Volunteers are the widely acknowledged lifeblood of FA Women’s National League clubs, giving their time freely in vital areas such as secretarial duties, maintaining statistical records, coaching support and organising matchday arrangements.
During the years 2014-23 that ethos was ambitiously stretched to administering the whole of the League structure. Following the expansion of the Women’s Super League to two divisions, the FA handed the running of a newly formulated Women’s Premier League to an independent, elected management committee led by Carol West and including 11 volunteers.
With several clubs stepping up to the two Super League divisions, the Premier League was set to become a six-division alliance with the country’s four Combination leagues added to what would become the Premier League’s top tier pair of Northern and Southern divisions.
It was a daunting task for the new committee, but when police officer West stepped into her role as chair she had a large bank of footballing experience to call on. She had been involved in the women’s game for over 20 years as a player, coach and manager with her South Yorkshire Police team Niagara Ladies and as an administrator at county, regional and national levels.
Working closely with West on a daily basis throughout the committee’s nine years was League Development Officer Karen Falconer, a former goalkeeper who trialled for Scotland and later became a successful coach - as assistant to the legendary Julie Chipchase she helped guide Doncaster Belles to both the 2000 and 2002 FA Women’s Cup finals.
Looking back at what was a pivotal period for the league, West said: “We achieved a lot in those nine years, and certainly a lot more than some people thought we could achieve.
“We had to convince them to begin with that we were the right people to get involved and move the project forward. They took a bit of convincing, but your results speak for you and I think we got everyone’s trust once they saw the professionalism, our energy, the approach we were taking and the fact that between us on the management committee we'd got a huge amount of both operational and strategic experience in football.
“We were able to build credibility quite quickly, especially with Karen on board dealing with the visibility of the league, the look and feel of it. I’d worked alongside Karen since she joined the East Midlands Regional Women’s League committee I was chair of.
“We developed that league to a pretty strong position with the ethos of getting clubs to look upwards, aspiring to what was above us. We won the FA’s Respect award twice with that league and then won it again when we’d transitioned through to the Midland Combination - and then won it twice with the Premier League.”
The FA Respect award, won in each of the first two seasons of the new-look Premier League, demonstrated the management committee’s ambitions and capabilities as the league prospered.
Falconer, whose graphic design skills played a key role in developing the new Premier League’s brand and increasing the visibility of the league, said: “When it came to running the new league we were confident, with the quality of people we had on the committee, that we could do it successfully.
“After the first couple of years, some of the stalwarts (of the old Premier League) stood up at an AGM and acknowledged that they felt we'd done a really good job and they were now fully supportive, which was quite something to hear.”
Running the league was a massive undertaking, with not just the expansion to six divisions but also with the reserve team section to administer plus League Cup and Plate competitions, and a reserve team knock-out Cup too.
Among the new features of the league was the chance for Northern and Southern Division teams to gain promotion to the WSL, initially through a play-off between the winners of each division (as only one WSL place was at the time available) and then both divisional winners stepping up from the 2023-24 season.
It was back to the future in 2018 as the league was re-titled the FA Women’s National League, ‘National’ having been the original name of the competition when it was founded by The Women’s FA in 1991 and subsequently changed to ‘Premier’ after the FA’s takeover of the league in 1993.
Along with the name change came a wide-ranging re-branding programme, led - in conjunction with a designated agency - by design specialist Falconer and making full use of social media to increase the prominence of the league and earn itself the soubriquet ‘the heartbeat of women’s football.’
Falconer said: “We had gained momentum in the four years we’d been running the Premier League, then the new start as the National League was a key timeline in the evolution of the competition.
“We became the FAWNL family, that was a huge thing for the clubs - when we did social media campaigns such as ‘Why We Play’ and ‘Behind the Ball,’ for instance, you’d have clubs who would not only post their own graphics but would retweet other club's graphics as well. The League’s Twitter page became super-busy and there was a real feeling of togetherness amongst the clubs all over the country.”
West added: “Sue Campbell (the FA’s Head of Women’s Football at that time) used to say to us, ‘how do you do it?’ And we’d say that as volunteers, the only thing that limits you is your imagination and the hours available on any given day. As any volunteer will tell you, you do it because you love doing it, and therefore your output and your effort is 110 per cent.”
As the seasons moved on and demands on time grew substantially, giving that 110 per cent began to take its toll on the management committee’s driving forces and eventually led to the disbandment of the volunteer body in the summer of 2023.
West explained: “Sue Campbell secured funding of one million pounds a year for three years for the National League from the (men’s) Premier League as part of the post-Covid TV renewal agreement with the Government, where some of that funding was given to support the growth of the women’s game.
“So we then had to implement a board, and obviously the board got involved, which presented challenges as well as workload. But in terms of our involvement, we’d also still got the administration and business side of the National League to look after while we were also formulating the League’s ‘Empowering for Success’ strategy.”
Recalling that difficult time, Falconer said: “I think the ‘Empowering for Success’ strategy and board work was the final straw that broke the camel's back, because the huge amount of extra work that came with it was on top of the normal League administration work, including running the business side of the League, all of which was a full-time job in itself.”
Matters came to a head at a management meeting just after the start of the 2023-24 season. “We went through all the various issues,” noted West, "and then I had to speak to the rest of the management committee and say, ‘somebody's going to have to take up some of the additional work.’
“Unfortunately, the people on the committee said they were already up to their own capacity so couldn’t take any more on.
“So we were forced into making a very difficult and, frankly, heart-rending decision. We had reached a point where we just couldn’t do any more and at that point, the full committee had no choice but to resign.
“It was a very distressing time, but you can only do so much. I think the important thing for us is to look back with great pride on what we achieved, because what we achieved was phenomenal.
“And that’s not just Karen and me, it’s also the other members of an independent management committee that stood up and took on the running of the National League, did a great job and should be acknowledged for what they did to progress the women’s game.”
The management committee have indeed been acknowledged, Baroness Campbell leading the plaudits. “I would like to personally thank the Management Committee for their incredible commitment to The FA Women’s National League over a number of years,” she said.
“In particular,” she added, “I would like to mention Carol West and Karen Falconer, who have been the driving force behind all of the excellent work the committee has done and have helped to ensure the league is the heartbeat of women’s football.”
The FA also paid tribute, stating: “We recognise the hard work and commitment of everyone involved in helping to create and establish The FA Women’s National League as the successful and competitive league that it is.”
The Independent FA Women’s Premier League Management Committee personnel
Inaugural committee, elected 2015:
Chair - Carol West
Vice Chair – Dave Baker
Treasurer – Arthur Brinkley
League Development Officer – Karen Falconer
Facilities Officer – Lorrie Morrison
Marketing & Communications Officer – Peter King
Discipline Officer – Phil Blakely
Referees Appointment Officer – Malcolm Hutchby
Club Representative – Northern & Southern Divisions – Sylvia Gore
Club Representative Midlands Division One/Northern Division One – Sue Foulkes
Club Representative South East Division One/South West Division One – Roger Reeves
Outgoing FAWNL Management Committee, 2023:
Chair - Carol WestVice Chair – Lorrie Morrison
Treasurer – Chris Clarke
League Development Officer – Karen Falconer
Facilities Officer – Andy Stickley
Discipline Officer – Lorrie Morrison
Club Representative – Northern & Southern Divisions – Jane Roberts
Club Representative Division One Midlands/Division One North – Amanda Cummings
Club Representative Division One South East/Division One South West– Roger Reeves