The professionalization of Nottingham Forest’s women’s team is “really exciting” for the area, Notts County captain Holly Fowler said.
The FA Women’s National League North team will start with 18 full-time players next season before going fully professional for the 2025-26 campaign.
The club said it hoped the move would “accelerate the growth of women’s football”.
“It shows how people are investing and supporting women’s football to get a tier three team to that level,” Fowler told BBC Radio Nottingham.
Fowler, who struggled to find a local team when she started playing as a child, said it showed women’s football was on the rise.
“It’s definitely good for the region because it encourages girls to take up the sport and keep doing it,” she said.
“They can see that it’s an attainable level where they can make a full-time career. For the younger players on my team, this gives them one more goal: to keep playing, keep pushing and persist. .”
Fowler was also happy to see Nottingham Forest Netball join Birmingham Panthers as new members of the relaunched the Netball Super Leaguewhich is being reduced to eight teams as part of professionalization plans from 2025.
“It’s not just about football – it’s about young girls in sport in general,” said Fowler. “It gives them a way out.
“Whatever sport they compete in, to have all these teams at or close to the highest level is just brilliant.”
Forest have played in England’s third tier since 2012, while County remained by one point in the fourth tier in 2023-24, having secured promotion the previous season by beating Mansfield in front of more than 1,000 people at Meadow Lane.
The Nottingham clubs will meet in the FA WNL Cup on August 29 after being drawn in the competition Forest won in 2022-23.
“It’s a local classic that adds a little extra,” said Fowler, a longtime County fan. “I hope this brings more fans to both sides.
“It’s always interesting to face a team like Forest, especially because of their quality. It will be a good test to see how our season will go.”
The centre-back hopes the Magpies, who were founded in 2018 and playing home games at Hucknall Town’s RM Stadium, will be “much stronger” in 2024-25.
“We wanted to establish ourselves in this league,” Fowler said. “Was difficult. We developed this in pre-season and added new players.
“We’re ready to try again and hopefully compete. If we can reach the top half of the league, offer teams good games, show our style of football and launch a good platform, it will benefit us. .
“So we attract players who want to come play for us. All of this continues to build momentum.”
