Larne Football Club has announced that the female side will now be known as Larne FC Women, replacing the team’s old name of Larne Ladies FC.

Women’s football has become a major spectator sport and the progress can be seen, with the Northern Ireland Senior Women’s Team qualifying for the European Championships in England this summer.

Larne Football Club has aimed to play its part in the continuing development of women’s football in Northern Ireland. The women’s team has a history of success dating back to its inception in 2006. When the club was re-born in 2017, Larne Football Club was committed to ensuring that the women’s team was given support and the necessary resources.

After three consecutive promotions, including two league titles, the women’s side takes their place this summer in the NIWFA Championship, Northern Ireland’s second tier. Larne Football Club has said that the club’s top ambition is to gain promotion to the Premiership and become an established club at the top level.

To do this, they will aim to continue to grow the club further. We aim to attract new players, new supporters and new partners. We aim to inspire and empower everyone from all backgrounds to become involved in the game as a player, a coach or an administrator.

The club will no longer use the term ‘ladies’ to describe their female teams, women or girls will be used as appropriate.

Supporting the change, The club’s Chairman Gareth Clements said: “Following our partnership with Her Game Too, one of the key action points has been to consider the brand relationship between our men’s and women’s teams. As a club, we firmly believe in the ‘one for all’ mantra and this is a further step towards this idea.

“The success of our women’s team in recent seasons has been fantastic, and we look forward to this rapid progress continuing under the Larne Football Club umbrella.”