Despite the FA ban, along with similar bans in many other countries, women found alternative ways to play soccer. The Dick, Kerr Ladies, renamed the Preston Ladies in 1926, traveled to the US and played games against men’s teams. The Craig Club Soccer League formed in St. Louis in 1950 out of a surplus of funds in a parish treasury that needed to be utilized, but it fell apart after just two seasons of play.

Englishman Percy Ashley founded the Manchester Corinthians in 1949 to allow his daughter, Doris, to have an opportunity to play. The Corinthians played mostly charity matches, traveling around the world to play soccer and raise money, with their tour across Europe and North Africa raising a collective £275,000 for the Red Cross. The team continued to play through the early 1980s, when it finally folded.