Lincoln Ladies' bid for Women's Super League status

The Football Association have confirmed Lincoln Ladies as one of 16 teams bidding for eight places in the Women's Super League set to start in 2011.

Ten of the clubs currently play in the top-flight National division, with the Lady Imps in the Northern division.

But chairman Geoff Adams told BBC Lincolnshire: "The FA have made it very clear that it's not the present league position that matters.

"What matters is how sustainable the bid from each club will be."

He added: "If a club in the Northern or Southern division has a better structure, better financial backing or a better bid, then that will count more than their league position."

The FA are set to name the eight successful applicants by the end of March 2010.

"It may be that the FA contact the clubs to do a further presentation, to justify what they've put in their bids," said Adams.

"I hope that we'll get a call from them to run through the bid, do a presentation and prove that we can live up to the bid we've submitted."

The 16 clubs who have applied to join the Super League are Arsenal Ladies FC, Barnet FC, Birmingham City Ladies FC, Bristol Academy Women's FC, Chelsea Ladies FC, Colchester United Ladies FC, Doncaster Rovers Belles, Everton Ladies FC, Leeds Carnegie Ladies FC, Leicester City FC, Lincoln Ladies FC, Liverpool, Millwall Lionesses FC, Newcastle United Women's FC, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland Women's FC.