Millwall Lionesses F.C.
Millwall ladies football team
Millwall Lionesses Football Club () is an English women's football club based in Rotherhithe, south-east London, that plays in the London and South East Women's Regional Football League Premier Division, the fifth tier of English women's football.
Founded in 1973, in Deptford, London, and coached by Richard Poole, the squad included Sue Prior who went on to become a prominent figure in the WFA, and Margaret Poole who went on to enjoy the international circuit and continues to play and advocate for the women's game in Australia today.
The group of women who made up the Lionesses were at first snubbed by Millwall F.C., but eventually went on to become the first women's football team to affiliate to a professional men's team, Millwall F.C., "The Lions ". These early Lionesses represent the foundation of the modern women's game.
The Lionesses went on to pioneer the now common "Football in the Community Scheme".
Millwall Lionesses is under the Millwall Community Trust and the side is currently managed by Ted Jones and assisted by Jack Wisson with club-captain being Jordan Butler.
History
Millwall Lionesses remained an independent club in their initial years of existence. In the mid–1980s Millwall FC, who were trying to mitigate an appalling reputation for football hooliganism and racism, embraced the female club as part of their community project. Development officer Gary Stempel sourced funding from the Greater London Council (GLC) and then a combination of Lewisham and Greenwich Councils, as well as the Sports Council.
Millwall Lionesses became a leading force in both the women's game and the "Millwall Community Programme", and played an active part in the development of girls' football.
The public source identifies “Millwall Lionesses F.C.” as millwall ladies football team. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Millwall, Lionesses and ladies.
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This entry incorporates text from “Millwall Lionesses F.C.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.