Reading FC Womens World

[The Royal Forester]

On another thread it was suggested that one was started on the Royal Women's Team, so here it is.

Fara Williams has won the player of the month.

She scored an amazing goal direct from a kick off.

They are doing well this season.

Should they be renamed The Royal (or Reading) Princesses,* as Women or Ladies is used by most teams and it would make us that little bit different?

Anyone got any comments?

*Not sure if there should be an apostrophe here after the last s, but I do know it will not be before the last s. However, there is a certain person on this forum who will, no doubt let me know if I am wrong!

[The Royal Forester]

A slap on the wrist for me. I didn't put a comma after doubt. Genuine mistake, I assure you.http://www.royals.org/forum/posting.php ... 6ab0598289#

[muirinho]

On another thread it was suggested that one was started on the Royal Women's Team, so here it is.

Fara Williams has won the player of the month.

She scored an amazing goal direct from a kick off.

They are doing well this season.

Should they be renamed The Royal (or Reading) Princesses,* as Women or Ladies is used by most teams and it would make us that little bit different?

Anyone got any comments?

*Not sure if there should be an apostrophe here after the last s, but I do know it will not be before the last s. However, there is a certain person on this forum who will, no doubt let me know if I am wrong!

Glad to see there's a new thread. I'm now going to go wildly off-topic, so stop reading now if that winds you up.

No to Princesses - because English is a sexist language.

Rambling Explanation
I would have liked to call my daughter Faoiltiarna, but was vetoed my my other half, who is not an Irish speaker, claiming (no doubt correctly) that no-one would be able to pronounce or spell it.

Faoiltiarna translates in English as Lady of the wolves, or Wolf Lady, or Wolf Mistress.

The male equivalent of that (Faoiltiarn) translates as Lord of the wolves, or Wolf Lord or Wolf Master.

In Irish both versions have the same meaning. i.e. a Wolf Lady has the same status as Wolf Lord - someone who is in control of the Wolves.

In English - Lord of the wolves is the guy who controls the wolves, whereas Lady of the wolves probably means a lady who belongs to the wolves, or with the wolves. Not in charge of them. Because in English the female version of a noun like that has a lower status than the male version. Similarly Wolf Master - yep, guy in charge of. Wolf Mistress - hmmm, let's not go there.

[TL:DR] A "Princess" is a whiny entitled brat. Our Royal Ladies are anything but. If you want a different name for them, need to pick a gender-neutral noun.

[Hound]

Can’t say I can comment that much other than to see it’s very nice to see them doing well

There’s some strong youth girls teams around the area so good to see they have some excellent role models to aspire to

[From Despair To Where?]

Fara Williams has won the player of the month.

She scored an amazing goal direct from a kick off.

She scored an absolute belter away to Liverpool that brought back memories of Simon Osborn at the Valley

@28 seconds in this clip

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41475638

It's good to see they are moving away from being in a 3 team mini league fighting to avoid relegation.

[Royals and Racers]

What surprised me yesterday was the size of the crowd- the U23`s or youth cup ties have never pulled in a crowd that size.
It wasn`t as if the club really pushed the match on the website- nothing that I saw as a preview yesterday.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Fara Williams has won the player of the month.

She scored an amazing goal direct from a kick off.

She scored an absolute belter away to Liverpool that brought back memories of Simon Osborn at the Valley

@28 seconds in this clip

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41475638

It's good to see they are moving away from being in a 3 team mini league fighting to avoid relegation.

FW scored a cheeky and even better one v Arsenal a couple of weeks ago....it's out there on youtube and the BBC website somewhere.

Having a good season so-far......over 2.2k there last night.....even bigger than some EP turnouts to see the first team men back in the day.

There is obviously a demand for it on the rise......just needs to get away from Adams Park I guess

Well done ladies

[From Despair To Where?]

I've seen the one from Arsenal but for me, the technique to hit a dropping ball on the volley into the top corner from distance surpasses hitting a 70 yd dead ball.

Both excellent goals though

[AthleticoSpizz]

no arguement from me......the 70yarder put Reading Ladies on the media radar tho’

[If you still hate Futcher]

What surprised me yesterday was the size of the crowd- the U23`s or youth cup ties have never pulled in a crowd that size.
It wasn`t as if the club really pushed the match on the website- nothing that I saw as a preview yesterday.

Well they were doing overtime on twitter about it with numerous mentions especially about free entry for season ticket holders and free parking. There was also some mention of complimentary tickets to a WSL game at Adams Park but this may have been a restricted number as I didn't see anything about that at the turnstiles yesterday.

