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FA Cup visit of Chelsea reminds Charlton of a sad and avoidable decline

Charlton and Chelsea once competed as equals - Getty Images Europe
Charlton and Chelsea once competed as equals - Getty Images Europe

The sleek behemoth of the Chelsea team coach - all shine and tinted windows - looked incongruous against the mesh fence of the neighbouring children’s play area. Beyond that, the small details hinted at the gap between Charlton and Chelsea and what, in another life, might have been. At the gazebo passing for a ticket office, Charlton sold ‘autograph packs’ for £1: a Chelsea team photo and a pen. Charlton Women’s website warned that tickets were “selling quickly” and read: “The venue will be busy so we highly recommend using public transport to get to the fixture.”

For Charlton, the arrival of Chelsea’s roster of internationals, in the fourth round of the FA Cup, might once have been the sort of regular occurrence that did not warrant autograph packs or an attendance four times the size of Charlton Women’s usual home crowd. The Wikipedia page for Charlton Women begins with the words “between 2000–2007 the club was one of the most successful women's teams in England”.

How could they be otherwise with a side featuring the future Manchester United Women manager Casey Stoney, England centurion Eniola Aluko and ten-times FA Cup winner Katie Chapman? And how, given that Chelsea had to win a promotion-relegation play-off to stay in the top tier that year, did their fortunes end up so wildly different?

In 2007, Stoney captained Charlton in the FA Cup final in front of a then-record attendance of 25,000. The same day, Charlton’s men were relegated from the Premier League. On June 23rd that year, Charlton announced the closure of their women’s set-up - senior teams, academy and centre of excellence - to cut costs. During that spell, Charlton’s only major trophies had been won by its women’s team - an FA Cup, two Charity Shields, two League Cups, the only women’s team outside of Arsenal to win anything.

It is understood they saved in the region of £250,000. For context, Charlton sold Darren Bent to Spurs for a club-record fee of £16.5 million less than a week later. Stoney summed it up best with the words “the men get relegated and we get punished.” She and Aluko both moved to Chelsea.

Eniola Aluko of Charlton celebrates winning player of the match and winning the Women's FA Cup Final match between Charlton and Everton - Credit: Getty Images
Eniola Aluko was a star player for Charlton in their glory days in the mid-2000s Credit: Getty Images

Even now, more than a decade on, women’s clubs are often met with the refrain: “But how much money do you make?” It is a question designed to situate women’s clubs as burdens but it is erroneous given that, according to September 2019 figures from PriceOfFootball, 51 of the 72 EFL clubs made a net loss in 2018. By January 15th of this year, six Premier League clubs reported financial losses. The argument that women’s sides need to generate more money to merit further investment is hypocritical given the same rule does not apply to men’s teams. Chelsea Women earned £2,000 in prize money for winning this round; a men’s side at the same stage of the same competition would receive £250,000. These figures are the backdrop for any kind of argument around women’s clubs and revenue.

Charlton were only rescued with the arrival of a sponsorship that enabled the women’s set-up to continue. Now, they are funded by a local businessman, Stephen King, and train at the men’s training ground from 8-10pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. There are optional sessions on Monday and Friday. Every player has a full-time job bar one student and a pair on loan from Reading. They are hopeful, to a point, of financial support from Charlton’s new owners. 

It was a measure of the account Charlton gave of themselves - albeit against a weakened Chelsea - that their opponents huffed and puffed and did not find an inroad until the final minute of the first half, Drew Spence slotting home at the back post. It took them twice as long to get one goal against Charlton than it did for Chelsea to put three past the reigning WSL champions Arsenal. Chelsea took less than 30 seconds to double their lead after the break, Emily Murphy drilling a rebound into the bottom corner, before Guro Reiten added their third from the spot and Murphy the fourth.

One could have watched that first half without detecting that one team were last season’s Champions League semi-finalists and the other part-time, bottom of the second tier, winless in five and with one win to their name all season. More lingering was the feeling that Charlton, once upon a time, could have had so many more afternoons like this.