Coventry City Ladies Chairman Bill Newnes has said that the club are here to stay, despite being overlooked by the FA for a Women's Super League Licence.
Mr Newnes said in a statment:
"Coventry City Ladies Football Club has been active over the last several weeks putting together a business plan and bid for a licence to play in the WSL 2 starting from 2014.
During this time we have been able to forge new partnerships with a number of businesses, educational establishments, Coventry City Council, Sky Blues in the Community and the men's team to name a few.
They have all contributed to our bid with offers of support, some financial. We have also added to the board of the CCLFC by having Steve Waggott join us from Coventry City Football Club as an Associate Director.
Steve's involvement with our club will give us a direct line into CCFC and a better working relationship with them that will develop further over the coming months and years.
We attended an interview at Wembley with the FA earlier in April to give a presentation on our bid and answer any questions. I took a delegation of 8 people comprising of members of our board, managers from the junior section, representatives from Sky Blues in the Community and CCFC board. All of whom contributed during the interview process.
We were able to supply them with documents to back up every question raised and cover every concern fully. We also emphasized our bid was stable and sustainable as we were not basing it solely on support from the men's club but had spread our risk of exposure so if a main sponsor should pull out we can continue. This was also we though the right direction to take regarding the current situation being experienced by CCFC.
Everyone involved with the business plan and bid agreed we had a very good and balance bid going forward.
So you can imagine our frustration to be informed we had not been successful in obtaining a licence. The FA informed us we needed to have a closer working relationship with the men's club and better support as this was not evident compared to the clubs that have been awarded a licence.
With what CCFC have been going through this season then it would have been very difficult for us to develop further involvement with them until they have been able to sort out their own issues. This is why we spread our exposure across a wider business area around Coventry.
As a club we are fully behind CCFC and will contribute in as much that is possible in helping them stabilise CCFC in the future.
Looking forward the teams that will not be playing in the WSL will be placed into a league that looks very challenging and in some ways will be more demanding than WSL2 will offer.
CCLFC will continue to play football by having a First, Reserves and junior section and will endeavour to be the top team in the leagues we will be playing in over the next season.
We have put in a place two new projects; CoE licence and WSL status. These will be our collective targets over the coming 2 to 4 years and every effort will be executed in securing both and prove we are a club with a great history that will prevail.
I know everyone was bitterly disappointed at the news but we have been there before with the CoE and we have bounced back stronger and better. We will do it again.
We need to take this disappointment and turn it into a positive; we have established new partnerships and forged new relationships with potential sponsors. We have a dedicated board and back room staff. We have proved on the pitch we are capable and have put in place a revamped junior section.
We can, we will succeed with your help. CCLFC is here to stay."