Driving forward: Celebrating 30 years of the Chelsea Women

The Blues started as a club just trying to catch up with the Arsenals and Millwalls of the world back in 1992, but through continued investment and the desire to reach the highest of heights, Chelsea has taken its women’s team to levels, not even Julie Newell would have thought in the mid-1990s when her goal-scoring prowess earned the Blues first promotion. With an interest by the Chelsea supporters of a women’s team, Tom Farmer, the first manager of the Chelsea women helped the Blues rebound from a third-place finish in the Greater London Women’s League Division Three in the inaugural season to a promotion to the First Division to follow it up.

Crowds started from less than 150 in a stadium, but around 20 years later, a record attendance at Kingsmeadow of 4,790 fans broke the mark for the most fans at a Women’s Super League match not held at a men’s stadium. What makes the Chelsea Women so special is the drive for consistency and constant improvement. In the early days, the women’s team had a completely different sponsor to the men’s side, but in today’s day and age, both squads work closely together to form one large family that makes the fans a supporter of both teams simultaneously.