Buckingham W.F.C.
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| Full name | Buckingham Women's Football Club | |||
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| Nickname(s) | The Royals The Kingswomen | |||
| Short name | Bucks, BWFC | |||
| Founded | 2022 | |||
| Ground | Crown Arena II | |||
| Capacity | 26,500 | |||
| Owner | Prince Thomas, Duke of Hanover | |||
| Manager | William Smith | |||
| League | Women's Super League | |||
| Website | Club website | |||
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Buckingham Women's Football Club is an English women's football club based in London, England. Recently founded in 2022 by Prince Thomas, Duke of Hanover, the club currently competes in the Women's Super League, the top flight of women's football in England. It is affiliated with its men's counterpart, Buckingham F.C., which competes in the Premier League.
The club's current ground is the Crown Arena II stadium, named after the previous Crown Arena stadium currently used by their men's counterpart team, and which is located just two miles apart, as well as being slightly smaller in terms of size.
History
Founding
Buckingham Women was officially established on January 1st 2022 by Prince Thomas, Duke of Hanover, whom prior to founding the club, had been serving as the founding and current chairman of the club's men's counterpart, Buckingham F.C., which was founded in 2018.
Initially, the concept of a Women's counterpart for Buckingham F.C. was said to have been proposed early on when the men's club was first founded in 2018. However, the club's poor initial performance in their debut season at the Premier League, coupled with uncertainties at the time surrounding the club's potential and future would keep such an idea at bay for the time being. However, by 2021, with the club now being in a more stable and comfortable position, the proposal for a women's counterpart soon regained traction, with the Duke of Hanover stating in a press conference held in the aftermath of Buckingham's victory at the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League season that a "Buckingham Women" is "in the works and will become a reality soon enough." Eventually, on January 1st 2022, the Duke of Hanover took to announce the club's formation on Instagram, although he did not initially provide further details.
Then, after a few months of relative silence, during which the construction of Buckingham Women's Crown Arena II stadium, located just a couple of miles apart from the men's Crown Arena stadium, it was announced on June 5th 2022 that Arsenal striker and captain for the England women's national football team, Leah Williamson, has been signed to the club under a five-year contract, with Williamson herself also promptly being made the club's very first team captain. Further signings were then subsequently announced in the days and weeks that followed, which also included fellow England players, Nikita Parris, Beth Mead, and a couple of other names as well. Meanwhile, former professional footballer, William Smith, was also announced as the club's manager, a role that he is expected to assume for the first five years as per a contract signed.
On June 25th 2022, the club held its first-ever match, that being a friendly match against Sevilla FC, which ended in a 2-0 victory for Buckingham, with midfielders, Léa Declercq and Salomé Elisor being the first few goalscorers for the club. Then, four further friendly matches followed, with the second match being against Inter Milan, which ended in a 1-1 tie for Buckingham despite a 49th minute goal from forward, Melissa Lawley, the third being a 1-0 victory over Reading, thanks to a lone 47th minute goal by Salomé Elisor, followed by the fourth being a narrow 0-1 defeat at the hands of Stade de Reims, and lastly, a 3-0 victory over SV Meppen, with the goals, specifically two of them coming from midfielder, Leanne Kiernan and forward, Marie-Antoinette Katoto respectively. Much like their men's counterpart, the women's team is also noted to have regularly employed an attacking approach in every single match they played, owing to the style employed by the club's manager, William Smith, whom revealed in an interview with ESPN that his team's traditional attacking style is largely modeled upon the strategy that has been successfully employed by the club's men's team under Thomas Tuchel, which to date, has gone on to win six trophies in total.
2022-23
On September 18th 2022, the club's debut match in the Women's Super League took place, that being a home match against Chelsea, which they won 1-0 thanks to a 24th-minute goal from forward, Melissa Lawley.
Players
