YEOVIL Town Ladies have expressed their disappointment with the FA's plans to restructure and relicense the top tiers of the women's football pyramid.

The plans are to be implemented from the start of the 2018-19 season, and will see the current FA WSL 1 expanded to a top tier of up to 14 teams with full-time professional players.

The Lady Glovers, who won promotion to the top flight in 2016, hosted several matches across Yeovil, Taunton and Bridgwater in the Spring Series this year, and last weekend they began their new winter season in WSL 1.

However, they are not a full-time professional club - preferring the path of sustainable development.

Their statement says: "Winning the FA Women’s Super League 2 division in the 2016 season meant we gained our place in the top tier on football merit.

"Since we became a WSL2 side in 2014, our attendance has grown year on year and in three years, our club has been awarded the FA WSL Club of the Year award twice, which recognises both on-pitch and off-pitch success.

"In the 2016 season, despite being a WSL2 team, our average attendance was higher than three WSL1 teams and in the 2017 Spring Series, the home game v Liverpool was the highest attendance in the whole of the league, with 1,897 fans attending.

"In just a two-month period, we engaged with over 5,000 young children through our community programme and have increased participation levels locally, through grass roots clubs.

"We have the structure, facilities and ambition to become a full-time professional club given time, but we currently do not have the financial support to do this.

"We do not have the budget to allow our players and coaches to become full-time athletes, unless further investment comes our way soon."

The statement added: "We have set out our plans to the FA, but it seems that there is a clear desire by them to impose off-field financial criteria immediately as a condition of WSL membership.

"The deadline to submit our application for a new WSL licence to The FA is November 10, 2017, with a decision to be made on December 13, 2017.

"With the rapid growth of our club in such a short space a time, we urge all fans, businesses, media and the community, to continue to support us.

"Our club has worked extremely hard over many years to get to the top flight and we wish that journey to continue.

"In order to discuss all aspects of our club development, we are encouraging fans, businesses, media and the community to attend our Forum Meeting, on Monday, October 9 at 7pm at Huish Park."

To register a place at the forum meeting, you can sign up here, or for more information you can email info@yeoviltownladies.com.