They may also have passed out free tickets to the "sister clubs" as there looked like there were a lot of local teams there as well as families

[muirinho]

What surprised me yesterday was the size of the crowd- the U23`s or youth cup ties have never pulled in a crowd that size.
It wasn`t as if the club really pushed the match on the website- nothing that I saw as a preview yesterday.

Well they were doing overtime on twitter about it with numerous mentions especially about free entry for season ticket holders and free parking. There was also some mention of complimentary tickets to a WSL game at Adams Park but this may have been a restricted number as I didn't see anything about that at the turnstiles yesterday.

They may also have passed out free tickets to the "sister clubs" as there looked like there were a lot of local teams there as well as families

Yes, I think it was promoted pretty heavily, and there were clearly groups from women's clubs in the area - not sure if they were all "sister" clubs either - one tweet I saw was a group from Oxford University's women's football team.

I reckon once they'd decided to have a game in the Mad Stad, they decided to get as many people through the turnstiles as possible, regardless of price, - it's not going to cost them any extra, and they might make a few bob on teas and coffees. As well as promoting the team in general.

I know a few season-ticket holders who went because it was free, who said they'll go again if there's another game at the Mad Stad.

[Hound]

Didn't see any advertising for it myself up until the day of the game. Don't think it got promoted in my kid's youth team set up either, which have a strong girls structure.

But in saying that it may have gone directly to the coaches of the girl's teams

[SCIAG]

Hadn't realised that we had signed Williams before Wednesday. Real coup for us even though she's getting on a bit.

Should they be renamed The Royal (or Reading) Princesses,* as Women or Ladies is used by most teams and it would make us that little bit different?

Big "no". If we did insist on this then "Queens" would be better than "Princesses", but there's really no need. "Royals" is gender-neutral and should be used by both teams. We don't insist on calling our youth teams "the Princes" and the seniors aren't the "Reading Royals". No need to try and make ourselves stand out.

*Not sure if there should be an apostrophe here after the last s, but I do know it will not be before the last s. However, there is a certain person on this forum who will, no doubt let me know if I am wrong!

No apostrophe. The hypothetical princesses do not own anything.

[Jackson Corner]

Are the Chinese subsidising the ladies? They are all professional now.with playing at Adams park plus overnight stays for away games etc it’s quite an expensive venture without getting that much in return.

[KC Royal]

Are the Chinese subsidising the ladies? They are all professional now.with playing at Adams park plus overnight stays for away games etc it’s quite an expensive venture without getting that much in return.

Wouldn't it have been the Thais initially? I'm assuming being in Super League 1 for 3 years now (2 years + first season of the new winter league?) they'd have to have been professional since they went up to that league, if not before. It shows how well the club is progressing when they can sign England internationals like Fara Williams, and also Jo Potter and Jade Moore back in the summer.

[Nameless]

Are the Chinese subsidising the ladies? They are all professional now.with playing at Adams park plus overnight stays for away games etc it’s quite an expensive venture without getting that much in return.

Well the obvious answer is that the RFC owners by definition underwrite the costs of the Club. The running costs of all the teams within the club have to be paid for and if the league funding, sponsorship and any other income for a specific team doesn’t match what it costs to run them the owners are ‘subsidising them’. But the question makes no more sense than asking whether the owners are subsidising the under 12’s....

[Hound]

Are the women full time? Would assume not and that their salaries from the club are pretty low. Would be happy to be corrected

[muirinho]

Are the women full time? Would assume not and that their salaries from the club are pretty low. Would be happy to be corrected

I think probably most of them are, but that has only started happening in the last couple of seasons. Don't know what the proportions are, but it's clear a lot more money has been pumped in.

In order to apply for tier 1 of the WSL next season, clubs have to commit to a minimum of 16 hours a week daytime contact time, with matches on top of that, for all of their senior players, and that minimum amount of hours increases in subsequent seasons to 20 hours a couple of years. That's basically professional - in terms of contact hours, plus matchtime, plus travel, it's about equivalent to what the men do.

In terms of what they get paid, it's not massive - you couldn't raise a family on it, that's for sure. Probably somewhere between 15 and 25K (per year, obviously, not per week). There's also money from the FA for England players on top of that.

Top players with the big clubs might earn about £40K, with England money on top of that.

[Royal Rother]

I saw the last hour of the game on the Facebook stream and was impressed.

Strong in the tackle, much better body strength than the Bees and we played some proper passing football with excellent use of space.

I enjoyed it.

[From Despair To Where?]

I'd be surprised if the Women's team cost more than £1m a year to run. Fara Williams may, as a top earner, be on something like £30,000-40,000 a year, Kelly Chambers maybe something similar but there's only about 20 players in the squad and I doubt there's many earning more than £20,000 a year.