Last week, Crystal Palace co-owner and chairman Steve Parish had this to say about finances in the women’s game: “I’m very passionate that we need to put in cost controls and salary caps. If you look at the WSL, the top four or five clubs last year had a positive goal difference of 166 and the rest were obviously minus 166. There’s a disparity in quality because of the access to talent and because there’s no strict salary cap. You can spend as much as you want.
It’s also trying to balance that with how sustainable that is for certain clubs. When you look at the makeup of the clubs in the WC, you’ve got London City Lionesses, which is a completely independent club, having broken away from Millwall a few years ago. London City Lionesses were formally Millwall FC Lewes FC is an independent club and entirely fan-owned . Crystal Palace is backed by a big Premier League outfit.