The Republic of Ireland has become the latest European country to launch a national women's league with UEFA's financial support.

The Bus Éireann Women's National League will commence in November, featuring six clubs who have accepted the invitation to join this competition are:

Peamount United,

Castlebar Celtic FC,

Cork Women's FC,

Raheny United FC,

Shamrock Rovers FC

Wexford Youths Women's AFC.

Steffi Jones, the newly appointed ambassador for the UEFA women's football development programme (WFDP), said at the league's launch in Dublin: "Starting a national league is an essential step for women's football development in the Republic of Ireland. Playing in club competitions is the gateway to national team football and ensures a stable future for women's football, as well as an incentive for girls around the country.The winner of the new competition will represent Ireland in the 2012/13 UEFA Women's Champions League, culminating in London.

Ireland national women's coach Sue Ronan echoed the importance of regular league football for the progress of the female game: "A tremendous amount of development work has taken place around the country at grassroots level over the past five years, which has resulted in a huge growth in our number of registered players – doubling from 10,500 to approximately 22,000 during that time. We can now look forward to many of these players progressing to the league, where they will have the opportunity to play against the best and realise their potential."

From July 2012 to 2016, every member association will be entitled to receive €100,000 a year to be used specifically for the development of girls and women's football as part of the WFDP and under the auspices of the HatTrick III programme. This represents a total investment of €22m and a clear demonstration of UEFA's commitment to the Women’s game.

We all at women's soccer united wish all teams great success in the new league,and a great big thank you to UEFA and the HatTrick 111 programme  for putting this money in place to benefit and further develop the women's game.

Source: uefa.com

Full story: http://www.uefa.com/uefa/footballfirst/footballdevelopment/hattrick...