Plymouth ‘remain committed’ despite releasing women’s squad via email

Plymouth Argyle have said they “did not take lightly” their decision to significantly reduce their women’s team’s budget and tell the squad via email that their contracts were not being renewed. The Guardian reported on Sunday evening that the vast majority of the squad had received a letter, via email, which began abruptly with: “Hi all. Following our end-of-season review and planning for 2026-27, we wanted to let you know that we won’t be renewing contracts for the players included in this message.” Plymouth, who compete in the third tier of the English women’s pyramid and narrowly missed out on promotion to Women’s Super League 2 in May, said in a statement on Monday evening that they “recognise concerns regarding the way this news was communicated, internally and externally, and will review this”, after the players issued a joint statement condemning the email as “cold, impersonal and lacking empathy”. Commenting publicly on the matter for the first time, Plymouth said: “The football club has had to make some very tough decisions regarding the Argyle Women’s team. “We remain committed to women’s football, and we will work on and share our visions for next season, and beyond. After a lengthy, thorough review, we made the decision that, from next season, we would need to change our approach as regards the women’s team setup. …