The Football Association (FA) has apologised over its ban on a pioneering women’s football team in the 1940s.
The Corinthians played at the height of a ban on women’s football in 1949 on a muddy field in a park in Manchester – 28 years after the FA had ruled that women were banned from playing matches on FA-affiliated football grounds.
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An FA spokesman said: “Manchester Corinthians Ladies FC were pioneers of women’s football. Through their unwavering spirit, talent and determination, they blazed a trail for women’s football around the world.
“We are sorry that a ban on women’s football was introduced in 1921 and not revoked until 1971.”
The Corinthians football team was set up in 1949 in Manchester [Films Not Words]
The spokesman added: ” We recognise the courage of the teams and individuals who continued to play the game during this period.
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“In more recent times, our ongoing commitment and investment into women’s and girls’ football in England has achieved unprecedented success and growth across all levels of the game – and we will ensure it continues to thrive in the future.”
During World War One, women’s football had enjoyed a surge in popularity with some matches drawing in crowds of more than 50,000 fans.
At the time, any man fit enough to play football had been sent to fight on the front line.
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Back home, women not only took on their jobs but also their places on the pitch.
Women had been encouraged to play the sport to improve their health and well-being while working in factories, but it was a different story once the war had ended.
On 5 December 1921, the FA claimed football was “quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged”.
The ban changed the course of the women’s game forever.
It meant the women’s game was side-lined to being played in public parks for 50 years until the ban was overturned in 1971.
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Pioneers
The Corinthians was set up by Percy Ashley, who was a scout for Bolton Wanderers and a well-known referee in the local area.
He wanted to create a team where his daughter Doris, who was deaf, could play in Manchester.
Despite training on a field on Fog Lane Park in Didsbury with no facilities, the team went on to draw in huge crowds in massive stadiums including Sporting Lisbon.
They defied the rules to win silverware from across the world, becoming one of the founding teams of the Women’s FA.
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