Big clubs shun female players

WOMEN’S teams at three of the Premier League’s wealthiest clubs are training at remote locations when state-of-the-art facilities used by the men’s sides could comfortably accommodate them, a

Sportsmail investigation has found. The Manchester United team never train at Carrington, there are no plans to accommodate Liverpool’s women at the club’s new training base at Kirkby when it opens later this year, and Tottenham’s players

only get on to the pitches of the club’s 77-acre facility on Fridays. Although the women’s game is attracting sponsorship and record crowds, facilities are extremely mixed. Spurs and Birmingham City ask players to bring in their own sandwiches, some players have described rodent problems at club accommodation and women are playing in children’s boots because they are the only ones that fit them. Seven of the 12 WSL sides get access to the men’s facilities, with Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City all fully integrating their women’s teams. But Sportsmail columnist and England star Jill Scott said women should have access to the same training facilities as men at all WSL clubs. City’s Scott said: ‘It is important that we find ways to make sure that WSL teams at both ends of the league have access to the same standard of training facilities. ‘Training in the same facility as the men and receiving the same elite level of support shows us that both teams are valued the same way.’