Women's Super League: Yeovil Town Ladies apply for place in new professional competition

Yeovil won promotion from Women's Super League Two by beating London Bees in October 2016

Yeovil Town Ladies have submitted an application to be members of the new fully professional Women's Super League which is due to begin in 2018-19.

The current two-division structure will be scrapped in favour of a single league of eight to 14 teams.

Yeovil general manager Trevor Jenkins warned in September that they needed to raise £350,000 to become professional.

But the club now say that after talks with interested parties, they will be able to operate with full-time players.

Friday was deadline day for clubs to put in applications, which will be reviewed by the Football Association's women's board in December.

An entirely full-time top-flight women's league will be a rarity in European women's football, with most major nations having fewer than three professional clubs.

A Yeovil statement said that "collaborative thinking" with interested parties had enabled them to draw up what they consider to be a "very strong submission".

The statement continued: "The collaborative approach will not only see full-time players training 19.25 hours per week (rising to 20.25 in the 2020 season), but it also has a strong mission and vision, for the new academy programme.

"The application relies solely on developing and growing its own financial resources and is based on long term self sustainability which the club has always placed at the heart of its ethos."

Yeovil won promotion to the existing Women's Super League One in 2016, but they are currently bottom of the table and without a point from their first four games of the season.

What will the new licence criteria be?

The changes will see between eight and 14 teams with full-time professional players in the WSL, depending on how many clubs successfully meet the application criteria, which include:

• A minimum of 16 contact hours per week for players, rising to 20 hours per week by 2020-21

• A minimum level of financial investment required by each club

• Financial Fair Play regulations and a squad cap

• An academy at each club, compulsory as part of the licence

Rules restricting the number of non-English qualified players in matchday squads will also be continued as the FA bids to enhance opportunities for home-grown talent.

You can now add WSL 1 notifications for line-ups, goals, kick-off, half-time and results in the BBC Sport app. Visit this page to find out how to sign-up.