I want an apology - don't try to blank me out

EX-CORINTHIANS BACK M.E.N.'S CAMPAIGN

- By CHARLOTTE FISHER

MEMBERS of the original Lionesses team are backing the M.E.N. campaign calling on the Football Association to apologise for its treatment of the trailblazing football team.

The Manchester women's football team The Corinthians - pioneers of the beautiful game for women both in Greater Manchester and across the country say it's absolutely disgraceful the FA never acknowledged what they were trying to do.

A club forced to play on mud-lashed pitches in postwar Didsbury, Manchester Corinthians Ladies Football Club were told by the FA they couldn't be a proper club.

They were told they couldn't play on any FA-affiliated ground and that football was 'unsuitable' for women - something explored in the documentary The Corinthians: We Were the Champions.

Monica Curran, 80, originally from Oldham, played on the left wing and toured Italy with The Corinthians in 1961.

She said: "A hundred years on from the ban in 1921 this film has lit a fuse and given us a voice to spell out what happened for other women and girls and the prejudice that came with that ban.

"The FA has been a disgrace to women's football. I want an apology - don't try and blank me out.