Gillingham Women's Football Club is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

women's football club. The club compete in the and stage home matches at the Bauvill Stadium in

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

History

In 1995,

Gillingham F.C. Gillingham Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent, England. The only Kent-based club in the Football League, the "Gills" play their home matches at Priestfield Stadium. The team compe ...

owner

Paul Scally Paul Damien Phillip Scally (born ) is a London-born businessman who served as the chairman of Gillingham Football Club between 1995 and 2022. Career Scally had become wealthy through the sale of his Metronote photocopier business in South Lon ...

co-opted Co-option (also co-optation, sometimes spelt coöption or coöptation) has two common meanings. It may refer to the process of adding members to an elite group at the discretion of members of the body, usually to manage opposition and so maintai ...

a local women's football team called Borstal '88. In June 2014, the team was brought back under the banner of the men's football club,

, after a period as an independent outfit. Following this takeover, the club became known as Gillingham Ladies and played home games at

Priestfield Stadium Priestfield Stadium (popularly known simply as Priestfield and officially known from 2007 to 2010 as KRBS Priestfield Stadium and from 2011 as MEMS Priestfield Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a football stadium in Gillingham, Kent. It has ...

Simon Ratcliffe Simon Ratcliffe (born 8 February 1967) is an English former professional football player, who is manager of Gillingham Ladies and the Gillingham Girls Academy. His clubs included Norwich City, Brentford and Gillingham, where he made over 100 F ...

was appointed as manager, but the club was

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

after the 2014–15 season and Ratcliffe subsequently departed. In June 2020,

announced that, as a result of restructuring necessitated by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, they would no longer operate Gillingham Ladies with immediate effect. The club, sanctioned by the

FA Women's National League The FA Women's National League, formerly WFA National League and FA Women's Premier League (WPL), is a group of six football divisions run by the English Football Association. Founded in 1991 by the Women's Football Association, the League includ ...

, simultaneously announced a rebrand as Gillingham Women and would continue competing as an independent entity. In October 2022 Kevin Hake, the manager-chairman of Chatham Town, was announced as owner-chairman of the side, succeeding Josh Oatham.

Players

Current squad

References

External links

Official website
Women's football clubs in England

Ladies The word ''lady'' is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. Inform ...

Sport in Medway Football clubs in Kent Association football clubs established in 1995 1995 establishments in England FA Women's National League teams {{England-footyclub-stub