COVENTRY United Women have decided to relocate and rebrand as Rugby Borough following their relegation from the Women’s Championship last season.
The club made the difficult decision to make the 15-mile move to Rugby as they attempt to earn promotion back to the second tier of the women’s game.
Coventry trained at Borough’s £2.5million 35-acre Kilsby Lane facility during the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons with head coach Lee Burch to remain in charge for the coming campaign.
The club will play their home matches at Kilsby Lane next season.
Burch said: “It really shows the forward-planning of the club and where we want to go in the future. We really feel it can benefit both parties.
“From a head coach point of view, it ticks a lot of the boxes we need and I’m really excited for the future.
“We’re very mindful of our fans who have been with the club on its journey, but hopefully they can continue to support the team even though there’s a change of colour and a change of badge.
“Ultimately, it’s the same people and quite a few of the same players and staff, so please come along on the journey with us.”
United’s General Manager, Jack Heaselden, said: “The aim is to hopefully only be in tier three for one year.
“We want to operate at as high a level as we can off the pitch, so we want not only a Championship mentality but actually a WSL mentality.
“We’re going to provide things that we don’t necessarily need to provide by the regulations, so giving the girls access to top medical provision and player houses – we’re not seeing it [relegation] as an opportunity to just do the bare minimum.
“It’s a fantastic facility, there are a lot of clubs even higher up that haven’t got access to this kind of facility, and there are plans in place to expand it and give us our own building, our own gym, so it’s going to become a real hub for the club.
“We know it’s capable of growth.”
Rugby already have more than 200 girls members from ages four to 18-years-old and field 15 girls teams across a variety of divisions and age groups.
Borough’s girls chair, Theresa Blandford, added: “It will put us more on the map, help us grow our fanbase and give us more opportunity to grow our facility even further.
“We’re really pleased to have them come onboard as a tier-three team for our women’s section. We’ve got a massive girls section, and now the girls can see the progression to senior level.”
Borough will play in the Women’s National League next season after Coventry managed just two wins all season in the Championship to finish 11 points from safety.
