FC co-owner has given her personal thoughts on the club’s decision as head coach Jess Horsley shows her disappointment.
News broke on Wednesday morning that Barnsley FC had decided to pull BFC Women from the FA Women’s National League ahead of the 2025/26 season.
The club cited the rules and regulations set out by the FA ahead of the next campaign as the reason they can’t compete, ‘the full operation would need to be moved either onto Oakwell Stadium or a local grassroots club’.
According to the statement, Chairman Neerav Parekh regards both options to be ‘financially and logistically not possible with resources available’.
Later on Wednesday, it was revealed that Barnsley FC Women will not compete in the top six tiers of the football pyramid, despite being allowed to compete in the North East Regional Women’s Football League South (tier 6) which notably houses Sheffield Wednesday Ladies.
After the decision was made, we spoke exclusively to Julie Anne Quay, the Barnsley FC co-owner, who expressed her devastation to us.
“The decision was not unanimous by any means and I’m devastated,” she said. “Two seasons, two promotions…it speaks for itself.”
Open letter from the Chairman regarding Barnsley FC Women’s team.
— Barnsley FC (@BarnsleyFC) June 4, 2025
Julie Anne Quay’s disappointment backed up by Barnsley FC Women head coach Jess Horsley
Barnsley FC Women head coach Jess Horsley was equally disappointed about the decision made by the club, one which leaves herself and all of her players without a team ahead of the 2025/26 season.
Speaking to BBC Sheffield, Horsley said: “[It is] probably more upsetting than angry. It was a hard one to take, especially after five years of hard work.
“It’s just upsetting for myself, all the staff and all the players that have been involved for the past five years.
“Yeah, I just got told yesterday morning. Obviously I’ve had a few phone calls with Julie Anne and with some of the staff at the club. I knew that it was a little bit worrying going into this new season and I didn’t know they were going to pull it, that was the first time I heard of it yesterday morning.
“It was a little bit of a shock to the system and a hard one because the girls didn’t know. They’d been getting in touch and asking about the season coming up and obviously I’ve not had any answers and then for them to get that news, I think it’s a bit gutting.”
On Thursday, SYWF exclusively confirmed that players only found out about the club’s decision on the morning ahead of the statement’s release.
