Budding feminine footballers in Lanarkshire have been dealt a blow after a women membership was pressured to shut - simply after securing funding that may have ensured no charges for gamers.
Rutherglen Ladies FC have said a scarcity of gamers has brought on them to shut after a number of years of offering a membership for native lasses.
The staff, who lined a number of age classes, had been the one women staff within the Rutherglen space, and had been established in 2012 by Brian O'Neill, after he could not discover any native groups for his daughter to play in.
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A membership assertion stated: "We're very unhappy to announce that this week sees the top of Rutherglen Girls Soccer Membership as we're now not in a position to collect a squad for the rest of the season.
"We want to thank each one that has been concerned with the membership over the previous 11 years since we began. Everybody has performed their half whether or not or not it's as a participant, coach, committee member or father or mother.
"All your assist has helped the membership develop and hasn’t gone unnoticed.
"We’ve had much more good days than dangerous and this season particularly has seen our women play a few of their greatest soccer and have a few of their greatest outcomes ever.
"A giant thanks goes to all the groups we've got performed in opposition to over time, we’ve loved the challenges that we’ve confronted alongside the best way.
"The largest thanks of all goes to Brian, the membership would by no means have turn into what it was with out his willpower to offer all the ladies and women a supportive setting the place they may develop themselves not solely as gamers however as individuals too.
"We hope everyone seems to be pleased and wholesome sooner or later, and we’ll at all times have the perfect recollections from our time collectively at Rutherglen."
After being contacted by Lanarkshire Dwell, the membership added that they had secured Lottery funding earlier this yr to make sure gamers on the membership would not have needed to fork out charges.
They added: "We had simply secured lottery funding to permit us to not cost any of the ladies charges for the remainder of the season however there was simply not sufficient dedicated gamers for us to proceed.
"We’d identical to to thank all gamers, coaches, dad and mom and sponsors which have stored us going over time."
The information comes simply as the ladies's sport is anticipated to take pleasure in a recognition enhance following the current Girls's Euro 2022 held in England, with the host nation triumphing 2-1 in Sunday's ultimate in opposition to Germany earlier than almost 90,000 followers at Wembley.
A TV viewers peaked at 17.4 million for the ultimate.
Rutherglen MSP Clare Haughey stated the information was a blow for the native sports activities scene.
She instructed us: "It's a actual disgrace to see Rutherglen Ladies FC fold.
"The staff could have been a key half to the lives of many women and girls, and so I want them and the coaches effectively.
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"Ladies’ and ladies’s soccer has grown immeasurably over current years, however we all know participation ranges are nonetheless a great distance off these within the males’s sport.
"Hopefully tournaments like Euro 2022 will additional promote and develop women’ and ladies’s soccer right here in Scotland."
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