Forest women set to go full-time professional

Nottingham Forest finished third in the National League Northern Premier Division table last season

Third-tier women's football team Nottingham Forest are set to become a full-time professional outfit from the 2025-26 season.

The investment to "accelerate the growth of the women's game" at the Reds is being made more than seven years after Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis' takeover.

It follows Nottingham Forest's move into netball, with the club granted a place in the British game's top flight in May.

Amber Wildgust, Forest's head of women and girls football, said "it is an exciting time at the club" as they focus efforts to move into the higher reaches of the women's football pyramid.

"It highlights our ambition as a club and our commitment to breaking into the FA Women's Championship and fulfilling our vision of progressing to the Women's Super League," Wildgust said.

The women's team had been run independently up until 2019, when Marinakis took it into Forest's full control when he "pledged to increase the financial contribution"

Forest's "ambitious vision" now - as set out by Marinakis, who also owns Greek club Olympiakos - is set to see 18 full-time professional contracts given to first-team women's players, with "a small number" of part-time players on the books next season.

The Reds said they would "transition to a fully professional squad" by 2025.

All 11 of the team's league matches at home will be played at the City Ground - where the men's team have played since 1898 - which is a significant increase on the occasional fixtures moved to the stadium in previous years.

Last season the side played at Grange Park, located eight miles away in Long Eaton, after previously calling Halbrooke Stadium in Eastwood home.

Forest finished third in the National League Northern Premier Division table last season, 12 points adrift of champions Newcastle United.

The Tyneside club went full-time in 2023, two years after the Saudi-led takeover at St James' Park.

The Reds finished top of the table in 2022-23 but missed out on promotion to the Women's Championship after losing the play-off final to Watford.

Forest have played in England's third tier since 2012 and have been the city's dominant women's club for a number of years.

They were briefly eclipsed by Notts County, when then top-flight club Lincoln Ladies relocated to Meadow Lane and were rebranded as the Magpies in 2014.

Notts, however, were liquidated in 2017 when they were a Women's Super League side with a number of England players on their books, including Carly Telford, Jo Potter, Laura Bassett and Jade Moore.

Forest's investment returns professional women's football to the city for the first time since then, with the club saying funding will also improve grassroots access to the sport.