The opening weekend of the Continental Tyres Women’s National League kicks off this Saturday, March 18 with all eyes on Shelbourne Ladies as they prepare to defend the title against Cork City WFC, Galway WFC, Kilkenny United WFC, Peamount United, UCD Waves and Wexford Youths WFC.
The League is moving this year to a single calendar year season, echoing that of the SSE Airtricity League and will once again have seven teams competing in this its seventh year.
Negotiations are understood to be taking place with groups from Limerick and Sligo to field an eighth team next year, to replace Castlebar who withdrew from the League in 2016.
“We are excited about the new Continental Tyres Women’s National League season kicking off, as it should be really competitive again and switching to the single calendar format should result in better football being played,” said FAI National Competitions manager Fran Gavin.
“The League continues to go from strength to strength and that is evidenced by the rising number of girls who are being capped by the Republic of Ireland at senior, Under 19 and Under 17 level. It is a mark of the League’s progression that it caters for so many international players.”
Irish international Roma McGloughlin has joined Shelbourne from Peamount prior to the start of the season, strengthening their defence despite losing last year’s Player of the Year Noelle Murray who has joined Glasgow City.
“There is still more to be done to bring the League on and we are working closely with each of the clubs to make the necessary improvements,” added Gavin.
Six of the seven teams carry shirt sponsorship this season with eFlow on the jerseys of Champions Shelbourne and Energia another national brand on Wexford Youths. Cork City are the only one without a shirt sponsor going into the new season.
“We’re committed to our partnership in women’s football in Ireland as we enter our fourth season as its main commercial partner,” said Continental Tyres Marketing Communications Manager Peter Robb speaking exclusively last week to Sport for Business.
“Our FAI partnership extends to the men’s game but since our relationship commenced in 2014, we have chosen to activate primarily in the women’s game, simply because it makes more commercial sense for our brand in Ireland.”
