Republic of Ireland star Aine O’Gorman wants an end to the ‘pay to play’ culture in women’s football.
As it stands, most players in the women’s national league fork out around €500 a season to help cover club membership and travel costs.
A handful of the top players - like O’Gorman - can strike commercial deals to cover it but the vast majority are not so lucky.
But with SSE Airtricity today becoming the new title sponsor of the WNL, O’Gorman hopes it is a step towards ending ‘pay to play’.
Energy giants SSE Airtricity have renewed their sponsorship of the men’s League of Ireland for a 12th and 13th season.
But it is the first time they have come on board for the WNL which had no title-sponsor last season.
"The reality is that at most clubs we do have to pay a fee to play," said O’Gorman, the Ireland international and double winner with Peamount United.
"It's up to us in a lot of situations to go and get a sponsorship. I'm pretty sure that's the case right across the board.
“The clubs do the best they can. They need the money to run the club if they want to get buses to matches, food before training, physios at games.
"The backing of SSE Airtricity and hopefully increased prize money means that hopefully there's a situation where players don't have to pay any more.
“We should be striving to get semi-professional. We have to look at getting rid of pay to play first.”
O’Gorman, 31, is a personal trainer away from football and she is not aware of any player getting paid to play in Ireland.
Bohemians recently announced that they would be paying expenses to their WNL team.
"We’re all completely amateurs so if we strive for semi professional status we can have a really good elite environment,” she added.
