Auckland FC chief executive Nick Becker has confirmed a team for the next A-League Women season looks unlikely.
“It looks like we won’t have a team next season. It is the league’s decision so we are just waiting for them to follow up,” he said.
The club had previously stated an intention to launch an A-League women’s team to play in the 2025-26 season.
While Becker said having a women’s team was still a “big focus” for the club, he left any official announcement to Australian Professional Leagues, who ran A-League Women.
“I think it’s for them to kind of explain and to talk about. In terms of the actual league, they’re the ones who control whether we are in or not.”
Regardless of whether the club was able to join the league, Becker said it would still have a young women’s development centre set up to prepare for eventual inclusion.
“We’ll be setting up squads with young women’s talent and young girls as well. They’ll train in our system, they’ll learn to play our system, and we’ll be ready to go when we launch our team.”
Becker added the club was still keeping a close eye on rising stars across the board.
“We said right at the start of when we formed this club, we wanted to have a base of Kiwi talent both in the men’s and women’s team.
“That hasn’t changed, of course we’re checking in with the young talent here, and keeping an eye on New Zealand talent that’s playing overseas for sure.”
