would be able to fund the women’s team to return in the future.
BBC Radio Gloucestershire has approached the club for further comment.