Shels drop ‘Ladies’ tag and switch to Tolka Park

Shelbourne’s women’s team are dropping the name ‘Ladies’ from their name and, having previously played at the AUL Complex, will now play all their home games at Tolka Park.

With the new Women’s National League season having just kicked off, the club is making these and other changes to show, in the words of a statement, that it is “committed to equality and parity of esteem for all of our players”.

In other moves towards the same end, Shels have announced that their kit deal with Umbro and front-of-shirt sponsorship deal with Dublin City University includes both their Women’s and Men’s National League teams; their social media channels will represent and promote both their WNL and U17 WNL teams, in addition to their MNL and U19 MNL teams; and all Shelbourne FC season tickets are valid for WNL matches.

All boys and girls that play in their Academy can also avail of a free season ticket. Former Ireland U17 boss Dave Bell has taken over the senior women’s team who got their campaign up and running with a 10-1 thrashing of Kilkenny on Sunday.

Shels CEO, David O’Connor said: “We’re confident that Dave is the right person to realise the full potential of our WNL squad, which includes a number of Senior, U19 and U17 internationals.”

The statement from the club added: “Shelbourne FC supports the 20x20.ie campaign, an initiative aimed at increasing media coverage of women in sport, female participation at all levels, and attendance at women’s games by 20% by 2020, and our WNL team will wear a ‘20x20’ arm patch in support of this initiative.” Shels’ first WNL home game of the season takes place this Saturday against Limerick WFC at 4pm in Tolka Park.