Racing Club de Lens Féminin is a French football club that competes in the

Seconde Ligue The Seconde Ligue ( ) is a professional sports, professional women's association football league at the second level of the French football league system, and is run by the ''Ligue féminine de football professionnel'' (LFFP). Its annual compe ...

. The club was founded in 2001 as Arras Football Association, and was renamed Arras Football Club Féminin in 2011. In 2020, the club became the women's department of

Racing Club de Lens Racing Club de Lens (), commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply as Lens, is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the department of Pas-de-Calais. The club's nickname, ''Les Sang et Or'' (), comes from i ...

History

Arras Football Club Féminin was founded in 2001, as the women's department of

Arras FA Arras Football Association is a French association football team founded in 1901. It is based in Arras, France and plays in the Régional 1, the sixth tier in the French football league system. It plays at the Degouve-Brabant Stadium in Arras. ...

. In 2002, Arras won their regional championship, and were promoted to

Division 3 Féminine The Division 3 Féminine, shortened as D3 Féminine, is the third division of women's association football, women's football in France. Run by the French Football Federation, the league is contested by twenty four fully professional clubs into tw ...

. In 2009–10, Arras won the Division 3 Group C title, and were promoted to

Division 2 Féminine The Seconde Ligue ( ) is a professional women's association football league at the second level of the French football league system, and is run by the '' Ligue féminine de football professionnel'' (LFFP). Its annual competition features twel ...

. In 2011, the club renamed itself Arras Football Club Féminin (Arras FCF), after becoming a separate team from Arras FA. In the season, Arras FCF won promotion to the

Division 1 Féminine Division may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting of 10,000 to ...

. They also reached the semi-finals of the

2011–12 Coupe de France Féminine The 2011–12 Coupe de France Féminine was the 11th edition of the French cup competition for women. This was the inaugural edition of the competition under the name ''Coupe de France Féminine'', as for the past decade, it was played under the n ...

, the team's best performance in the competition. Arras were later relegated from Division 1 Féminine in the 2014–15 season. They finished second in Division 2 Féminine in , third in , sixth in , and eighth in . Arras finished ninth in the , before the season was halted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In 2019, a deal between Arras and

was agreed to allow Arras to train once a week at Lens' stadium. In 2020, the club was taken over by Racing Club de Lens, in a merger/adoption deal. The team took the Lens name, and kept the badge of Arras on player jerseys alongside the Lens badge. The team now trains most of the time at La Gaillette, although sometimes at Arras, and matches are played in both locations. As part of the move, Sarah M'Barek was announced as the team's new manager. Lens announced that most of the Arras players would be kept after the takeover, and the club made eight signings in the summer 2020 transfer window. Prior to the deal, Lens were one of six professional men's clubs without a women's team.

Current squad

References

External links

Official website

Footo Feminin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lens Fem Women's football clubs in France Association football clubs established in 2001 2001 establishments in France Sport in Pas-de-Calais RC Lens Arras Football clubs in Hauts-de-France Seconde Ligue clubs