Turner: "It's really sad for the women's game... Maybe this is a wake-up call to other teams to say: look, let's not let this happen to us"
Tuesday 5 May 2020 15:46, UK
For almost three decades, football has been all Kim Turner has known.
The love affair began aged seven, watching her local team Glentoran in her hometown of Belfast with her father.
After playing football with boys throughout her childhood, Turner decided to make a career out of it, playing in the USA and Iceland. She later settled in England and played for Manchester City Women, Blackburn Women and AFC Fylde Women, before becoming their assistant manager last year.
But now, after 28 years of being involved in the beautiful game, it has come to an ugly end with the recent announcement AFC Fylde have disbanded their women's team because of financial difficulties at the club as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.
They're believed to be the first women's club to suffer this feat, despite the club stating they were wholeheartedly committed to the women's team just weeks beforehand.
"It's the first time in my life I've not had football," Turner tells Sky Sports News. "I'm hurt. I'm sad. I go through a mix of emotions. I've got so much passion for it.
"For the last 20 years, I've dedicated my life to it and left my family to put my time into it. And I finally found a little home at Fylde for the first time in a long time. It just leaves you a little bit lost."
What a difference a year makes. At the beginning of last season, the third-tier club were making plans to apply for a license for the Women's Championship in the league above, such were their lofty ambitions.
They managed to attract players from more established clubs like Derby and Stoke, and claimed the signatures of internationals such as Welsh forward Emily Hollinshead and New Zealand defender Laura Merrin - who moved to England to pursue her dream of being a professional footballer.
Turner is convinced the talent was in place to build something special at the club. And such was their camaraderie, some of the players were making 90-mile round trips from home to train with the team, sometimes up to three times a week, despite barely being paid.
"The club contacted the coaches about 15 minutes before the [disbandment] announcement, which only gave us a short time to tell the girls," she says.
"Why not have a conversation? Why not give us an opportunity to try and fix it and make it work? That was hard.
"A lot of our girls have accountant jobs, they're teachers, they run their own businesses so these girls aren't silly, they get it. It was just that lack of communication that really made them upset and angry."
Once the initial shock of the decision began to wane, the players started thinking ahead. They want to remain as a group but will need roughly £35,000 per season to ensure they can be self-sustainable.
Another option is for the players to take over the women's team at another club in the area who would be willing to fund them. But of course, that would leave them open to the same situation happening again further down the line.
"We had girls who had fell out of love with the game and came to us and we give them that love back," the former Northern Ireland international explains. "And that's what made that team so special, just bringing in all these different players from everywhere.
"It's really sad for the women's game, there's now just one team in tier three in Lancashire. The jump from tier four to tier two is huge and we were that building block. We had the coaches, we had the medical team, we had the players to make that step."
A recent report from FIFPRO warned that the women's game is likely to be disproportionately affected by the coronavirus crisis due to a lack of finances. Turner hopes the disbandment at AFC Fylde Women isn't the first of many in the game.
"Maybe this is a wake-up call to other teams to say: look, let's not let this happen to us," she says. "Maybe it's a message to those clubs to try and make it on their own.
"It needs to be sustainable in the women's game. There needs to be more sponsorship. I think it's really important. It's the only way the women's game will grow."
