United's hugely-popular range of replica shirts has in previous years included tops specifically designed to fit soccer-loving ladies.

But when the club's kit for the 2008-09 season went on sale at the weekend, some women were disappointed to find they were no longer being specially catered for.

And today Lindsay England, a Yorkshire-based national council member with the Football Supporters' Federation, cried foul at the withdrawal of the female-friendly shirts.

She told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "If you are relatively small and skinny, then you are going to want a ladies' cut. The regular men's shirts are just too baggy for a lot of people.

"Many women follow the game just as passionately as any man – but that doesn't mean they want to look like one."

A Leeds spokesman said that the club's new kit supplier, Italian sportswear firm Macron, did not make ladies' shirts. He also pointed out that the women's style accounted for less than one per cent of the 75,000 replica tops sold by United last season.

The spokesman did say, though, that the club was looking into the possibility of re-introducing a ladies' shirt next season.

Female fans of the country's top teams have no problems demonstrating their loyalty to their footballing favourites – Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea all sell women's kits.

Nor are they a Premiership-only product, with Leeds's League One rivals Leicester City and Brighton & Hove Albion also catering for lasses with a liking for replica shirts.

United's 2008-09 kit is the first fruit of their link-up with Macron.

The four-year deal has been hailed by Leeds as the most lucrative of its kind in England outside the Premiership.